Wale - Back to the Feature Review
Posted by Michael James on 06.27.2009
Wale's last mixtape brought him high praise from even the non-hip-hop press. Can lightning strike twice before his major label debut?
Track Listing:
1. Wordplay (feat. Currensy & Tre)
2. Cypher (feat. Young Chris, Freeway & Beanie Siegel)
3. Chillin (feat. Lady Gaga)
4. Tito Santana (feat. Joe Budden)
5. 5 Minutes (feat. Skyzoo)
6. Life’s a Bitch (feat. Talib Kweli & Joell Ortiz)
7. Night Life (feat. Young Chris & Tre)
8. Sweatin Out Weaves (feat. UCB)
9. Hot Shyt (feat. Peedi Peedi, Black Thought, Tu Phace & Young Chris)
10. Wonder Why (feat. Big Sean, Ken Starr & Mike Posner)
11. Pot of Gold (Feat. Daniel Merriweather)
12. Sharp (feat. Torae & Kingpin Slim)
13. Warwick Avenue (feat. Duffy)
14. The Sun (feat. Memphis Bleek)
15. Rather Be With You (Vagina is for Lovers) (feat. J. Cole & Currensy)
16. Goodbye (feat. Jean Grae)
17. Say It Again (feat. Royce Da 5’9”)
18. Talkin Shyt (feat. Bun B & Dre)
19. Nothing to Worry About (feat. Peter Bjorn & John)
20. Rhyme N Reason (feat. Tre)
21. Um Ricka (feat. K’Naan)
22. New Soul (feat. Yael Naim)
With his 2008 Seinfeld -sampling fourth mixtape, The Mixtape About Nothing, Washington D.C. rapper Wale managed a rare mixtape feat by making his way onto some non-hip-hop best-of-2008 lists. As he prepares for the real of his official full length album Attention: Deficit , to drop later this year, Wale gathered an all-star crew of collaborators to release his long-awaited follow-up mixtape aptly titled Back to the Feature .
While many mixtapes feature an MC rapping over the hot beats of the moment, Wale recruits veteran producer 9th Wonder (best known for his work with Little Brother) to collaborate on Feature . 9th Wonder utilizes his trademark funky soulful instrumentals and horn-licks to give the album a consistently jazzy feel. Combined with Wale’s laid back flow, cuts like “Wordplay (featuring Currensy & Tre)” and “Sharp (featuring Torae & Kingpin Slim)” sound almost like lost tracks from A Tribe Called Quest. Even tracks not produced by 9th Wonder perfectly fit the album’s overall feel, including a remix of Duffy’s “Warwick Avenue” and the Mark Ronson-produced “Pot of Gold (featuring Daniel Merriweather).”
Lyrically, the album captures Wale at an interesting point in his career: he's supremely confident in his skills, yet unsure whether those skills will translate to success in today’s hip-hop game. As a result, his lyrics move between swaggering punchlines (“I remain a giant/you Jeremy Shockey”) and the vulnerability which comes along with the outsized expectations that come with his pedigree (“See this pressure I’m used to, signed to a Grammy producer/ when Rhymefest dropped and the magazines loved him hip-hop talked /but the fans ain’t budged /so I feel a little pressure for me to do better”).
It’s refreshing to hear a rapper comfortable enough in his own skin to drop references to fantasy football and Harry Potter in his rhymes. However, Wale’s atypical lyrical subject matter sometimes seems misaligned with his collaborators as typified by “The Sun.” No sooner does Wale finish his verse about how he doesn’t have to rap about drugs and weapons to succeed then Memphis Bleek kicks a verse about gunplay and FBI raids.
As the album title makes clear, Feature is as much about Wale’s clique of super friends as about Wale himself. Each track contains at least one collaborator, and they almost uniformly prove well worth their bars. Talib Kweli and Joell Ortiz slaughter “Life’s a Bitch,” while Somalian MC K’Naan spits his trademark tales of African-life on the Mark Ronson-produced “Um Ricka”. Brooklyn’s underappreciated Skyzoo (“5 Minutes”) drops yet another stellar verse, and even Lady Gaga shines with her Santogold-ish hook on “Chillin” (also set to be the first single from Attention: Deficit ). Even the newcomers represent, with Tu Phace showcasing an aggressive flow reminiscent of the Dogg Pound’s Daz alongside hip-hop heavyweights Black Thought, Peedi Crack and Young Chris on “Hot Shyt”.
However, as is to be expected, not all of the features work. “Tito Santana,” Wale’s collaboration with Joe Budden works better on paper and Young Chris certainly did not need to be featured on three separate tracks. Likewise, Big Sean, Ken Starr and Mike Posner are out of their depth on “Wonder Why”. At other points, strong featured verses failed to gel with the production. Royce the 5’9” comes hard as ever, but seemed out of place over the laid back beat on “Say It Again”. Likewise, Bun B’s strong verse is wasted on “Talkin Shyt,” where Cool & Dre’s beat seems as though it is building to an epic climax which never arrives.
Back to the Feature represents a snapshot of an artist on the brink of bigger things. When Wale talks about feeling nervous asking Jean Grae to guest on “Goodbye,” I can’t help but think that it won't be long before Wale is the one being recruited for guest spots. Of course, Wale may not be the next star MC; many promising artists have been unexpectedly derailed on the seemingly clear path to the top. But for now that’s of no consequence - Feature captures an mc at the point where the sky is the limit, and anything is possible.
If you’re like me, most of your music ends up in an endless .mp3 “shuffle.” In order to preserve your valuable disk space, here’s what’s Ipod-worthy off Back to the Feature :
Ipod-worthy: Everything except “Tito Santana,” “Wonder Why” and “Rather Be With You”
The 411: Back to the Feature is more than a worthy successor to Wale's last mixtape. Hip-hop fans should definitely check it out, as it will be probably be the last chance to say you were a fan before the fame.
