Wale: “Attention Deficit” (Album Review)
YELLOW HEADPHONES?!? Charles Hamilton wouldn't wear 'em.
The Introduction: I have a confession to make, and I’m somewhat ashamed to even say this, but one of the things I’ve promised is to always stay 100% honest in my writings, and I wouldn’t be able to even write this review comfortably without admitting this….
I’ve been sleeping on Wale. From mispronunciation of his name (i used to say “whale”, but it’s “Wal-aye”) to seeing the cipher on the BET Awards and all but writing him off, to just ignoring new music that he put out, to even downloading his mixtape(s) and not being impressed. The only reason I downloaded the album was to hear the song with Marsha Ambrosius.
But unlike other people, I LOVE BEING WRONG…sometimes. From the beginning to the end of this album, he won me over. Let’s get this straight now: “Attention Deficit” has two of my favorite songs of the YEAR on here and you SHOULD cop this album. So here’s my PERSONAL apology to Rhymestyle, PropaYne, and most important, Wale, because I had no idea it was like that.
I refuse to make that mistake again. Now that’s out of the way…
The Good: I believe that this is hip-hop. Pretty much, the album flows tightly for the most part from front to back. The lyrics are meaningful, and even the somewhat generic songs have an original hip-hop twist to it. Whenever a dude can add Gucci Mane to a hip-hop song (“Pretty Girls”) and make him sound LEGIT, you have something special.
I’ve never heard Gucci use so many big words in my life. There could be hope for that guy yet. But I digressed…
"Yo, Wale, I like the pose, and I'mma let you finish, but New York has the best Statue of Liberty pose of ALL TIME!" Well said, Kanye. Well said.
The album is a nice 14 tracks, and most of the cameos work almost perfectly for the album. And to be completely honest, I wasn’t prepared for the epic scale OR the subject content on the album. I’m going to whale on that later though…get it? Whale? Haha?
The Bad: Although the lyrics are on point and the production is solid and the concept is there, a couple of songs just don’t fit. “Chillin’” with Lady Gaga just didn’t quite mesh with me like the rest of the album (surprisingly, it wasn’t Lady Gaga’s fault), and “TV in the Radio” just didn’t pull off the crisp delivery of the rest of the album. It hurts to listen to that song for me. It’s a shame, because if you take those two songs off the CD and replace it with ANY other random song Wale has released lately, you could make a stronger case for surprise album of the year.
Not ALBUM of the year…SURPRISE ALBUM of the year.
The Realness: There are a couple of songs on “Attention Deficit” that caught me completely off guard. As I hinted on earlier, I wanted to hear the song “Diary” with Marsha Ambrosius, and it did not disappoint at all. She really does add a level of passion and soul to music that’s rare. HOWEVER… “Shades” featuring Chrisette Michelle is my favorite song of the year right now.
I thought the song would be about Stunna Shades (he did make a song about Nike Boots, so give me a pass on that), but on the contrary, Wale begins to spit (I mean…SPIT) about how he used to feel concerning him being dark-skinned and others being light-skinned. Turns out, “Shades” is about the shade (or color) of your skin. It is a MUST LISTEN TRACK for anyone who respects hip-hop. One of the realest songs I’ve heard, and the best song I’ve heard this year. Sorry Drake.
Bottom Line: Attention Deficit comes out on November 10th. You should be in the stores to buy this on November 10th. I’m buying this album on November 10th. This is music hip-hop heads can be proud of. I hope Wale can stay consistent, because if he can, then I’m going to have a new artist to watch.
—–> Final Rating: 4.6 / 5 <—–
