New Wale Mixtape: Back To The Feature – 9th Wonder
New Wale Mixtape: Back To The Feature – 9th Wonder
“This is only for the Hip-Hop lovers. You want that bullshit, turn the radio on.” – Wale
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The long awaited Back To The Feature mixtape from DC RAPS GREAT HOPE dropped on Friday. Primarily produced by ex-Little Brother beatsmith 9th Wonder, the tape is Wale’s bid for true hip hop legitimacy while simultaneously pushing a shameless and gross radio single. After the jump are my song-by-song first listen knee jerks on the tape.
“Cyphr” f/ Young Chris, Freeway & Beanie Sigel
So it seems Wale has been adopted into the State Property extended family. It makes sense, he’s comfortable rapping with them. Still it’s unfortunate that he’s pulling them closer to the rap-about-nothing territory he occupies when they’re so much better at rapping about shooting people and eating at Boston Market.
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Click Here for Cocaine Cowboys 2: Hustlin’ with the Godmother
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“5 Minutes” f/ Skyzoo
Didn’t Wale already use this sample? Seemingly both artists only took five minutes to write their verses. That’s not a diss, that’s the concept of the record. Skyzoo comes off nicely.
“Night Life” f/ Young Chris & Tre
“I ain’t worried ’bout you little n****s blogging.” Blog rappers are constantly saying stuff like this on their mixtapes but if they were truly unconcerned with blogs then they wouldn’t have to mention blogging in their raps at all. Something tells me that Wale and Chris have been frantically googling “Back To The Feature” all weekend. This song has been out for months. It is still very hot. These are the type of records Wale sounds best on – upbeat tracks that nod vaguely to the go-go influence but aren’t totally go-go records.
“Hot Shyt” f/ Peedi Crakk, Black Thought, Tu Phace & Young Chris
Another Philly posse cut. Halfway through the tape this track marks eight Philly guest verses before a single DC area one. (Not counting UCB’s Tre who is basically Wale’s live in hype/hook man. I heard he sings the chorus to Wale’s pancakes every morning.) Plus there were three from Brooklyn, one from New Orleans and one from Newark. The fact that I’m doing math in my mixtape review doesn’t bode well for the quality of the tape or my own sanity.
With the album’s theme, Wale believes that collaboration drives the market today. “I think people have let features and cosigns run Hip Hop.” Still, he doesn’t feel as fondly about cosigns as he does traditional collaboration. “Anybody who knows me and knows the newer [group of] rappers knows that I don’t have that major cosign. I haven’t been fortunate enough to go on tour with anybody and things of that nature. All those dudes, I support [and appreciate] what they’re doing, but my thing is different.” Even as an artist signed to super-producer Mark Ronson’s Alido Records, Wale admits that such assistance doesn’t impress the typical Hip Hop listener, “Mark Ronson is something different. It’s not like people are checkin’ for me ’cause of Mark; I didn’t get Mark’s fan-base. Hip Hop is too heavy on co-signs. It’s too much! Certain co-signs can just jump-start a career, and I don’t think it should be like that. I think it should be more about the music.”
Click Here for Cocaine Cowboys
Click Here for Cocaine Cowboys 2: Hustlin’ with the Godmother
Click Here for The G Manifesto’s The Top Ten Hip-Hop Tracks of All Time
Although the guest artist fuels the theme of Back To The Feature, don’t expect to see this translate into the personnel for Attention: Deficit, the DMV rapper’s debut album. “On my album, I only have Bun B and K’Naan on there. I just kept that [list] real short with the features, as far as the rappers go. I don’t count somebody singin’ as a feature, ’cause I can’t sing,” Wale told DX. The album is due in the third quarter of 2009, on Alido/Interscope.
Sharp – Wale Ft. Torae & Kingpin Slim
Known for working with an assortment of sounds and producers, Wale also told DX about the significance of him now working with the Murs, Jay-Z and Erykah Badu producer. “I just wanted to have the traditional 9th Wonder sound, to kind of show my diversity. 9th is someone that I definitely think is one of the greats. I wanted to show people how I could rock on [some] of his [beats]. At the same time, I’m giving a little bit of light to newer producers I’m workin’ with.” Back To The Feature also includes beats by BKS, Mikey Mike and Mark Ronson. “9th Wonder is the meat and potatoes of the mixtape, the focal point. I got 11 9th Wonder songs on there; I got 12 from [others].”
Wale further explained where Back To The Feature fits in his mixtape catalog, which also boasts early work, Paint A Picture and Hate Is The New Love, “My manager (Daniel Weisman) wrote me a whole write-up of the mixtape, and he basically said this mixtape is just like 100 Miles & Running, but with features. He [said] that A Mixtape About Nothing was too intense, too powerful, too aggressively intense. This one is laid back Hip Hop [where you can] roll a J or whatever you want to do. Sit back, relax and listen to it. And I hope you like it.”
Click Here for Cocaine Cowboys
Click Here for Cocaine Cowboys 2: Hustlin’ with the Godmother
Click Here for The G Manifesto’s The Top Ten Hip-Hop Tracks of All Time
This Mixtape gets sicker with each listen.
The Rest is Up to You…
Michael Porfirio Mason
AKA The Peoples Champ
AKA GFK, Jr.
AKA The Sly, Slick and the Wicked
AKA The Voodoo Child
The Guide to Getting More out of Life
http://www.thegmanifesto.com
Wale – 5 Minutes
Goodbye – Wale ft. Jean Grae
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