I am a true Wale fan. A Mixtape About Nothing is in my top 5 (actually tied at first) mixtapes of all time and I thought that Attention Deficit was the “All Eyes On Me” of this generation (I know many of you will disagree, just meet me in the comment section). For the site, I wrote a piece on Ambition and have been going back and forth with hip hop fans on his Maybach Music move. I will agree that it was more emotional than his previous projects, but it was a good release. Therefore, when I heard that Wale was giving us a early Christmas present with his new mixtape, Folarin, and was asked to review it…. I anticipated the gift.
This mixtape shows growth within Wale lyrically and emotionally. He starts off the mixtape by showing that he’s shifting his role (ironically, I considered him the Lebron James of hip hop within my article) and is “Not no LeBron, but I’m cool with being Jamal Cross/somebody falling, don’t keep reaching, let me just ball.” Also, the irony within the track is that it’s named “Change Up,” but he really shows us how he really hasn’t changed, only the stage/platform that he’s on now. Wale did a great job with the features. Each feature balanced the tracks. I actually think that I heard 2 Chainz’s best verse, and Scareface was legendary on “Limitless.” Even Trinidad James surprised me and gave a new, revised “No Hands” collab feel on “Flat Out.”
Overall, this is on the heels of being the best project Wale has dropped. For the mixtape not to have Wale’s signature Go Go sound, The production was on point for him. This also shows his maturity and versatility with his production picks. The Street Fighter sample in “Chun Li” was creative. You can clearly see that Wale brings some of the best bars and shows why he is called “Wordplay”le.” Let me also go on record and say Wale’s first verse from “Bad” describes 95 percent of women in the world.
I could let this project ride out from the beginning to end. If you’re not a Wale fan, then this mixtape will make you one. If you’re one of the Wale fans that say he isn’t the same anymore, this is the mixtape to get you back on the band wagon. For those who don’t know, Folarin means “to walk in wealth/glory.” Looks like Wale is living up to his name with this mixtape.
All this mixtape proved to me is that Wale is all over the place right now. I don’t know what to expect from him now…
@bigave LOL! You didn’t like any of the tracks?
No I didn’t say that lol. I liked a few of the tracks on it, but the tape as a whole tells me that hes trying to appeal to too many people…
@bigave I think it’s his most lyrical project. And your right, it’s not as much as a concept project like “mixtape about nothing”, but it shows how he can speak on more subjects. I agree with what your saying, but he did sound good trying to do all those different styles to me.
Its a decent Wale mixtape, I wouldn’t say “most lyrical” but it was decent. There were songs I liked and songs I thought were horrible (mainly cus of features). But to me its just all over the place. Like I said I don’t have an indication of what he’ll do next, which in Wale’s case scares me because we saw what happened when he put out the 11-1-11 mixtape, then he put Ambition out. Ambition was sub-par and there were some people who just stuck with the tape (kinda like the Slaughterhouse album).
I would disagree with this review. This mixtape is NOT on the heels of his best work to date. His flow is all the way intact. However, where is the “real Wale”? Or is this the true Wale that we are seeing now? He isn’t even “trying” anymore. He lacks the conviction and heart he used to rhyme with.
This effort was “solid”. Too much MMG. He needs to go back to doing what HE is known for doing.
@darcwonn Wait!LOL! I think that this is the real wale. Explain intact more? I think that change up tells us who he really is, was and will be. I think he was trying, because his bars and punchlines were WAY better than on ambition. If you ask me, he wasn’t trying with ambition. And we know nowadays artists put more in their mixtapes than their albums now! LOL! I know that his next album is going back to his roots of go go though.