Walemania
Lace up your Nike boots!
I was not planning to drop back to back “remember when” posts, but sometimes u gotta let the universe grab the aux and do its thing.
Wale just put out a new album (his eighth!) called everything is a lot.
He can tell you all about it…
everything is a lot is very, very good — and of course, an opportunity to shout out our own mixtape trilogy of yore.
Would have loved to paste some Dat Piff embeds here, but you’ll have to make do with downloads from the fine people at archive dot org. Here’s 2007’s 100 Miles & Running, 2008’s The Mixtape About Nothing and 2009’s Back To The Feature, plus some commentary from me circa 2011 on all three (if you’ve made it this far and haven’t already inhaled The Blog Era podcast, I don’t know what to tell ya).
Would have also loved to find a better version of that cropped Mel D Cole pic up top from the Mixtape About Nothing release party, but it is lost to defunct Flickr accounts the sands of time.
That fate is not just for pre-social media launch parties and Hot97 splash pages; ultimately, all things are ephemeral.
But!
When it comes to art and expression, I believe any creation that manages to stick — even in this non-stop, endless content firehose era — has some degree of fearlessness / confidence / whatever you want to call it.
A distinct POV.
A spirit (sometimes born of nothing but naïveté) that says “this might not be for you, but it is very much for me.”
We channeled it on those early mixtapes, but it’s been even more impressive to hear how that energy has evolved and deepened on all the albums since, especially this latest project.
Wale manages to incorporate elaborate wordplay and multiple entendres inside an uber-melodic style he’s developed through the years, mashing up R&B penmanship, sneakily accomplished live instrumentation (from go-go to Afrobeats) and even a pinch of Def Poetry Jam (non-derogatory).
The best compliment I can give this record is that it sounds like him.
Loving all the non-album loosies, too. His “Yukon” freestyle goes hard, and I did not have a 2Pac flip on my bingo card at all.
It’s so fun!
Somebody should put it on a mixtape…
Charli xcx ft. John Cale, “House” — industro-gothic heel turn? Real Adore hours! I am completely fine with trading Brat Summer for whatever Dark Night Of The Soul Winter this is, but I would like everyone to know that John Cale can be both a dramatic, regal presence and a silly goose.
Junior Mesa, “im not your man” (love the pitched up freak-out at end)
HBO The Shuffle trailer — in my veins! This instantly conjures visions of Key & Peele’s music video spoof (“L’Carpetron Dookmariot / I love the ball so much I wanna marry it”) and Refrigerator Perry’s mail-in GI Joe.
Tehrangeles Vice (Iranian Diaspora Pop 1983-1993) (more here)
Alessi Treebies (my favs are the “Nick” ofc)
Rye Playland Stuffed Animal Heist (“It was unclear what became of the stolen toys…”)
Playlists updated!