I already posted the cover, and I just find this picture funny...
So Wale’s Back to the Feature did actually release yesterday (yay for free music). The tape has already been downloaded nearly 30,000 times in its first 24 hours…keep in mind, selling 30k CDs in a week will nearly place you in Billboard’s Hip-Hop/R&B Top 10. The chat room turned out to be a disaster; though it was an awesome idea, the internet is too rampant with self-promoters/”haters”/children-of-all-ages for anything without massive filtering to succeed. So alas, I didn’t get to hear Wale’s thoughts on each track, which was dissapointing, but again, who can get upset over free music? I’d have to say I don’t like this CD as much as The Mixtape About Nothing, but I do like it more after each listen. At the tail end of Um Ricka featuring K’Naan, Wale addresses how BTTF is not intended to be a “mixtape of the year” but rather just an opportunity to “get his rapping on.” I would say this is a fairly accurate description of the project as a whole, themed tracks are minimal and the punchlines are plentiful. The number of songs that I had already heard were abundant (Wordplay, Cypher, 5 Minutes, Night Life, Hot Shyt, Wonder Why, Warwick Avenue) which is to be expected when a project gets pushed back for over a year. 9th Wonder does not actually handle the entirety of the production on the tape, Best Kept Secret (BKS), Mark Ronson, and others fill in on occasion. My favorite cuts are probably the more mellow, laid back tracks, where the lyricism is easily understood and accented.
Wale – “Chillin (Catch vs. 9th)” featuring Lady Gaga
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Wale – “Um Ricka” featuring K’Naan
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9th’s remix of “Chillin’” is a quality reworking of Wale’s first single, but I think it would be 100 times better if Wale had re-recorded his vocals. While 9th slowed the tempo and slowed the vocals, Wale’s inflection still comes off as more fast-paced and would benefit from the way he recorded his lines on Um Ricka.
Wale – “New Soul” featuring Yael Naim
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The tape concludes with “New Soul” featuring Yael Naim, an incredibly soulful track produced by BKS. Wale raps on his come-up as a rapper, and it feels like the perfect capstone to his “underground” career. Below I’ve posted some more of my favorites – but I really encourage you to download the whole tape, in addition to his 4 previous mixtapes, prior to his major release of Attention Deficit.
Wale – “Wordplay” featuring Curren$y and Tre of UCB
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Wale – “Hot Shyt” featuring Peedi Peedi, Black Thought, Tu Phace, & Young Chris
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Posted by the Groove
