Wale’s Debut Commands Attention

When I pick up an album that ‘real’ people told me about, my hopes, naturally, are almost always exponentially higher than those for any release I discovered through marketing efforts or sneaky product placement on TV or sellout blogs. Wale’s Attention Deficit fits into the first category, and yet it still managed to surprise me on several fronts.

There are no less than ten different producers helping Wale out, yet aside from the Neptunes and Cool & Dre, they’re not any of the usual suspects. The first track was handled by David Sitek of TV On The Radio. I’m not a big fan of the band, and all I know of his production work is the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ It’s Blitz, and the strange creature that was Scarlett Johansson’s Tom Waits covers album. The beat on Wale’s opening track Triumph, however, is a galaxy away from anything on either, far more comparable to the Deltron album or even David Byrne’s production work, if I had to draw a connection. It’s a great, creative beat, but it’s Wale’s delivery that makes the track.

This began to answer the first question I had, as I first got sucked into the hooks and melodies of the album: Attention Deficit is rewarding, but is it an achievement of the producers, or of Wale? But alongside Triumph, Wale is the MVP on the album’s strongest tracks, such as the Mark Ronson produced Mirrors. Ronson’s beat is characteristically groovy, but Wale’s swaggering monologue lures the spotlight, with faux stutters that dance with the snare drum.

The mischievous ode to the saddest cliché in all of Los Angeles, 90210, is another outstanding cut, also produced by Ronson with the help of newcomer Deijon. The definitive line is “she would do anything for everything,” perhaps the most effective refrain on the album. Wale candidly admitted that Ronson encouraged him to back off from specifically casting Paris Hilton as the star, and the track certainly didn’t suffer; the DC native probably doesn’t know the public Paris from the private one any better than any of us, and there’s no need for a high profile beef to get credit. The story of a hopelessly desperate and desperately hopeless celebrity chaser is timeless.

Chillin’ is an odd bird, opening with a sample of Steam’s stadium cheer Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye, before Lady Gaga steps in with a perplexingly deliberate M.I.A. impression. A strange turn, as Lady Gaga’s got her own thing going and knows it, obscure inspirations notwithstanding. I’d question my snap judgment, but the track even features shouts to the little Tamil Tiger herself, going so far as to boast that producers Cool & Dre “get high like planes” with Wale. You can check the video out here, though it’s not among the strongest tracks on the album.

There’s one other Cool & Dre track on the album, and while it also relies heavily on someone else’s work, it’s a more successful endeavor in the end. World Tour is essentially a boxcutter hijack of Tribe Called Quest’s Award Tour, but Wale’s commanding presence lifts the cut, assisted by Philadelphia R&B singer Jazmine Sullivan.

Let It Loose may be the best track Pharrell has shared a mic on since Jay-Z’s Change Clothes, but that’s not saying a whole lot, and the Neptunes beat is just a bit too thin for the nearly five minute cut. Meanwhile, despite an auspicious backing track, K’Naan’s assist on the Sitek produced TV In The Radio is a dialed-in disappointment. As good as Attention Deficit is, I wonder if it wouldn’t have been better if it was just Wale and Mark Ronson or David Sitek building on the chemistry palpable in the album’s best moments.

Ultimately, there’s room for improvement, which is to be expected of any debut. But Wale has a gift, on full display here. Rap is often reduced to a word game, a rhymes game. You have to listen up to follow and appreciate sometimes, in contrast to Rock, where a little ‘whoa oh baby’ can have meaning if sung with enough heart.

Yet Wale has a talent for selling his rhymes with sentiment, injecting just a little hint of sing into the verses. I’m not talking about Auto-Tune or Akon shit, I’m talking about rap that rides the ebb and flow of the emotions behind the lyrics, rather than a monotone conveyor belt. They pull you into the song, the story, which not a lot of rap music does these days. It sets Wale apart from the masses, and overall, Attention Deficit is the most promising Hip Hop debut since Kanye’s College Dropout.

Attention Deficit
November 10, 2009
Interscope

1. Triumph
2. Mama Told Me
3. Mirrors (w/ Bun B)
4. Pretty Girls (w/ Gucci Mane & Weensey)
5. World Tour (w/ Jazmine Sullivan)
6. Let It Loose (w/ Pharrell)
7. 90210
8. Shades (w/ Chrisette Michele)
9. Chillin (w/ Lady Gaga)
10. TV In The Radio (w/ K’Naan)
11. Contemplate
12. Diary (w/ Marsha Ambrosius)
13. Beautiful Bliss (w/ Melanie Fiona & J. Cole)
14. Prescription