My Times review was severely truncated due to space constraints, so I’m posting the original below the jump, complete with tons of corny but apropos Back to the Future jokes. In short, Back to the Feature is blandly enjoyable. Wale’ s ambitions are minimal this go-round–a bizarre shift for someone with obviously grandiose goals. If I were a betting man, I’d wager he’s saving the heavy artillery for Attention Deficit–let’s hope. Let’s also pray for more State Prop and less 9th Wonder. With the contemporary underground churning out the likes of Exile, Jake One, Flying Lotus, Black Milk, et. al, is it really necessary to rely on these melted soft serve sounds?
Also, let’s be unequivocal, complaining about someone un-following you from Twitter is the most trifling dilemma I’ve heard since Asher Roth bitched about forgetting his iPod on an airplane. That said, I’ll still ride for Wale. Flaws aside, this is a good tape with good rapping–it’s just that you get what you pay for.
On his last outing, 2008’s “Seinfeld”-themed, “The Mixtape about Nothing,” Washington D.C’s Wale, altered the paradigm for what a mixtape can be: re-appropriating dialogue, cover art, and concepts from the canonized sitcom to ruminate on everything from the rap world to racism, to “Roc.” So it’s safe to say that expectations for his follow-up, “Back to the Feature,” were astronomical. Between the frequent delays, the blog feeding frenzy, the A-list cast of collaborators and the possibility inherent in appropriating “Back to the Future,” Wale would’ve had to invented hover boards to top himself.
Accordingly, it’s unfair to label “Back to the Feature” a disappointment. If Wale’s previous tape aimed for the stars, its successor tunnels towards the subterranean. As he declares during “Tito Santana:” “we ain’t trying to make a statement…we just trying to give them collaborative hip-hop, that head-nodding, stoner, backpack lyricism.”
Towards the end, Wale admits “I wasn’t trying to shoot for mixtape of the year or mixtape of the moment…I was just trying to get my rapping on.” Of course, with guest verses from everyone Philly’s finest Black Thought (“Hot Shyt”) to Beanie Sigel (“Cyphr”), to underground kings Bun B (“Talkin’ Shyt”) to Royce Da 5’9 (“Say It Again”), to K’Naan (the standout, afro-beat sampling “Um Ricka”), to Wale himself, good rapping was inevitable.
Opening track “Wordplay,” might’ve made for a more apt tape title, establishing the template early on with clever but solipsistic punch line raps, a pair of guest appearances and all too few references to “Back to the Future”—thus, depriving the world of the first bars invoking the name of 1885 Wild West pioneer, Shaymus McFly. Like much of the tape itself, “Wordplay” seems to be Wale’s way of apologizing to the remaining backpack rap constituents who blanched at the Interscope-signed rapper’s decision to enlist Lady Gaga for his debut single “Chillin” (also included here.)
As the underground’s most hyped hope since Lupe Fiasco, Wale clearly understands the delicate equipoise between staying true to his roots versus a desire for platinum plaques. Yet occasionally, “Back to the Feature’s” Jansport gets a little too heavy, particularly on the tracks produced by Okayplayer favorite 9th Wonder, whose micro-waved Fruity Loop soul samples and oven-mitt soft drums have exhausted their possibilities. Indeed, many of the stand-out sonic moments come courtesy of Cool and Dre, Mark Ronson, Warren G, and newcomer Ritz.
Full of self-conscious swagger, Wale’s one-liner game remains tight and tailored to ‘80s baby sensibilities with its Bald Bull, Kid Icarus, and Homer Simpson name-drops—although a hyper-critical paranoia towards media response, blogs, and the vagaries of the Internet rap wasteland grows tedious by the end. If getting un-followed by someone on Twitter is seen as a legitimate gripe—as Wale cites on album closer “New Soul”—then maybe it’s time to disable the Google Alerts.
While “Back to the Feature” fails to build on the goodwill engendered by his previous opus, it certainly doesn’t squander it. Bland beats aside, there is plenty of adroit and acerbic rhyming here—and well, it is free. Ultimately, one senses that Wale’s saving the real plutonium for his full-length debut, “Attention Deficit,” anyway. He may not have invented hover boards this time, but “Back to the Feature” still manages to go 88 miles per hour.
Download:
MP3: Wale ft. K’naan-“Um Ricka”
MP3: Wale ft. Bun B-“Talkin’ Shyt”
