Meanwhile Wale also weaves a good deal of soul throughout the album's 15 tracks. "Bricks" (which features vocal contributions from Yo Gotti and Lyfe Jennings) backs its dark, topical lyrics with silky strings and horns. "Golden Salvation (Jesus Piece)" mixes big-beat rap and a healthy dose of gospel.
"The Curse of the Gifted," for instance, is a fairly stark rap tune but is sprinkled with a few touches of jazz along the way. Wale's career was officially back on track.įor "The Gifted," Wale wanted to show both his musical range and also have more of a focused, soul-infused sound.įor the most part, Wale achieved those goals, as he adds a variety of musical flavors to the rap sound that anchors most of the songs. 2 on the "Billboard" album chart with first-week sales of 162,000 copies. He went to work on "Ambition," and with an extensive multi-tiered marketing campaign launched ahead of the album's November 2011 release, it debuted at No. Indeed, Wale plowed forward, landing a new record deal with Mayback Music Group, the label owned by superstar rapper Rick Ross. I was mad that it happened, but I didn't think my career was in shambles or anything like that." was always behind me, so I never was worried about that at all. I knew I was going to be all right," he said. Wale took what for many artists might seem like a catastrophic setback in stride. But Interscope wasn't satisfied with the sales for "Attention Deficit" and dropped Wale from its roster.
Wale's manager, Daniel Weisman blamed the subpar performance on Interscope, saying the label didn't ship enough copies. 21 on the "Billboard" album chart with sales of 28,000 copies. Wale continued to crank out mixtapes – three of them – before the November 2009 release of his first album, "Attention Deficit." The album, though, became one of the few setbacks Wale has experienced. So far, Wale has done a good job of achieving that overriding goal, as his career has, for the most part, been on a steady upswing.īased out of Washington, D.C., Olubowale Victor Akintimehin, 28, made waves initially on the vibrant local scene in 2006 with a single, "Dig Dug (Shake It)." It became the most requested song by a local artist in Washington, D.C., radio history and was featured on Wale's first mixtape, "Paint a Picture." He followed up that song in fall 2006 with another single, "Uptown Roamers," which got airplay on XM Radio and was included on Wale's second mixtape, "Hate Is The New Love."īy then, Wale had been discovered by super-producer Mark Ronson (known for his work with the late Amy Winehouse and Christina Aguilera, among others), and in 2008 this alliance paid off with a joint record deal with Ronson's Allido Records and major label Interscope Records. "There's a bit of competitiveness in me that makes me always want to challenge myself and do better than my last one," he said.
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