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"Wale&amp;apos;s recording career to date has had an amphibious feel of sorts. In 2009, when the Washington, D.C. rapper was signed to Interscope, he put out a very Interscope debut, complete with a Lady Gaga feature. 2011&amp;apos;s Ambition &amp;#x2013; his follow-up after hopping over to Rick Ross&amp;apos; Maybach Music Group &amp;#x2013; seemed like a Rick Ross album, only with more references to Nikes and obscure NBA players. Sure, it sold well, but much of it could&amp;apos;ve been pieced together by any of the bosses in the MMG factory. But Wale&amp;apos;s third album is different. The Gifted &amp;#x2013; due out on June 25th &amp;#x2013; is the first one to feel like Wale himself masterminded it.\r\nAt a private preview held at the Atlantic offices last week, MMG&amp;apos;s A&amp;amp;R Dallas Martin introduced the project by noting Wale&amp;apos;s intention to recall his D.C. roots, citing late hometown hero Chuck Brown, the Godfather of Go-Go. Read on for a track-by-track preview of the album&amp;apos;s highlights. Other notable tracks include &amp;quot;Hella,&amp;quot; with YG and Dom Kennedy, which has the feeling of Beyonce&amp;apos;s &amp;quot;Party&amp;quot; set on West Coast Customs shocks; &amp;quot;Sunshine,&amp;quot; a Spanish Harlem-tinged number that involves cowbell; and the outro, where Wale says, sneering, &amp;quot;Where your keys at, playboy? I slang hyperboles, playboy.&amp;quot;\r\n&amp;quot;Bad (Remix)&amp;quot; feat. RihannaThis is a pretty big deal. Rihanna has never gotten on a rap remix, to our knowledge. We were only previewed the first hook and first verse of this new version of Wale&amp;apos;s inescapable single; there are high expectations for this song, and Martin was given strict orders not to play any further. Rihanna ups original guest vocalist Tiara Thomas&amp;apos; ante and proceeds to tear down the place. She injects this crazy/beautiful combination of sadness and sexiness that only Rih can do, singing, confidently, &amp;quot;Hood girls just want a real n***a.&amp;quot; (On the original version, Wale said, &amp;quot;Hood girls want a smart n***a&amp;quot;; point, counterpoint.) Clean up your apartment, this song will be around all summer.\r\n&amp;quot;lovehateTHING&amp;quot;The album&amp;apos;s second single is all finger snaps and a capella vocal pops, reminiscent of Marvin Gaye or &amp;quot;Beijo&amp;quot; by Earth, Wind &amp;amp; Fire. (Teasing its release, Wale has continually tweeted about &amp;quot;#NewBlackSoul.&amp;quot;) It feels like he painted the song in watercolors, as he talks about what fame does to a person: The words &amp;quot;goals,&amp;quot; &amp;quot;celebrate&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;potential&amp;quot; all come up within one verse, but so does &amp;quot;I lost a lot of friends, and they ain&amp;apos;t e&amp;apos;en dead.&amp;quot; (More positively, Wale goes on to say, &amp;quot;Champagne, I&amp;apos;m gonna spill it until we all fill up.&amp;quot;)\r\n&amp;quot;Clappers&amp;quot; feat. Juicy J and Nicki MinajThis song feels like driving on potholes, only more pleasurable, more bounce. If you didn&amp;apos;t or couldn&amp;apos;t guess, it&amp;apos;s intended for the clubs as an ode to strippers. (Emily Dickinson, take note.) The anthem samples EU&amp;apos;s &amp;quot;Da Butt,&amp;quot; and the live drums feel like they were recorded somewhere between RFK Stadium (the D.C. sporting venue) and Stadium (the D.C. gentleman&amp;apos;s club). Juicy J does a Juicy J-ish verse, but the real star of this song is Nicki, who steals the show in 12 bars: &amp;quot;Shout out to the cellulite.&amp;quot;\r\n&amp;quot;Heaven in the Afternoon&amp;quot; feat. Meek Mill&amp;quot;Born to lose, built to win,&amp;quot; Wale says to open, taking the title of a Juelz Santana album that may or may not ever come out. This track &amp;#x2013; a lush, orchestral vision originally released in December on a whim &amp;#x2013; closes with Wale trading bars with Meek, &amp;#xE0; la Jadakiss and Styles P. &amp;quot;Meek and Wale are on a ton of tracks together, so we needed to figure out ways to make new sounds, to make each song sound different,&amp;quot; Martin said at the listening session. &amp;quot;This was one way of doing that.&amp;quot; The snares hit like elbows, hard and pointed. The hook goes &amp;quot;We ain&amp;apos;t &amp;apos;posed to never have nothin&amp;apos;, we ain&amp;apos;t never &amp;apos;posed to never have shit.&amp;quot; (Now that they&amp;apos;re here, of course, Wale says: &amp;quot;All we need is Keisha, all we need is Becky / All we need is God, and Fed-free fetti.&amp;quot;) Meek Mill says he&amp;apos;s being chased by RICO, and that he&amp;apos;s &amp;quot;got a billion in whips.&amp;quot; There&amp;apos;s also the first of two mentions of Drake&amp;apos;s &amp;quot;Started from the Bottom.&amp;quot;\r\n\r\n&amp;quot;88&amp;quot;The idea is a song about Michael Jordan in 1988: Wale sees that as the first time MJ was really on top of the world. Tellingly, Wale reportedly asked producer Just Blaze to give him the feeling of &amp;quot;those old Dipset records.&amp;quot; He delivered: The song is at times grinding, others soaring. (There&amp;apos;s a bit of sacrilege in making a New York record about Michael Jordan, but oh well.) Of course, it wouldn&amp;apos;t be a Wale song if it didn&amp;apos;t have a bunch of shoe references: &amp;quot;I bought 3&amp;apos;s for the whole team,&amp;quot; he says, with name-checks of Carolina blues, black and reds, and Space Jams. One of the closing lines is, &amp;quot;And when I&amp;apos;m 45, I do it like I&amp;apos;m 23.&amp;quot; Ha.\r\n&amp;quot;Rotation&amp;quot; feat. 2 Chainz and Wiz Khalifa&amp;quot;Fly a blunt, it&amp;apos;s in rotation . . . it&amp;apos;s in rotation.&amp;quot; This song feels like a nap, except it&amp;apos;s really catchy. Damn you, stoners! (There are some lazy moments: Wiz makes sure to note his preference for joints, not blunts. This ground has been well-covered before.) Wale, interestingly, puts himself on a (cough) higher level: &amp;quot;Made millions with Shawn Corey&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;I won&amp;apos;t be on til I see Sean Combs / &amp;apos;Sup, Puff, ha.&amp;quot; No one has ever accused Wale of lacking self-confidence."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/wale-teams-with-rihanna-nicki-minaj-on-the-gifted-20130523>