In other words: a Wale album. Interpolation is one of the constants of Nothing. Since his 2011 alliance with Rick Ross’ Maybach Music, the D.C. rapper has found success but has never seemed comfortable with it. The Album About Nothing begins by holding a mirror to Wale’s past, which reflects some of the trappings of his more-famous present. Drag-On Remembers DMX: ‘We Really Looked at Each Other Like Brothers’, ‘SNL’ Tackles Derek Chauvin Trial, DMX Death in Minnesota News Cold Open, Missy Elliott, Eve, Swizz Beatz Mourn DMX, See Kesha, Maren Morris Sing ‘Your Love Is My Drug’ at All for the Hall New York, How Moe Bandy’s Cheating, Drinking Songs Made Him Country’s Tragic Clown, ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons on ‘Unthinkable’ Hurricane Damage, Houston-Area Concert. Liz Cheney Blasts Trump for Continuing To Use Language That 'Provoked Violence on Jan. 6', Eddie Van Halen ‘Frankenstrat’ Guitars Hit the Auction Block. Wale – The Album About Nothing [Review] Many Hip-Hop purist love Wale and many Hip-Hop “fans” are ambivalent or uninformed at worse about one of modern Hip-Hops only poets left. Album Review: The Album About Nothing by Wale. Album Rating: 4.5 Ive had my experiences with the track by track review critics too. The band has been prolific since then. The Album About Nothing has an infectious, feel-good vibe with an undeniable cohesiveness. I always enjoy reading one. That hair-trigger sensitivity can be off-putting, but it's also what makes him good at what he does. It’s clear, though, that The Nothing is Davis’s album. Im not sure why though. [9] The Album About Nothing has received generally positive reviews from critics. Sign up for our newsletter. We’ve been devouring ATW’s discography at Monster Riff lately, so we were super-excited to learn of the release of Nothing as the Ideal in early September. Grindr Murder: Could Kevin Bacon’s Death Have Been Prevented? © Copyright 2021 Rolling Stone, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media, LLC. Korn are ready to drop their brand spanking new album, The Nothing, on Friday, September 13, 2019 on Roadrunner Records. ‘Seinfeld’-loving rapper calls in the comic for a thoughtful LP. Wale clearly remains frustrated with his inability to ascend to the top tier, and on Nothing he presents himself as a rap-industry antagonist. He waxes political on the J. Cole-featuring "The Pessimist" about the negative perceptions of black America, through the lens of police brutality or "Love & Hip-Hop", but is missing the punk fervor of the Bad Brains he namechecks. The album about nothing should not be confused with his breakout mixtape about nothing which dropped in 2008. The title of this album is in homage to Seinfeld which was referred to as the show about nothing because there was no end goal for the characters and stories were sometimes unconnected. Trials, tribulations, love, and lack thereof. This was around the time when the first wave of "weirdo" nerd guys like himself, Charles Hamilton, a pre-pop B.o.B and Kid Cudi were springing forward—emotional, obsessed with melody, ambitious, accessible. The Album About Nothing is his most personal piece of work to date, and also his best. The album is really and experience from beginning to end in my opinion. The new album is arguably the band’s heaviest to date. After the push-and-pull of his MMG years, Wale gazes back towards his past on his fourth album, nodding to his 2008 "Seinfeld"-referencing breakout The Mixtape About Nothing and attempting to recast his audience's perception of him. 2 Well, the past month has been quite an exciting one in the world of hip hop. Nothing is a long album, with one cut coming in over the six-minute mark, and when it is sludgy, it is exhausting. Rutgers University. At Metacritic , which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from critics, the album received an average score of 66, which indicates "generally favorable reviews", based on 9 reviews. Wale and Jerry Seinfeld are the most unlikely pair in pop culture. Apr 06, 2015. "The Body" is the last of five romantic songs on the album, most of which fail to captivate: Only on his Usher collaboration "The Matrimony", and on the tender "The Bloom (AG3)", where he reminds us how good he sounds rapping over a live band, does he sound alive. The Album About Nothing review. Album Review: Nubiyan Twist - Freedom Fables. Wale’s alignment with the Top 40 rap crowd never felt like a healthy fit. ), but it’s different enough from vintage stuff to avoid making it feel like the band is stuck in a creative rut. Despite plenty of buzz and excitement on the heels of a solid mixtape, Wale‘s newest album sputters and stumbles and fails to tap the inspiration of the mixtapes that precede it. Album three Moral Panic sees the band trying out something new. What follows isn’t so much the diligent fan service all this promises, though, so much as a muddied collage of attempts at current trends and a lot of sour disaffection. It works so well that it’s almost surprising no one has done it before. Fear of becoming an … Here, they consummate their friendship with a full-on collaborative LP. We want to hear from you! "One of the services you provide is giving people something to talk about," Seinfeld says. Fear of becoming an outsider projecting a false hatred of the inside, fear of pushing musical boundaries to nurture one’s own creativity, fear of being vulnerable and, thusly, denying his listeners access to himself. Suffice it to say, then, that The Nothing is, on the whole, solid.It has enough classic Kornisms to appease longtime fans (e.g., Fieldy’s rubber band bass, disco high hats, screechy guitar effects, vocal patterns that sound like nursery rhymes, etc. Wale remains intent on dismantling the public’s sour perception of him, but he doesn’t seem to know how. Concluding the 11-track album is a six-minute long, goosebump-inducing mantra. On "The Helium Balloon", one of the more interesting songs on the album, he laments his reception as an artist, adding "Still know what my core needs/ So fuck who ignores me." On "The Glass Egg", he opts for cleverness over anger, upending Groove Theory’s "Tell Me" and flipping its lyrics ("I’ve been doing my own thing"; "Tell me if you are for real") from their original incredulous-about-a-crush context into the cry of an outsider. Posted on March 31, 2015 by somekindafire. As stated The Nothing is an experience. Much of the explicit gothic noir that infiltrates The Seduction Of Indulgence or the cold, post-punk opening of Finally Free feels like tricks that the vocalist tried out on last year’s solo album, Black Labyrinth, with the music mirroring his tour of his own personal demons. Posted on April 3, 2015 April 3, 2015 by Excel Posted in Music. Wale was a rapper I discovered back in 2007 if memory serves me correct. At last, Wale is embracing that role. Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for The Album About Nothing at Amazon.com. "Balloon" concludes with a pseudo-dancehall coda loosely riffing on Ini Komoze’s crossover "Here Comes the Hotstepper". “The One Time in Houston” has a hypnotically satisfying hook, “The Bloom (AG3)” has a jazzy flow, and “The Girls on Drugs” creates a cheerful beat by sampling Janet Jackson’s “Go Deep.” Wale promptly eschewed that sensibility for guest verses on songs like Waka Flocka Flame’s strip club paean "No Hands" and Ross’ my-cum-tastes-good commercial "Diced Pineapples". Wale uses Seinfeld's advice not just as a gimmick but as a jumping-off point: "The Pessimist" opens with a nihilistic George Costanza rant, but it becomes a heartfelt reflection on racism and police violence. On The Mixtape About Nothing, Wale emerges fully-formed as a rapper and as a thinker, a lightning-witted, irreverent guy blessed with both an infectious swagger and a sound moral compass-- … This album seems to be more cohesive and well planned out when comparing it to his previous albums. Nothing Happens has its moments of emotional vulnerability, but perhaps the most monumental is from “Do Not Wait.” Concluding the 11-track album is a six-minute long, goosebump-inducing mantra. The most unfortunate moment is "The One Time in Houston", an amateurish attempt at the city’s signature syrupy screw sound. With Wale currently having the number 1 album in the country, it feels that The Album About Nothing is surely deserving of that spot, upon review. willhun15 September 13th 2019 "The Success" borrows from the Eurythmics’ "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)". So what does it mean that after all of this push-and-pull, his fourth studio album finds him gazing back towards his origins? Korn fans sat tight all summer long and finally the wait is over! Review: The Album About Nothing by Wale Anthony Smizaski. A major theme that plays throughout The Album About Nothing is Wale’s relationship with women. For someone who spends so much time decrying other rappers’ lifestyles, it’s a wonder why he is pantomiming at all. Wale folarin is back and better. Album singles “Are You Bored Yet” and “Scrawny” follow one after the next, and as pre-album releases should, encompass the energy of Nothing Happens along with the aesthetic Wallows is working to be known for with the accompanying music videos. That’s Wale. Nothing But Thieves review the week's biggest new music. While there are clear themes throughout the record (love, black experience, a rapper’s malaise), The Album About Nothing is mostly about fear. But Wale doesn’t have to rely on audio clips from "Seinfeld" anymore: He has Jerry, himself (the two are friends, and Jerry even name-dropped him as one of his "top five" in Top Five) providing the sound bites. ... and a lyric that sums up not only this album, but the band’s 26-year career in general. "People wanna talk." The rapper first paid tribute to his favorite comedian with 2008's The Mixtape About Nothing; Seinfeld returned the favor by shouting him out in last year's Top Five. He’s worked frequently with the straight up gangster-rap guys like Rick Ross and is as equally chummy with ballers as Drizzy and Hove. Review: Wale Gets Out Of His Own Way On ‘The Album About Nothing’ Wale’s sensitive side steals the show on his fourth studio album Wale never meant to be Mr. Nice Guy. While there are clear themes throughout the record (love, black experience, a rapper’s malaise), The Album About Nothing is mostly about fear. He wants us to know he’s "Lil Wayne meets Wayne Perry/ Bad Brains from the go-go" ("The God Smile") but he’s loaded his album with the opposite: There are no lyrical acrobatics à la Weezy in his prime, and his reference to Wayne Perry is a head-scratcher because Wale has never purported to be a gangster. The DC rapper's Seinfeld-inspired album has strong moments but mostly drags in a mid-tempo haze. Korn – ‘The Nothing’ review. Wale "The Album About Nothing" Album Review In attempting to placate mainstream tastes, Wale falls short of the album being the unique and idea … With The Album About Nothing, unlike The Gifted, it seems like this time around Wale is not trying to make a song for everybody (the club, the gangsters, the hip-hop heads, etc.) We've had releases from multiple popular artists including Wale's long-awaited The Album About Nothing. Wale's "The Album About Nothing" is full of honest & personal content, solid production, and words of wisdom from Jerry Seinfeld himself! Through it all, he struggled to exude palpable confidence. And the critical failure of his last album, 2013’s The Gifted, must have shaken him to his core, because at first blush, his latest effort, The Album About Nothing, screams "return-to-form." Album Review: Korn – The Nothing Jonathan Davis opens his heart and fights through the pain on Korn’s darkest record to date, The Nothing… Words: Luke Morton Posted on April 9, 2015 April 24, 2015 by Alex Bell. All he has now is Nothing to lose. About All Them Witches. Read honest and unbiased product reviews from our users. April 7, 2015 April 8, 2015 Lewis LK Leave a comment. The perfect Friday the 13th treat, in late June, Korn dropped a bomb confirming the fall release of a brand new LP to follow their summer co-headlining tour with Alice In Chains. Want more Rolling Stone? Written by Jeremy Weeden. Whilst at times a challenging listen, it is no doubt one of Korn’s better albums, dare we say the band’s best since 2002’s Untouchables. The intro is informed by go-go, D.C.’s signature reworking of funk, and a sound he used frequently early in his career. Davis apparently locked himself away in a studio and battled his emotions head on via his writing. Pitchfork is the most trusted voice in music. The Album About Nothing ‘Seinfeld’-loving rapper calls in the comic for a thoughtful LP The dred-headed step child. And once again, the voice of Jerry Seinfeld acts as commentary, stitching the tracks together thematically. Stream Wale - The Album About Nothing Album Review | DEHH by Dead End Hip Hop from desktop or your mobile device "The Girls on Drugs" cleverly samples Janet Jackson’s house party celebration "Go Deep", but isn’t packed with enough of Wale’s dour thoughts to sound like he’s doing anything more than cribbing Drake’s If You’re Reading This, It’s Too Late flow. ARTIST: Wale ALBUM: The Album About Nothing LABEL: Maybach Music RELEASE DATE: March 31, 2015 Nuff Said. "The Body" fully rips "You Remind Me of Something" by R. Kelly, who might not be the best guy to pay homage to in 2015, but when you have Jeremih, an heir to the Chicago R&B throne, on the hook, it’s a little easier to take. The Album about Nothing is a smooth, smooth album. Send us a tip using our anonymous form. Wale occupies a strange liminal in the hip-hop landscape. ATW formed in 2012 (their name comes from a witchcraft book in the 1968 classic horror movie, Rosemary’s Baby). If Wale could only shatter those walls and deliver an album where he no longer sounds like a caricature of himself—it’s no wonder he loves "Seinfeld"—he might finally get back the amnesty he has been so desperately grasping at for the past five years. Its title nods to his 2008 "Seinfeld"-referencing breakout The Mixtape About Nothing, a freebie hosted by Fool’s Gold impresario Nick Catchdubs. Blue Moon Rising | “The Album About Nothing” Review. He burrows into the background of "The Middle Finger", revealing his discomfort around other rappers and making a hook out of "Fuck you, leave me alone." 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