New album with a 90s comedic twist
The DC-based artist Wale released his second studio titled “The Album About Nothing” which was influenced by his self-proclaimed good friend Jerry Seinfeld, who gives every song on the album an intro. Some are clips from the eponymous well-known 90s TV show (also called “The Show About Nothing”), and others are from the Seinfeld himself today.
The 15-song album has features from singer and songwriter SZA, Grammy-award winner Kanye West and J. Cole, just to name a few of the artists. To me, this album was something totally different from what Wale usually does, and I mean different in s good way. Usually, we get an album full of songs that seem to be just thrown together but this time — even though this was named “The Album About Nothing” — Wale definitely had a lot to talk about.
In one of the first songs of the album, we hear a clip from Seinfeld talking about how he was approached about his white shoes and how he sees the white shoes as something that makes his day a bit better and more down to earth with everything that goes on in his life. When Wale gets into his own lyrics, he speaks about how in high poverty neighborhoods people tend to spend more time blowing money on things that have no big worth in life like sneakers and gold chains. He makes it seem as if those are the objects that keep people in poverty.
In the fourth track, called “The Pessimist,” Wale speaks on his hopelessness in the world. The song starts off with George Costanza, another main character from “Seinfeld,” talking about how he wishes to one day lose hope in everything so he is no longer disappointed in anything. This was one of my favorite songs, because I love how he featured J. Cole to sing the chorus on this track. It brought a smooth and warming feeling to the song.
My favorite song off of the album — and what I think was the most meaningful song — was “The Girls On Drugs” where Wale talks about women that he comes in contact with and the girls who have addictions to a variety of drugs, from adderall to molly.
Overall I give this album an 8/10 ranking. Wale definitely did his thing, and this is a great body of work from the MMG artist. Definitely expecting more work from Wale in the future.
