Although "Attention Deficit" is his first major-label LP, Washington, D.C.'s Wale is no newcomer to the hip-hop world. Long a fixture on the D.C.-Maryland-Virginia (DMV) hip-hop and go-go scene with five strong mixtapes under his belt, Wale has been hailed as one of hip hop's rising stars.
Proving himself to be a veritable veteran, Wale delivers a well-rounded, sophisticated debut.
The first track, "Triumph," sets the tone for the production of the record. Noodling synths play against a heavy acoustic beat and horn samples. For the rest of the album, beats straddle the line between old-school and more recent production elements. On "Mirrors (feat. Bun B)" producer Mark Ronson lays down a characteristically stripped-down beat. A simple guitar-bass line complements an aggressive, steady acoustic drum beat. As the track builds, the mix fattens up with funky wah-wah guitar, sparse horns and vocal harmonies. The end result sounds something like mutant '60s soul and leaves plenty of room for his ample flow.
On the other end of the production spectrum is the synth-heavy Neptunes-produced track "Let it Loose (feat. Pharrell)." Saturated and sample-less, with a straight ahead hook featuring a call-and-response between Pharell and a female vocalist, "Let it Loose" is the closest "Attention Deficit" gets to the club tracks that dominate the airwaves on today's hip-hop stations; while the track doesn't make the full trip to the dregs of Auto-Tune land, it is far from the most original or exciting track on the album.
The lyrical content of "Attention Deficit" is as varied as the production elements. On the first single from "Attention Deficit," "Chillin (feat. Lady Gaga)," Walle leans toward some common themes of modern hip hop to create his most successful hit to date. The track centers on a sample of jock-jam "Na Na Hey Hey Goodbye" by Steam and an MIA-esque hook provided by Lady Gaga.
Wale's rhymes about cars and sneakers would not appear out of place on any of Hot 97's top 10, but his flow is at once smooth and aggressive, and his sharp wit and originality make "Chillin" a dynamic track.
Wale's true strength comes out when he turns his sharp tongue to more serious matters. "Attention Deficit" hits its stride when Wale tackles difficult issues. In "90210," an up-beat synth line establishes the mood of sunny but vapid L.A. life. Wale tells the tale of a girl who falls into the trap of celebrity obsession, cocaine and anorexia.
On "Shades (feat. Chrisette Michele)," a definite standout, Wale tackles the difficult issue of inter-racism. Opening with the mighty line "chip on my shoulder, big enough to feed Cambodia," Wale delivers a perfectly executed discourse both on his own struggles growing up darker than those around him and on the larger issues of societal perceptions of people of different shades. Chrisette Michele's ethereal vocals on the chorus help make this arguably the best track on the record.
Wale has revealed in interviews how strongly he laments the genre-fixation of hip hop and how he avoids being forced into a compartment of mainstream or "conscious" hip hop. Nonetheless, it can be difficult not to find tracks such like "Let it Loose" trite and unoriginal compared to his more explorative and serious efforts.
Despite sometimes conceding to contemporary hip-hop trends, Wale still delivers a very impressive debut effort.
The overall impression is of a confident but honest MC willing both to present a strong statement and to reveal a tender part of his character.
The final track on "Attention Deficit" is "Prescription." It sits, along with "Shades," among the best songs of the record.
Beginning with a simple drumbeat and building to a beautiful eruption of flutes, basses and beats, Wale structures a spectacle of rhyme around the theme of prescription drugs. At the end, the beat drops out and Wale kicks a loose verse, ending with the apparent boast, "I am hip hop past, present and future." The line follows shout outs to some older influential MCs, making it more a declaration of purpose than the bravura common to most major MCs.
His music is rich with the past, but he's delivering some of the most relevant hip hop today. With a debut like "Attention Deficit," he will certainly have his place in the future of hip hop, and what seems to separate Wale's boast from that of most other MCs is the fact that it just might be true.
