Sidewalk Hustle

I have been say­ing it for months now, and even as recently as last week that rap­per Wale is going to be BIG Deal. After dom­i­nat­ing the mix­tape route, as any good up-and-comer should, with his 2007 100 Miles & Run­ning, 2008 The Mix­tape About Noth­ing, and this year’s Back to the Fea­ture, Wale’s off­i­cal debut Atten­tion Deficit dropped yes­ter­day (Novem­ber 10th 2009) and let me just say it is awe­some. I am com­pletely in love with the first opener track “Tri­umph”, pro­duced by my favourite pro­ducer of the month Mr. TV on the Radio’s Dave Sitek.  Sitek returns later in the album with the great and clev­erly named track “TV in the Radio”  fea­tur­ing one of Canada’s up-and-coming rap­pers K’Naan. What a ter­rific track! Now I don’t want you to get the impres­sion that I only love the Sitek tracks because the major­ity of the album holds its own.  “Con­tem­plate”, pro­duced by Syience, sam­ples Rihanna’s “Ques­tion Exist­ing” and is a dark and brood­ing track.  I will admit that I am not the biggest fan of the lead sin­gle “Chillin’” fea­tur­ing Lady Gaga, but the video is worth a watch. Check it out below.

Over­all the album is well worth the wait and is a prime exam­ple of Wale’s future within the hip hop indus­try.  So, as I always say, do your­self a favour and give it a listen.