Hip Hop State of Mind

King Eljay - So I just heard that Wale’s debut album “Attention Deficit” only sold 28,100 copies, and I’m kind of upset. Record company definitely undershipped the product because they didn’t expect homie to sell. I know from firsthnd experience because it took me three store trips to find it. Not at Wal-Mart, wasn’t at Target, and Best Buy had two copies when I went in.

Shame.

IF you noticed, I did NOT post my favorite songs for Wale’s new CD, “Attention Deficit” and now you should know why. If you don’t…

I wanted to bring special attention to some of these songs. The album is amazing, and the content in the album is amazing and chocked full of hip-hop goodness. In short, the songs I’m about to highlight are ones that need to be HEARD, period.

“Diary” feat. Marsha Ambrosius

Each song on the album has a purpose (except the track with Lady Gaga, that track was kind of pointless in my opinion), and this one had one of the most potent ones. Although people have told the story of the broken, hurt, bitter black girl that holds every guy responsible for the previous guy’s mistakes, Wale takes it a step further and deals with the moments the girl decides to write in her diary on the issue. Although the song in general is from that angle, the hook applies to anyone going through the situation, and the fairytale-land-esque instrumental adds to the reflective mood of the song. He tops it off with a spoke word piece that details everything further and brings the song full circle.

“90210”

I think this is Wale’s way of dealing with all of the Hollywood groupies in the world. Lol, but seriously this is another introspective song about a girl who’d do anything for the limelight. A lot of people can’t take on narratives and make it interesting and full the way that Wale does. Here’s another song that you might be interested in hearing.

“Shades” feat. Chrisette Michelle

I’m not even kidding. This is my favorite song that I’ve heard this year. Period. Originally, I thought it meant Shades as in Stunna shades or eye-goggles, but as soon as the songs starts and Wale begins to spazz out, I realized I was completely wrong. You always hear about racism towards other races in songs, but you never hear in detail the feelings people feel towards their own race that goes deeper than ignorance, and Wale tackles a subject that black people deal with commonly but never speak on. The song deals with Wale’s initial take on people of the same race that’s a lighter color, or a lighter SHADE.

He doesn’t mince words either, from admitting how he didn’t know how to act around them at times, to how he broke up with a light skinned girl when he was a teenager, to how he (being a dark skinned fellow) longed for Wesley Snipes’ popularity to translate over to his personal life, to even the media’s perception of dark-skinned people, including Obama.

Whether if you’re a hip-hop head or NOT, or if you don’t even LIKE rap, you should hear this song. It’s an eye-opener if you’ve never heard this before, and it’s refreshing if you’ve been in this situation.

These are just three songs, but the whole album is amazing. If you haven’t heard it…maybe this will convince you to BUY it.

Spread the word. Hip-hop’s not dead. Forget what you heard.

King Eljay

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Editors Note from Rhymestyle: Wale created an email for fans to contact if they are having trouble finding the album, the email you send will be forwarded to the people at Interscope, so if you don’t have it yet, then hit that email up ASAP.  Also feel free to Retweet the message.

Here’s the original tweet:

@Wale Ima do what i can to try and get #attentiondeficit 2 places you guys searched.. email WaleAttnDeficit@gmail.com so i can forward it