And after that, with 2013’s The Gifted, he attempted to have his cake and eat it too, with a bipolar mix of serviceable club bangers (“Clappers,” Rotation”) and luscious soul-soundtracked reflections of a more personal nature (“Heaven’s Afternoon,” “Gullible”). Most rappers don’t get to try both of those approaches. Wale also did this, with Ambition, his slick-sounding 2011 comeback as part of Rick Ross’ Maybach Music Group crew. We’ve also seen rapper’s-rapper critical darlings succeed in the mainstream by changing nearly everything that brought them initial flurries of praise. The weak sales of 2009’s Attention Deficit were a punchline/cautionary tale for some time after and made people forget the quality of his true debut, The Mixtape About Nothing. Dozens of mixtape circuit darlings climb the ladder of acclaim and fan buzz to a shot at major-label success, and plenty fail in spectacular fashion, as Wale did. Few rappers have had as bizarre a career trajectory as Wale.
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