The long awaited Back To The Feature mixtape from DC RAPS GREAT HOPE dropped on Friday. Primarily produced by ex-Little Brother beatsmith 9th Wonder, the tape is Wale’s bid for true hip hop legitimacy while simultaneously pushing a shameless and gross radio single. After the jump are my song-by-song first listen knee jerks on the tape. Download it here if you need a soundtrack to this blog post.
“Cyphr” f/ Young Chris, Freeway & Beanie Sigel
So it seems Wale has been adopted into the State Property extended family. It makes sense, he’s comfortable rapping with them. Still it’s unfortunate that he’s pulling them closer to the rap-about-nothing territory he occupies when they’re so much better at rapping about shooting people and eating at Boston Market.
“5 Minutes” f/ Skyzoo
Didn’t Wale already use this sample? Seemingly both artists only took five minutes to write their verses. That’s not a diss, that’s the concept of the record. Skyzoo comes off nicely.
“Night Life” f/ Young Chris & Tre
“I ain’t worried ’bout you little n****s blogging.” Blog rappers are constantly saying stuff like this on their mixtapes but if they were truly unconcerned with blogs then they wouldn’t have to mention blogging in their raps at all. Something tells me that Wale and Chris have been frantically googling “Back To The Feature” all weekend. This song has been out for months. It is still very hot. These are the type of records Wale sounds best on - upbeat tracks that nod vaguely to the go-go influence but aren’t totally go-go records.
“Hot Shyt” f/ Peedi Crakk, Black Thought, Tu Phace & Young Chris
Another Philly posse cut. Halfway through the tape this track marks eight Philly guest verses before a single DC area one. (Not counting UCB’s Tre who is basically Wale’s live in hype/hook man. I heard he sings the chorus to Wale’s pancakes every morning.) Plus there were three from Brooklyn, one from New Orleans and one from Newark. The fact that I’m doing math in my mixtape review doesn’t bode well for the quality of the tape or my own sanity.
“Wonder Why” f/ Big Sean, Ken Starr & Mike Posner
Okay here’s a local rap guest. Low Budget’s Ken Starr. It’s strange Wale had to outsource his backpack rap production, when there are at least three more talented producers in the same lane within the Low Budget crew alone. And Kanye weed carrier Big Sean brings HIS weed carrier Mike Posner. Outsourcing not only destroys the economy, it destroys mixtapes.
“Sharp” f/ Kingpin Slim & Torae
Quoth the Wale: “I was one of the first people to rap on stuff that wasn’t traditional hip hop music.” Fab Five Freddy might have something to say about that claim.
“The Sun” f/ Memphis Bleek
From shampoo raps to blog buzz mixtapes in two easy steps! Wale is once again airing out his blog insecurities. He should start a blog about blogs and stick to rapping about rapping.
“Rather Be With You (Vagina Is For Lovers)” f/ J Cole & Currency
This is the vagina rap song. Like blogging, menstruation is a reoccurring theme on this album.
“Goodbye” f/ Jean Grae
This is the break up rap song. Wale’s little closing anecdote about awkwardly begging Jean for a feature on Twitter is more of that metablogging rap, but it’s also indicative of the humility that originally made him so likable. Though Jean has recorded extensively with 9th Wonder, it probably would have been more logical to go through him.
“Talkin’ Shyt” f/ Bun B & Dre
Bun hasn’t rapped this well in years. Excellence in the presence of competence. Also I don’t think that’s actually Dre from Cool & Dre rapping the last verse. Maybe it is an unrelated rapper named Dre rapping on a Cool & Dre beat?
“Nothing To Worry About” f/ Peter, Bjorn & John
Wait I thought this tape was supposed to be free of this sort of Pitchfork bait?
“Um Ricka” f/ K’Naan
Sure, put the African rapper on the Fela beat. Talk about being typecast.
12 comments:
damn but i feel the same way
Andrew Noz strikes again lol! He's shared his disdain towards DC rappers numerous times on CBRap so I'm not surprised at this at all.
Uhh Im mad they didnt even comment on the best songs but oh well Im really enjoying this mixtape got POT OF GOLD and NEW SOUL on my phone.
mine was better.
I think the mixtape is pretty dope. Wale and the features that were on the mixtape did there thang, especially Royce 5'9 and Joe buddens.
"Andrew Noz strikes again lol! He's shared his disdain towards DC rappers numerous times on CBRap so I'm not surprised at this at all."
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I agree with mo betta, Pot f gold and new soul are two of the best tracks on there...
....
...I stand by my statement.
Seems a little biased towards us DMVillians. Its cool though cuz bad press is better than no press at all. SO we must be doing something out here...
I guess this is his thing. I really woulndt call it a legit review though. It reads more like a gossip blogger from MTO or crunktastikal (or however the hell you spell that shit) who is just looking for the negatives of everything to poke fun at it for shock sakes. I dont think he intends this to be taken seriously, its more comical and tounge in cheek than anything. Havent heard the tape though, but I may check it even thought 9ths beats are overrated IMO and none of those features aside from Jean Grae and K'naan sound appealing. Imma Still download it tho!!
Wack ass review the tape is a 4.5/10, no doubt its not a good mixtape but tell us whats wrong with in detail cuz was just hatin...nearly every feature outshines Wale track for track....why in the ^&%$ would you rhyme next to Buddens or Royce and not change your style or over-played lame ass flow...Im no hater Ima HH head and come on his wordplay and flow are str8 nyquil...When I heard this I just imagined what Pro'verb, Lyriciss, RatheMc, YU, XO, or K-Beta would do with this kind of opportunity...Wale showed great potential for growth during his buzz years but he is panning out to be an Epic Fail from his imitation of his
"Jay-Z" persona in interviews tryna play cynical minus the charisma, to his constant bi*ching and bickering on twitter...This tape his not w/o highlights tho "Hot Shit" Peedi is way under-rated and its a dope THEME!! Theme! Wale Theme!, fugg rapping bout nothing we get it nice tape now say sumthin!!!! Best song on album, joint w/ K'Naan (?) that shyt is fire, stick to this dude! tell us bout your past, your passion, display lyrical ability (pretty please) Although most of his raps sound like there written in 300 seconds, five minutes is actually one of his better verse on the album, and he was in his element on the UCB feature but once again outshinned thanks to Rock Mikey, this song would have been xtra dope w/ an original hook like wtf?...I'm not hating I'm waiting..I gotta listen w/ non-bias ears and @ this point NO I wouldnt BUY is album for free! But since he is DMV Im gonna be the 1st in line, however he knows that hes not getting the job done but his machine and internet connects are making him appear as if he is worth listening to @ this point...9th's overall production on this tape is fairly decent...Ima listen a few more times, give him the same chances I gave Bleek and then he's going in the Bleek pile...On this tape he claims he is a cocky rapper but why??? You are not seasoned, you did no underground scene in DC (notice I didnt say DMV), we just woke up one morning and thanks to ya big bro the great Alize we heard your songs in heavy rotation (btw remaking classic go-go songs is halfway cheating, and we still just wait for the hook when they play) and stop braggin bout a 2-hour set thats UCB's set, imagine homie show with out the band, how much would you pay?, Okay I digress because Im approaching hate but stop me when Im lying...I beleive his ego is partially the reason for his wackness disease, as an emcee never think your better than you actually are comes off as damaging and this Back to the Feature makes me wonder who the eff was the feature artist...Gone
im shocked cus i liked it from word play to new soul i gave every song a listen and new soul got many plays along like wale said if you think barack got it bad try being a rapper!
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