I like Wale. I like his flow a lot. He always sounds happy. People say birds of the feather flock together, surrounding yourself with happy people leads to your own happiness. I say listening is part of that. And I sure do feel surrounded by Wale when I hear him in stereo--in my left ear, and in my right ear. Listening to Wale rap makes me happy in a way Nas, Weezy, and Jay rarely can. Add his uplifting flow to the Care Bear bumping beat of "Mr. Carter" and I am feeling it too much not to blog about "Hey Mr. Carter."

Wale - "Hey Mr. Carter"

Wale is different than most rappers. You won't find any shots at the Bigs in "Hey Mr. Carter," far from it actually, as Wale pays homage and respect, gives thanks and compliments to Sean and Dwayne Carter in his version of Tha Carter III's hit "Mr. Carter." Both verses open with a line of tribute directed at each Mr. Carter, first for Dwayne:

A million fifty, god damn Wayne you killed em,
good lookin' with the "Nike Boots", it boosted me a little

Then for Sean:

A hundred fifty mill, god damn Jay you killed it,
Roc Nation could be the artist new formula to get rich

And since we're on the Roc topic, I have to mention this. The hand-made diamond Jay-z throws up, you know the one, well I always thought it looked like a triangle more than a diamond, and I guess this is directed at DDP as well. So that diamond that looks like a triangle, well apparently Wale feels the same way.

Somtimes I wish it was '03,
OG Roc-a-fella throwin up the isosceles,
and I ain't ridin' I'm just payin' homage.
If I ain't strive to be Sean, I'd end up like Ki-Jana
But fuck that, I ain't no Bengal, I'm a Lion
Out my mind, Patrick Bateman with the rhymin'!

Hit the rewind. Did he just say "out my mind, Patrick Bateman with the rhymin?" What a line. Wale is talking about how Jay And Wayne killed it, but damn Wale, you're the one who killed this beat. Both verses are great and Wale takes advantage of the intermission between the two to let us know that to succeed you "gotta think like Sean and not end up like Ki-Jana, like, fuck it, Wikipedia Ki-Jana Carter if you stuck." Here's a summary: "After being selected as the number one overall pick in the 1995 NFL Draft by the Bengals, he tore his ACL on his third carry of his first preseason NFL game of his rookie year." My sympathy to Mr. Carter. No one wants to be remembered like that.

With the amount of music in the form of mix-tapes Wale has put out this year, and his European tour last year, it's obvious he is striving to be like Sean because it's too often a guy has some serious talent and ends up a bust or doesn't ever hone his skills and ends up fading away with his albums into the discount rack at the used record store. And Wale isn't about to let that happen.