Wale - "W.A.L.E.D.A.N.C.E."

Out my window, I can always hear my neighbour talking on the phone. He must have some insane cellphone plan, because he's never not talking, I swear, he must have it set up with Fido that he pays them when he's not on the phone. But I was leaving one day, I had to meet my Spanish tutor, and he was out on his balcony (he often is) and he waved me over. He wanted me to see his new TV, he said he just got it and some sweet satellite and he wanted to show it off. He didn't hang up the phone the whole time. I could never tell if he was talking to me or not. He'd be like "check it out!", and then a long silence, he'd be looking at me, so I'd give a shot, "it's sweet!" He was talking to me that time. But he was in the kitchen (I was standing in my shoes on the carpet with my backpack on, not knowing how long I should stay, having to go anyway) and the video for D.A.N.C.E. came on. He blew out of the kitchen, spilling his Bananorange juice, and blew into this insane freestyle. It was like watching Lance Armstrong on an exercycle, it was like all his talking was just training and this was the real shit. I blew me away, completely.

Wale - "Daytona Squared (prod. by Judah)"

Here Wale sounds like he's under the gun. Like he's always got more rhymes than he can get out in time. Like someone is playing that little organ line over and over, knowing that that's his button, that Wale has to keep going as long as he keeps playing. He tries to say good-bye a bunch of times, but that organ keeps saying "no no no, you're gonna keep this up. you're gonna keep rhymin'."

[Get Wale's mixtape "100 Miles and Running" for free]
[thanks to CHUO's Transmissions After Zero for this]