“You mean to tell me, Juicy J’s album is better than mine?”
It seems that even when Wale makes an effort to stay out of the spotlight he has so erroneously mishandled at different stages in his career, he somehow gets thrust right back into it, which causes him to wholly lose his head. Prior to today’s events, Wale had been pretty quiet. A few guest verses here and there, a nifty video for his summer heater “Clappers”, and some stellar appearances on MMG’s compilation album, Self Made 3, made it seem as if Folarin was going to tuck 2013–a year in which he debuted #1 on Billboard with his third LP The Gifted–safely into his belt and transition seamlessly into 2014. He’d abstained from Twitter, which was his Achilles heel, and everything was cool.
But then again, you knew the floodgates would soon open. Last week, when the Grammys announced their 2014 nominations, Wale was notably left off, despite his platinum single, “Bad”, being one of the best rap singles we’ve heard all year, certainly in the upper-echelon of rap/sung collaborations, a category in which Folarin was noticeably absent. Then, yesterday, under Twitter’s #newrules, the “block” function was momentarily repealed, making it available for every single person Wale has ever blocked to re-enter his mentions with their shameless slander, and then, today, somehow, some way, Wale caught wind of Complex Magazine‘s year-end Best 50 Albums of the Year list.
In defense of journalistic culture, no one will ever get that list right. Especially considering Complex is a magazine that encompasses many genres other than hip-hop (for example: Lorde‘s LP and Daft Punk‘s Random Access Memories both placed on the list) there are a lot of different factors that go into something as subjective as that list, other than how good one can rap over good beats. That being said, Wale took it extremely personal when he realized that The Gifted, his chart-topping junior LP wasn’t awarded a single slot. He proceeded to place a call to Complex HQ, and the ensuing conversation was, well, telling. Wale went on to ask incredulously if Juicy J‘s debut album, Stay Trippy (which landed at number 27 on the controversial list) was better than his, and threaten to show up at their offices and start “knocking n****s out”. You can listen to the entire conversation in the video. The question that has to be asked is, why Juicy J? Juicy J and Wale have collaborated numerous times this past year, most notably on Juicy J’s album (“Bounce It”), and Juicy made a stellar contribution to quite possibly Folarin’s most popular single, “Clappers”, for which they shot a collaborative music video for. Poor Wale’s publicist, she was sitting at home, comfortably listening to Beyonce’s new album, and now this.
-Khari Nixon (@KingVanGogh)
