by Kent Bruyneel

Wale
The Mixtape About Nothing

Wale’s fantastic and free* album delivers, among its many pleasures, a phrase new and essential to the English language: Olsen twinning (verb. To be hungry and still not eat). But it is not even close to the most interesting thing about the latest masterpiece of the Mash-Up era. (Which, as far as I am concerned, starts in 1989 with the Beastie Boys’ Paul’s Boutique.) Wale’s mixtape is the perfect headphone record, exactly the kind of music you can fall in and out of with the ebb and flow of your day. Wale’s conceit is as simple as it is inspired.

The Mixtape About Nothing is based on the famed show about nothing: Seinfeld. In addition to embedding clips from Seinfeld episodes and a cameo appearance by the actual Elaine Benes, Wale samples Kramer/Michael Richards’ famously vulgar and racist rant; and Richards subsequent apology on the David Letterman Show; and the weird reaction of the studio audience. (They laughed.) But it’s Wale’s irresistible flow and ingenious turn of phrase that make the work so distinguished. Being about nothing is much harder than being about something: there are no characters, no story, just Wale, coming off. Alternatively hilarious, bracing, disturbing as well as super catchy, Wale’s opus might even help you forget that it is only 9 a.m. and there is a lot of the day left.

*Not “free” like music is “free” now to anyone with an Internet connection and a conscience-free neglect for copyright, but because Wale gave it away as a free download. U

Share this on

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 19th, 2009 at 1:37 pm and is filed under Know-How, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.