Album Review: Wale- Ambition

Average Rating: 6.4/10

Overall Rating: 4.6/10

         1.  Don’t Hold Your Applause (5.5/10)

         2. Double M Genius (5.5/10)

         3. Miami Nights (6/10)

         4. Legendary (5/10)

         5. Lotus Flower Bomb Ft. Miguel (7.5/10)

         6. Chain Music (6/10)

         7. Focused Ft. Kid Cudi (8.5/10)

         8. Sabotage Ft. Lloyd (7.5/10)

         9. White Linin’ Ft. Ne-Yo (6/10)

         10. Slight Work Ft. Big Sean (8/10)

         11. Ambition Ft. Meek Mill & Rick Ross (6/10)

         12. Illest Bitch (7/10)

         13. No Days Off (5.5/10)

         14. DC or Nothing (9.5/10)

         15. The Way Ft. Rick Ross & Jeremih (4/10)

         16. Bait (4/10)

         17.  First Class Ft. B.o.B & Big Sean (6.5/10)

         18. Bad Girls Club Ft. J. Cole (8/10)

    It’s not common for an artist to switch record labels after their debut album, not many people do it because it’s mainly either not contracted or after a successful debut album the artist would go for another with that label. Wale is a part of that group of artists, his debut album “Attention Deficient” was pretty good and it was released under Interscope, but I guess he needed a more hip-hop based label, so he signed to Rick Ross’s Maybach Music Group, and planned to release his sophomore album, “Ambition” under the label, and now that Ambition is out, how did it do under a different record label?

    Ambition had a fair concept in terms of originality. It was mainly about Wale simply showing off himself and his skill, it was basically nothing less than a cocky album, and personally, I think as a concept it’s original, but at the same time it’s a really poor concept to choose for an album, mainly because in a concept like that would have nothing to really to build on, and nothing to really talk about out of the ordinary, but who knows, only if the music’s good, the concept won’t matter as much as it normally does.

    There isn’t really much to talk about in this album. A lot of the music here is what I would call ‘bubblegum rap’ which is simply simple, effortless hip-hop music. A lot of tracks on the album had very familiar production as other mainstream pure hip-hop songs and mainly a lot of effortless lyric, but there were some tracks that had concepts though, and honestly, I wish he had more of those songs, because honestly, they were easily the best songs on the album.

   Ambition had quite a few tracks with concepts on the album. One of those tracks was “Lotus Flower Bomb”, which was a love song, and what made it stand out were its clever lyrics, slow beat and strong hook. “Focused” was a track about really smoking weed and coming off ideas through smoking, it had strong enough lyrics, great production, and a very strong hook by Kid Cudi. A third track with a concept was “Sabotage” which was about a girl who ruins her relationship with a man to go for another man, it had a great mood and feeling, but at the same time it was really repetitive. A fourth example of a track that had a concept was “Ambition”, which was a decent track that was about reaching goals and the feelings that Wale gets on his way to his goal. A fifth example was “Illest Bitch Alive” which was a song where Wale was actually parsing his sister, but due to the name in a very awkward way, the song was good, but he could have had better lyrics for this particular track though, and a sixth example of a track that had a concept was “DC or Nothing” which was easily the best track on the album, it had excellent lyrics, the mood was outstanding, and Wale’s love for Washington DC really showed in this track.

    As for the rest of the album, every track was pretty much the same, while there was no particular poor track or even any particular great track here; there was two tracks that are worth mentioning. “Slight Work” had an excellent party mood, it was clever lyrically even with its poor concept, and both flows Wale’s and Sean’s both proved to be very powerful. Another notable track on Ambition was “Bad Girls Club” which featured J. Cole, the production was a clear and definite standout, and to go with that, the track had strong flows from both artists on the track, Wale and J. Cole.

     Ambition was overall nothing but a fair album. It certainly wasn’t as good as Attention Deficient thanks to its poor concept and poor expansion towards his music in general. Ambition did have some tracks that had real concepts and some memorable moments, but honestly I think Ambition was just an album for the shelves, It won’t be remember, it will be quickly and easily forgotten, but who’s fault is it, was it Wale’s fault? Was it the label’s fault? Or was it the fans’ fault? Who knows, we have to wait for his third album to tell.