On The Mixtape About Nothing, Wale emerges fully-formed as a rapper and as a thinker, a lightning-witted, irreverent guy blessed with both an infectious swagger and a sound moral compass- twin gifts that enable him to accomplish some of the mixtape's most audacious feats. 'I ain't a street nigga, but my niggas is some,' he rhymes on 'The End Credits', adding later, 'I'm not a Muslim my grandmomma was one.' He likens stylistic comparisons to Lil Wayne and Lupe Fiasco to being 'locked in a box,' lamenting, 'We apples and oranges, but everybody pair us.' The endless self-positioning might seem obsessive, but Wale instinctively understands that categorization means the death of a three-dimensional personality, and he is determined not to be easily dismissed.

Throughout the tape, Wale displays an almost Road Runner-like ability to evade classification. 'An iPod mind to you Walkman guys,' he calls himself at one point, and the adeptness of the rhyme matches the neatness of the distinction.

rapper Wale (pronounced Wah-LAY, as he carefully points out early on) is all too aware of these potential pitfalls, and on his expertly crafted, exuberantly witty, and endlessly surprising new Mixtape About Nothing, he makes an art out of high-stepping lightly through a minefield. In short, things just ain't the same for (non)gangstas, and any rapper who finds himself uncomfortable inventing a storied criminal past has learned to step carefully.

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