I'm there as long as Wale doesn't brag about the Redskins.

DC rapper Wale Folarin has a high opinion of himself. Listed after “Sounds Like” on his myspace page, Folarin wrote:
“Think of what a deaf person’s interpretation of very good music would sound like ...multiplied by your favorite song’s impact when you knew you loved it, multiplied by what would happen if music never existed until you heard it, add a million to that and you’d be 1/100000 of the way to understanding my sound.”

So Wale’s music is lyrically mind blowing and inspirational….like Dangerous Minds mashing with Mr. Holland’s Opus; Coolio over Gershwin; band director’s paradise indeed (hold the Astroturf). That’s the kind of impact his music has on one’s tympanic membrane: His rhymes makes them bust faster than flying at 30,000 feet above sea level without any gum to relieve the pressure. That shit be booming…or so he claims.

Rappers talk game; that’s what they do. They can only talk about weed, prison, bitches, head, Cadillacs, lip gloss, booties, Superman, dollar$, sex, and mammas so much before the discussion veers onto bigger and better things: their sheer awesomeness.



But my jealousy is getting the best of me. I have a healthy respect for the bionic wordplay of rap superstars and I’m being unfair and snarky because I find myself opening rhyming dictionaries and looking up entries for simple monosyllabic words like “cake” or “purse.” There’s no way I can perform rhyming social commentary that’s entertaining and on beat. Yet Folarin in “WALEDANCE” manages to allude to the steroid epidemic and brag about his lingual prowess in the second verse:

“And I must admit
I bring creatine to the scene
Your developmental league don’t see a team
I got a stitch lil nigga
You can see my seam…”

Or brag about his “headspace:”
I get brain everyday, I’m a know-it-all

Or drop names:
“My climate is way higher then Lindsay Lohan’s nostrils on powder
Sorry Mark I don’t want offend your sisters good friend
But when my pen get in
It pretends it’s a soul and an entity,
And it interferes and gets the best of me…”

He’s good times and I’ll be at SOB’s tomorrow at 8 PM to see if Folarin can c-walk the walk, and talk the talk. Check out www.myspace.com/wale for more info and some awesome pictures of Miss Lohan and company.

Folarin, Daniel Merriweather, Rhymefest, the great, velveted Mr. Mark Ronson, (and perhaps some pop tartlets) will be shaking things up go-go style tomorrow night. Fun times and facebook photo ops to be had indeed.