Weird video - Wale

So according to this Wired interview there's this rapper named Wale who thinks he's gonna be the next big thing - he's making an album with Pharrell, Just Blaze, and DJ Premier, executive produced by Amy Winehouse's producer. He's also been making a mixtape for free download called The Mixtape About Nothing -- inspired by Seinfeld. Apparently inspired by the dialog and characters in the show. And Julia Louis-Dreyfus is a guest. He also says he owns 325 pairs of shoes, mostly "Jordan 3s, all three colors. Jordan 4s, Jordan 5s and Jordan 11s." And he thinks he's friends with Lindsay Lohan. So this guy's pretty detestable, right? Or at least trying a little too hard? But then here's a video he made - him rapping over Justice's 2007 hit D.A.N.C.E. It's a really weird video.



First, there's good things here - the moving through legs opening reminiscent of this classic vid. There's a Star Wars reference and a Seinfeld reference, and a fucking Harold and the Purple Crayon reference. The effects are generally cool but really strange, like having a some kid jump over a 1 foot tall Wale on a skateboard. Also, some of the lyrics are so nonsensical they're funny, and he makes fun of rappers at the end.

There's a lot of bad things - mostly, the song sucks. His voice is way louder than the rest of the music, which gets painful when he tries to sing along to the Justice song. And he doesn't use the good parts of the Justice song, only the backing beat during one section and one of the bridges. Again, the lyrics are pretty nonsensical (it may help to listen to the uncensored version). So pretty underwhelming as a rapper.

I really do like this genre of video, though, where it's just a guy standing in front of a green screen and they don't try to put him somewhere boring, they put him inside a constantly changing cheesy computer paradise. Another one like this was the Get Silly video, and of course the Fat Boys made an early prototype.