If you were one of the people who followed Wale’s career before he was sucked inducted into Rick Ross’s layers of fat Maybach Music Group (like me!), you probably never expected the sensitive, poetic, fashion-conscious soul from Washington, D.C. to drop his most high profile release as a member of a record label owned by a morbidly obese man who once denied and then apologized for working as a corrections officer in a Florida prison.  But unlike most of these old school Folarin fans, I didn’t panic when I heard the first ‘Le track branded with the robotic-lady “Maybach Music” opening.  And after the release of The Eleven One Eleven Theory this past summer (previewing Ambition), any fears that Wale might undergo an MC Hammer-like image shift into a wannabe drug slinger should have been put to rest.

This is the same Wale that we’ve seen on every release since (insert the first Wale mixtape you downloaded).  He has the same strengths (clever lyrics, confident flow, unique song topics) and the same weaknesses (repetitiveness, the occasionally uninspiring beats, people wanting to call him “Whale”).  If anything, he’s hungrier than ever before, but at the same time, he’s finally found some rewards for his hard work.  On the so-appropriately-titled-for-my-point-it’s-probably-a-terrible-cliché “Focused,” he embodies the sentiment with one of the best “I get more chicks than you” lines of the year: “Fuck rap, I’m getting pussy off of Haiku.”  Is there another rapper in the world that would try to make you doubt your own skills with the opposite sex by telling you he writes Haikus?  No, no there’s not (also, I would’ve loved to have been in the room when Rick Ross first heard that line).

Ambition (which by the way I tried very hard not to name check in the line about “Focused”) is the opposite of many traditional albums because it gets significantly better as it goes along.  The disc doesn’t really spark the brain until “Chain Music,” which may sound familiar because it was already released as part of Eleven One Eleven Theory.  Even for a while afterwards the album seems destined to disappoint, but things do a sharp 180 at track 10, “Slight Work.”  It’s basically Chris Brown’s “Look At Me Now” hopping six feet off the ground on a pogo stick, tripping on acid.  And Big Sean raps on it instead of Chris Brown.  His verse makes me cackle like a hyena.

The peak of the album comes on the very next song, the title track.  Featuring fellow MMG capo Meek Mill and of course the Biggest Boss himself, “Ambition” is a regal celebration of the ascension of MMG to the top of the hip-hop game. Most of Ambition blends perfectly with the rest of the MC’s catalogue in terms of both quality and content.  It’s therefore going to be a hard pill for the O.G. Wale fans to swallow that the best moments on the disc come when he pushes himself into new territories at the urging of his MMG cohorts.  “Beautiful music paintin’ pictures that be my vision/ They gon’ love me for my ambition” Wale raps in the chorus.  No, Wale, they’re going to have to love you for tracks like this.

3.5/5 bars

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.