Wale made his first national impressions over 15 years ago, in a completely different era of modern hip hop. At the time, online mixtapes were the norm, with fans flocking to their file storage site of choice to download zip files of free music from their favorite artists, before the concept of streaming was truly even able to be fully grasped. At that point in time, Wale flooded the digital streets with content, including his 2012 mixtape, Folarin. Fast forward to this past Friday, and the D.C. rapper’s new album was unveiled to the world, titled to be a follow-up of the project that came out nine years prior. On title alone, the sound that Wale was looking to harken back to was clear.
However, nine years is a long time to wipe out, especially in Wale’s career. In that span, he had signed with Maybach Music Group, altering his sound completely, to varying levels of success depending on the landscape of the genre at the time. On Folarin II, there are certainly nods back to the young rapper who was looking to get his name out to the world, but the 2021 album never quite gets back to his previous levels of lyrical excellence. The first six tracks on the album could’ve worked well as an EP, capturing the spirit of mixtape Wale. “Poke It Out” featuring hip hop mega-star J. Cole feels like the blending of two artists that became relevant around the same time but took very different career paths. The song would’ve been the biggest single in the world if both artists stuck to the game plan that made them famous.
Folarin II stalls in the middle, however, kicking off a back half of the record that is feature-heavy and feels obligatory. Seven straight tracks feature another artist, led by “Light Years” featuring MMG head Rick Ross, and “Angles” with Chris Brown. Neither track really works with the context of the songs around them, but on star power alone, neither can be cut from the album. It’s a roadblock that takes the momentum the album was building and brings it to a dead stop. You can even hear a lack of enthusiasm in the verses that Wale puts forth on those consecutive songs. Short track “Dearly Beloved” with Jamie Foxx feels like an interlude, intending to get things back on track.
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The last five songs on Folarin II show a much more inspired Wale. While three of those songs contain features, they enhance the record, rather than Ross and Brown’s contributions. Closers “Fire & Ice” and “Beverly Blvd” are solo tracks, and reiterate what the rest of the album has already demonstrated. Not every artist can collaborate with Wale, and the ones that can elevate his streaming stats the most are the ones that end up bringing him down.
