The Artistic Integrity

Kicking it back to a Wale classic in honor of "The Album About Nothing."

BYPatrick Lyons
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This week marks the culmination of Wale's Seinfeld-referencing release series, with The Album About Nothing impacting after a long wait between it and preceding tapes The Mixtape About Nothing and More About Nothing. To celebrate this, we're throwing it back to 2008 with "The Artistic Integrity," a cut from that first tape. 

Featuring some surefire hallmarks of an early Wale song -- a Seinfeld dialog sample and go-go-style live drums -- this track had the D.C. native meditating on fame and its results on music. As he's progressed quite a bit in terms of popularity and sound in the seven years that followed this track, it's interesting to look back and apply his words to his own career.

Quotable Lyrics

When life gets sour know I still devour
I remember Peabody mice crawling up the shower
Now it's motorbikes, warm nights out in Maui
And white bitches and light skinned women be smilin'
DC star, a PG legend
MoCo phenomenon holmes I'm all of it
Yeah, they all love it though critique Jon Lovitz
And whack hoes hatin' on key out in public


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About The Author
<b>Feature Writer</b> Ever since he borrowed a copy of "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below" from his local library, Patrick's love affair with hip-hop has been on an extended honeymoon phase. He now contributes features to HNHH, hoping to share his knowledge and passion with this site's broad audience. <strong>Favorite Hip Hop Artists:</strong> André 3000, Danny Brown, Kanye, Weezy, Gucci Mane, Action Bronson, MF DOOM, Ghostface Killah <strong>Favorite Producers:</strong> Lex Luger, Kanye (again), RZA, Young Chop, Madlib, J Dilla, Hudson Mohawke