Too little 'Ambition'

Wale’s second album, “Ambition,” will probably make you lose faith in hip-hop.

This is another example of Maybach Music corrupting once-socially aware rappers. The beats are incredibly overproduced. It’s as though after album’s completion, Wale’s mentor, Rick Ross, woofed that it wasn’t enough, so the producers made a list of all the coolest sounds they could think of and put them into a box. That’s the overbearing feeling you get when you listen to this album.

At the same time, Wale is not innocent, either. To his credit, his wordplay is outstanding. He’s smart, which comes through in his metaphors. But it’s disappointing that the guy who made “The Mixtape About Nothing” could be responsible for such careless songs as “Bait” and “Illest Bitch.” Multiple times, Wale claims to be a deep poet-rapper, but just saying it doesn’t make it true.

This album is what happens when your ambition for relevance overshadows your message.