By the end of Wale’s headlining performance at New York City’s Highline Ballroom, the point was made. Hip-hop’s future is in safe hands and is no longer dictated by tired tropes such as where a rapper is from and where he represents. Wale, the MC from a city that’s a five hour drive down on the I-95 from New York, owned the Highline Ballroom like it was his own backyard.
Equipped with his hometown band, UCB and their lead singer, Tre, Wale ripped through a catalog of songs, to which the crowd responded by rapping along with him word for word. Dressed in a black knitted Polo tee, black pants, and a black and red Chicago Bulls fitted, Wale had no special effects to back up his show, and frankly, he didn’t need any.
Wale performs ‘The MC’
The thing about rappers these days is the live show is their bread and butter, and so. at some point, fatigue will be a factor; especially for someone like Wale who on any given day can be found on an Internet video performing somewhere around the world. But the only factor Wale had to deal with was a problematic cab driver he claimed made him late for his show. But all was forgiven and practically forgotten when he went into his first song, ‘The MC’, a brand new cut from his recently released mixtape, More About Nothing.
NEXT PAGE: MORE ABOUT THE SHOW AND WALE PERFORMS WITH J.COLE
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Momentum established, Wale wasted no time building off the crowd’s energy, and went straight into ‘Mirrors’ from his Attention Deficit album. More Attention Deficit cuts followed, including ‘World Tour’ and the album’s first single, ‘Chillin’, which featured UCB’s lead singer, Tre, taking the place of Lady GaGa, who is featured on the recorded version.
Those who have followed Wale’s career closely are more than familiar with Tre’s voice and his talent, but last night, those still wondering who that singer Wale was always featuring on his albums, woke up and realized Tre is Wale’s secret weapon if there ever was one. While Wale brought out some pretty big names to help liven up his set, including J. Cole for ‘Beautiful Bliss’, it was Tre who played the role of Pippen to Wale’s Jordan. The short, stalky singer from the D.C. area should be a star, and as graciously as he let Wale lead the show, whenever the moment was there for the taking, Tre took full advantage.
