Wale’s Seinfeld-Inspired LP Debuts at No. 1
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
Mazel tov to Wale and co-conspirator comedian Jerry Seinfeld! The rapper’s newest record, “The Album About Nothing,” inspired by the canonical sitcom of the ‘80s and ‘90s featuring Seinfeld himself, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart this week.
Between physical copy purchases and digital sales and streams, The Album About Nothing totaled 100,000 movements in the week ending April 5, according to music sales measurement service Nielsen Music. Throughout the album, Seinfeld contributes both original and sampled spoken-word segments. In fact, The Album About Nothing’s newest single “The White Shoes” opens with a monologue by Seinfeld about when a lady once stopped him on the street to tell him, “I’m glad you’re stickin’ with the white shoes.” Wale chuckles in the background, and as the synthesizer keyboard chords begin to fade, he launches into his own narrative about bein’ fly in white sneakers.
The unlikely pair has actually worked together since Wale’s 2008 effort, “The Mixtape About Nothing,” and their friendship reached the critical masses through Complex’s 2014 cover story. That collection of samples and tracks on “The Mixtape” used Seinfeld episode titles as inspiration and actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who played Elaine Benes, even had a shout-out on tape.
Wale’s fourth studio album The Album About Nothing is available now via Maybach/Atlantic, yada yada yada.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
