{"id":3962,"date":"2021-11-01T01:00:59","date_gmt":"2021-11-01T06:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/read.streamapse.com\/?p=3962"},"modified":"2026-04-13T16:59:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T21:59:24","slug":"wale-samples-abound-as-the-d-c-rapper-hands-out-flowers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/?p=3962","title":{"rendered":"Wale – Samples Abound As The D.C. Rapper Hands Out Flowers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Samples have long been part of the lifeblood of Wale’s catalog, but on Folarin II, they are prominent, offering insights about who and what has inspired the D.C. rapper. \u201cI give flowers to my inspirations, my OGs, my contemporaries, my peers, and myself,\u201d he tells Apple Music’s Nadeska of the album, his seventh. The three lead singles were the first hint. \u201cAngles,\u201d \u201cDown South,\u201d and \u201cPoke It Out\u201d all are built around the familiarity of their samples: Diddy\u2019s 2002 \u201cI Need a Girl (Pt. 1),\u201d Mike Jones’ 2004 \u201cStill Tippin’,\u201d and Q-Tip’s 1999 \u201cVivrant Thing,\u201d respectively. Each one is designed to play on nostalgia, while also spotlighting Wale’s dexterity.<\/p>\n

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Stream Folarin II<\/a><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Other gems include the regret-tinged \u201cDearly Beloved,\u201d which features a dazzling loop of Jamie Foxx’s performance on his eponymous TV show, and the flirtatious \u201cCaramel,\u201d which functions as an homage to legendary producer (and D.C. native) Chucky Thompson, who died in August of 2021 from COVID complications. \u201cHe produced the original ‘Caramel Kisses’ by Faith [Evans],\u201d Wale says. \u201cI just want to send a special shout-out to him, because our last conversation was about that record and sampling it, so that’s a special piece to the project for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

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But for as much as Wale (deservedly) places himself in dialogue with greats past and present, the thing that separates him remains his ability to bring the lively sound of his hometown to wider audiences. It’s in the subtle go-go textures of \u201cMore Love\u201d and the outright bounce beat of \u201cJump In,\u201d as the rapper glides across the percussion. Folarin II may have been made as a way for Wale to dole out the respect he’s craved for himself, but it’s high time to give it back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Samples have long been part of the lifeblood of Wale’s catalog, but on Folarin II, they are prominent, offering insights about who and what has inspired the D.C. rapper. \u201cI give flowers to my inspirations, my OGs, my contemporaries, my peers, and myself,\u201d he tells Apple Music’s Nadeska of the album, his seventh. The three […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3963,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[687,688,689,307,690],"class_list":["post-3962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-abound","tag-flowers","tag-hands","tag-rapper","tag-samples"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3962"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6565,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3962\/revisions\/6565"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}