Album Review: Waka Flocka Flame – Flockaveli

Much to his growing fanbase’s delight, Waka Flocka Flame released his highly anticipated Flockaveli project last week.  The mixtape-turned-album comes at the height of the emerging artist’s budding career and serves as a great introduction to both his sound and style.  Impressively, the album’s release date of October 4th is just under a year from Waka’s debut mixtape, Lebron Flocka James (released October 17, 2009).

Flockaveli sold 37,000 units in its first week, which isn’t bad in an industry that’s seeing major declines in physical CD sales.  For reference, B.o.B. topped the charts earlier this year with only 84,000 units in his first week, and more recently Bruno Mars debuted with 55,000 units sold.  In Waka’s case, however, large numbers of teenage girls weren’t rushing to the record store to support Flockaveli’s verbal violence.

Within the album’s seventeen tracks, we find club bangers, “O Let’s Do It” and “Hard In Da Paint,” as well as the Drumma Boy-produced, mainstream hit, “No Hands,” featuring Wale and Roscoe Dash.  Aside from those three records, however, the album is full of relatively unknown guest features and songs that fans have previously unheard.  This scenario, probably caused by the album starting off as a mixtape, adds a great deal of cohesiveness to the project as a whole.  Also, by putting on these relatively unknown emcees, Waka gave the album a fresh feel while guaranteeing himself the project’s spotlight.

The other cohesive element is the signature sound of Brick Squad’s Lex Luger, as the nineteen-year-old’s beats serve as more than half of the total production on Flockaveli. The music itself is emotionally charged, as you’ll see in the standout tracks below:

Waka Flocka – “Bustin’ At Em”

“Bustin’ At Em,” Flockaveli’s intro, immediately sets the mood of the project, with “Bow, Bow, Bow, Bow, Bitch I’m bustin’ at em,” being the first thing we hear on this fan favorite.  The video is pretty entertaining as well, especially when the Fozzie Bear chain starts dancing around the 3:35 spot, ha!

Waka Flocka Flame – “Bang” (Featuring YG Hootie & Slim Dunkin)

Waka, YG Hootie, and Slim Dunkin’ all sound at home over Lex Luger’s production on “Bang.”  As you may have picked up from the hook and title, this track has a gang theme.   Here’s an excerpt from Waka’s verse:

“B-L double O-D right side flag,
Nigga know me, I’m green flag,
Bitch that’s Grove Street,
Squeeze on my trigga til my gun OD…
Got the whole hood like Flock crazy,
I’ll paint your whole town red,
Make your lil brother scream soo whoop,
Make your lil sister scream soo whoop.”

Waka Flocka – “Fuck The Club Up” (Featuring Pastor Troy & Slim Dunkin)

South Side and Tay Beats handle the production on “Fuck The Club Up,” a track which will undoubtedly do just that.  Similar to Three 6 Mafia’s “Tear The Club Up,” the crunk chanting on this record will surly help to escalate small confrontations into all out fights.

Three 6’s track is now more than a decade old, and Waka is proudly helping to fill this void in hip hop by picking up where his crunk rap predecessors left off.  Also, Pastor Troy seems to have recognized Waka’s place in crunk rap, as the veteran has already collaborated with the emerging emcee on “Throw It Up Part 2” and “All The Way Crunk’d Up.”

Waka Flocka Flame – “Grove St. Party” (Featuring Kebo Gotti)

Waka Flocka’s lyrics bring us to the club with him on “Grove St. Party.”

“I stepped in the club, rolling up that loud shit,
My weed keep your security saying be quiet,
My presence starts a riot,
The girls get excited,
All them want to try it,
I’m like ‘why not try it?’
My swag, they wanna bite it,
My juice they wanna try it,
Club going stupid, when I yell O Let’s Do It…
In the club, FLEX,
After party, FLEX,
You know how we ball, SWISH,
All I know is ball, SWISH!”

Kebo Gotti also kills his verse, as he keeps the energy going with lines like, “On my Roscoe Dash shit, about to show out in this motherfucker/ My jewlery game on frost, about to snow out in this motherfucker/ Aye Flocka get them bottles, let’s pour out in this motherfucker!”

Waka Flocka Flame – “Karma” (Featuring YG Hootie, Popa Smurf, & Slim Dunkin)

“Karma” has one of the best hooks on the album, as Waka tells his lawyer to get his back because karma is starting to come back on him, ha!   Flocka expands on this idea with his first verse:

“I robbed so many niggas,
Karma came right back around,
I jumped so many niggas,
Karma came right back around,
I can see myself laying on that ground,
Blood leaking everywhere,
Yea I was scared, but I ain’t have no fear,
Better wear head gear, cause this year I’m going hard,
Put that shit on hit squad, I’m pulling all ya pussy cards,
Shout out to that fuck nigga, tried to rob me at the Wal-Mart,
Ran up on his car, had him eating shells like Mario Go Kart,
I told my lawyer get my back for all the crazy shit I did,
Broke back then, now I’m nigga rich,
Ass they be kissing it,
My money I’m not lending it, cause ya’ll ain’t never gave me shit.”

That Mario Go Kart line is hilarious!

Waka Flocka Flame – “For My Dawgs”

This reflective track is one of the very few on the project with no features.  Flocka briefly gets into his bio on the second verse:

“I was told to calm down and spit my pain on the mic,
I dropped one mixtape, six months later my career took flight,
O Let’s Do It got ‘em hype, Luv Dem Gun Sounds make em fight,
I go hard in the paint, you can tell that on sight,
I’m the mixtape prince, ain’t no nigga fuckin with me,
I’m from Clayton County Riverdale, but born in New York,
Northside Queens to be exact,
Brick Squad we a wolf pack,
I can taste these nigga’s flesh, I can smell these nigga’s fear.”

The hook on “For My Dawgs” revolves around the things that Waka would do for his dawgs: ride, live, die, rob, steal, and kill.  I wish he would have said at some point in the song, “I’mma go to jail for my dawgs, shout out to Mike Vick.”  That would have been a hilarious addition to the list!

Waka Flocka – “Fuck This Industry”

“Fuck this industry, bitch I’m in these streets.”

This song is pretty self-explanatory, as Waka vents about all the industry fuck shit that he’s had to deal with thus far.  Also, Waka Flocka recently spoke to Vibe about a range of topics, including his brother’s death which is referenced on “Fuck This Industry” as well:

“Damn, I miss my brother,
They wanna see me under,
Disrespect my monther,
Then you gonna meet my brother.”

It’ll be interesting to see how long Waka continues to opposes the major labels and what they stand for.  ”Fuck This Industry” is a great song to end the album with, as it leaves us wanting more.

Favorite Track of The Album?