Wale Gives the Street a Festivus Treat With Seinfeld-Inspired Mixtape

Emerging rapper Wale is mining some unconventional material for his upcoming mixtape. Rather than rapping about dealing cocaine (like the Re-Up Gang's We Got It For Cheap, Volume 3) or aping Jay-Z (Jim Jones' Harlem's American Gangster), Wale is gonna be spitting rhymes about Kramer, Newman, the Soup Nazi and the rest of the Seinfeld crew on his street-bound The Mixtape About Nothing. The Washington, D.C. rapper boasts, "I think I've seen every episode, like, thirty times," a feat he shares with the entire population of Long Island. On one cut, dubbed "Hype," the rapper utilizes a long sample from one of Jerry's opening-credit comedy routines. But the biggest revelation is that Wale somehow successfully corralled Elaine Benes herself, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, to lend a brief skit to the mixtape. No street date has been set yet, but that hasn't prevented us from already dreaming up possible song titles. "Mr. Bookman?" "The Master of My Domain?" "The Bro vs. the Mansiere?" This mixtape might be the best, Jerry. The best.

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Song Stories

“(We're Not) The Jet Set”

George Jones and Tammy Wynette | 1973

George Jones and Tammy Wynette were still married when they recorded the tongue-in-cheek "(We're Not) The Jet Set." The lyrics, written by Nashville songwriter Bobby Braddock, who also penned Wynette's "D-I-V-O-R-C-E" and Jones' "He Stopped Loving Her Today," make fun of the good life by declaring, "We're not the Jet Set/We're the old Chevrolet set." Braddock recalled that while writing the song, he needed the name of a city that evened out the rhyme he had with "Riviera" and "Missourah." “I got out a Rand McNally atlas," he said. "In the first part are the maps. The last part is an alphabetical listing of cities. I wanted a rustic, small-time sound. I went to the listing for Missouri. And I found 'Festus.' I loved the sound of it."

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