New album sounds nicer than this looks...
During his packed Thursday night show at Carrboro's Cat's Cradle for the opening night of the 2009 Signal Electronic Music Festival, D.C. rapper Wale welcomed a special guest to the stage: Wearing a leather coat and, as Wale noted, Jordan 3's, Durham's Grammy-winning producer 9th Wonder ambled onto the stage, greeting the hometown crowd before mentioning Back to the Feature, his long-awaited mixtape with Wale. Neither Wale nor 9th offered a definitive answer as to when the tape would finally be available, but the pair did reveal more details about 9th's contribution to Wale's forthcoming Interscope debut, Attention: Deficit, due later this year. The track includes Def Jam soul singer Chrisette Michele. Excited to hear that.
After Wale launched into a diatribe about saving hip-hop, 9th brought the crowd back around by "introduc[ing] a friend of mine who came out here to work with me for a coupla days." The guest, Mississippi rapper David Banner, had been lurking in the shadows at the back of the stage in a green Adidas jacket and thick-rimmed black spectacles.