I sorta like the new direction. It seems to be paying off dividends..obviously the MMG affiliation has helped tremendously. But frankly, I think Wale sounds quite at home on these Lex Luger-ish uptempo club anthems like "Tats on my arm" "Bait" etc. I think he'll have a lot of success with this album and at the end you've got to do what works, not just what you *think* would work. I think the mixtapes will always give him room to be experimental but mainstream wise if this is what works, I'm not mad at it at all.