​Superstar pals and Young Money labelmates Lil Wayne and Drake released two of the biggest albums of 2011—Tha Carter IV and Take Care—and both are still spinning off hits well into 2012. But a look at the singles charts reveals something odd: the biggest current hits off both albums aren't available on every copy of the album, but are instead bonus tracks from their deluxe editions. Drake's "The Motto," which features Wayne, currently tops the R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and is at No. 19 on the Hot 100 after peaking at No. 16. And Wayne's own "Mirror," featuring Bruno Mars, is Weezy's highest current solo entry on the Hot 100, at No. 68 (it also peaked at No. 16). If you go into one of the few stores still selling CDs today, though, odds are that the versions of Tha Carter IV and Take Care in the racks won't include those current hits.

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Wale
Highline Ballroom
Wednesday, November 2

Better than: watching next week, when the show will air on MySpace.

The line had packed itself six-deep, turning the long sidewalk from the Highline Ballroom to Ninth Avenue into a traffic jam of Wale fans. Or maybe just fans of events. Or maybe sheep. (Free tickets can be persuasive.) Inside, reps from Def Jam, Universal and WMG tangled around one another, laughing; there were so many Atlantic staffers, you'd think the Highline was the destination for a company field trip. In the midst of popping and locking, Hot 97 PD Ebro Darden shook Warner VP Joie Manda's hand. Not so long ago, none of these people were leaning in to kiss Wale's ring. My, how things have changed.

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Wale and the world's most famous lesbian, together.

​D.C. rapper Wale has awkwardly extricated himself from a scheduled appearance at a Memorial Day DC Black Pride event, part of a weekend described by Washington's Metro Weekly as a "gay pride day festival" for gay, lesbian, bi, and trans African-Americans. Though you wouldn't know that from the title alone, which is what organizers are claiming Wale ended up reacting to: ''What happened is that when the first blast went out that Wale was going to be at Black Pride he got cold feet," a DC Black Pride board member told the Weekly, "and his agent first said Wale wasn't available because he had to do family stuff. Then we got another e-mail saying he didn't know what kind of event this was when he agreed to it.'' In short? "They just said he couldn't do it. So it basically is homophobia rearing its ugly head once again.''

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​28,000 sold, or 5K less than Blueprint 3 last week, and, as a clearly broken up about it Byron Crawford notes, less than half of what Asher Roth managed his first week. Wale has a few theories about this.

In an otherwise lively interview with Wale ("Just Blaze don't get back to me on the regular... [laughs] Or Kanye West! People might say 'keep doin' what you're doing, let's work some time.' But when it comes down to it, it's like [sounding bored]: 'Oh. Yeah. Keep it moving...'," Flavorwire swings for the fences and asks, quote:

FW: One more question about DC. As a teenager growing up in the city, I was exposed to a lot of the Dischord bands, a lot of DIY punk. Did you experience that side of DC at all?

Wale: Not at all -- it was kind of foreign to my experience. I know it exists, but that's about it. It's still foreign to me.

To be fair, the rapper does claim earlier in the interview to be collaborating with TV on the Radio on his new record. But we might have to wait a while for that Lungfish collabo...