Wale is the latest artist to partner with Vevo for their Vevo Originals live acapella performance series, with "Ungrateful & Thankful" being the song he has chosen to strip down. The video plays out with a loose narrative: Wale enters a bodega singing to himself, like a midnight messenger messing with that "get high." Although labeled an acapella, but if you'll notice, the Mk Beats-produced beat plays lightly in the background, as if to convey a single earphone projecting the sound.
Wale continues his single-minded performance as if no one else is watching - then he fades out of view, and some unknown person starts takes up his verse. At this point, you are left to ponder the who and what. Was this person or rapper part of the arrangement? But before it reached a point of internal dialogue, Wale retakes his place and the other fellow goes back to his shopping.
Wale repeats the song's title as a chorus-mantra with arms up in repentance:
"I been ungrateful, I'm thankful (I'm thankful)
I been ungrateful, I'm thankful (I'm thankful)
I been ungrateful, I'm thankful (I'm thankful)
I been ungrateful, I'm thankful (I'm thankful)."
The whole bit ends with Wale leaving the store without making a single purchase. Wale was merely looking for a judgment-free zone to perform his favorite act of deliverance. What better place than a bodega?
Check out the other Vevo originals performed by 6lack, Queen Naija, Belly and more, at youtube.com/Vevo.