Wale joins Mark Ronson's label, preps Seinfeld mixtape

Few rappers could a.) freestyle over Justice's "D.A.N.C.E." and b.) appear on a remix alongside Lil Wayne while still sounding original. Behold the genius of Wale, the Washington, D.C. MC who's taken the torch from Dischord Records to become the leading musical light in our nation's capital.

Sound like a mass of hyperbole? Super-producer Mark Ronson believes.

"There's not that much hip-hop coming out that excites me," Ronson told MTV News back in August. "Not like it was. Everything I heard from this kid, I just loved. The more and more I heard his stuff, the more excited I got."

And so the man who broke Amy Winehouse and Lily Allen to the world is giving Wale a shot at taking D.C. hip-hop to the mainstream. Ronson has signed the rapper to his Allido imprint, which recently gained wider distribution through Interscope Records.

"Wale created his own buzz," Allido co-owner Rich Kleiman told Billboard.com. "He took what he created in his hometown and became this unspoken prodigal son of Washington, D.C. Everyone from Jay-Z to RCA sat with Wale and loved him."

Prepared to have your own session with the D.C. dynamo? Hop aboard the hyperlink train to his MySpace, which includes a taste of his "Mixtape About Nothing," set for release next month. It's an album-length homage to the comedy of Jerry Seinfeld, and apparently includes a cameo from Julia Louis-Dreyfus (!) on one skit.

There are no clear Seinfeld shout-outs on lead single "Back in the Go-Go" (All Things Go has the MP3 love), but there are plenty of hockey-related references for dedicated puckheads. "Wale Ovechkin?" Hell yes. Bun B (late of UGK) and Pusha T (still of Clipse) guest on the cut.

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