Focused
by Wale

Album: Ambition (2011)
Charted: 97
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Songfacts®:

  • The fourth single from Washington, DC rapper Wale's sophomore album, Ambition, is a synthy uptempo track featuring a chorus sung-rapped by Kid Cudi. It was released on October 18, 2011.
  • The song was the first time that Wale and Kid Cudi had collaborated musically since the release of "Is There Any Love?," a bonus track from the latter's Man on the Moon: The End of Day debut in 2008. The pair subsequently had a falling-out in September 2010, which, according to Wale, was due to a lack of communication. They eventually reconciled via Twitter. Wale extended the olive branch by asking Cudi to appear on this track. "I never really thought we capitalized off what we had," he told MTV News. "I sent him the beat, and we made this record I've been trying so hard to keep for myself for a long time."
  • Wale told MTV News why he wanted to get Cudi on board for this track: "It's a testament to where I am lyrically, spiritually, all of that, because this song almost never happened, as y'all know," he said. "It feels like the record that 'Is There Any Love' was supposed to be. When they kept talking about me and Cudi in every magazine, this is the record I felt like they needed to hear — the one that everybody was going to get behind, and it was going to go top 40 and not be corny. This is like the best top 40 non-cheesy record that you're ever going to hear in your life. That's how I feel about it."

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