YouTube video

It’s been nearly a year, but last December’s phone conversation between Wale and a Complex editor (full disclosure: I write for the magazine) has maintained its Internet infamy. Incensed that his third album, The Gifted, was left off the magazine’s Top 50 Albums of 2013 list, the D.C. rapper phoned the publication and unleashed a stream of profanity and threats. Tensions between the two sides eased a bit over the summer, and now, a new video starring Wale and Jerry Seinfeld, released by the magazine today, pokes fun at the situation.

As the skit tells it, it was Seinfeld who convinced Wale to go nuclear on Complex.

The three-minute clip, which is supposed to have taken place prior to Wale’s angry phone call, finds Wale and the comedian discussing the best-of list in true Seinfeld style: over coffee. Wale plays the cooler head, while Seinfeld rants: “Who the hell is on this if you’re not on it?” he asks. As Wale rattles off albums that made the cut, Seinfeld freely tosses around criticism.

“Who is Jay-Z? What’s his last name? If he’s so good, what’s his last name? Is it Zimmerman?”

“Ariana Grande? I had that at a coffee shop one time. It’s coffee with cinnamon in it.”

When Seinfeld threatens to flip the table if Memphis rapper Juicy J’s album made the list, Wale defends the selection. It’s a clever flip of the phone call, where Wale alleges (less eloquently) that if his frequent collaborator’s album made Complex’s list, then The Gifted definitely should’ve. Seinfeld then goads Wale into making the phone call, encouraging him to get angry, throw the n-word around, and use phone call’s most noted threat: “Get the security ready.”

The video shows that Wale can make fun of himself, and that Complex is open to conflict resolution. It also accompanies something few in the hip-hop community ever thought they’d see: Wale, joined by Seinfeld, on the cover of the magazine’s latest issue.

Time apparently does heal all wounds. As for the ongoing rollout for The Album About Nothing, it rolls on.

Wale’s Simply Nothing tour will begin at the Fillmore Silver Spring on New Year’s Day.