Wale spent the last week tweeting about “Love Hate Thing,” the next release from his third album, The Gifted, which drops June 25. With Folarin’s “Bad” dominating the radio, anticipation for new Wale material has been high. His latest release should temporarily sate the fans—-and maybe even quiet some of his critics.

“Love Hate Thing” (which is also being spelled “LoveHateThing” and “LoveHate Thing”—-can we get a ruling?) finds Wale addressing the thin line between love and hate while still declaring his love for D.C., a city that hasn’t always returned the favor. Getting famous hasn’t been easy for the rapper—-especially not on the Internet, where Twitter (and Wale himself) lends a loudspeaker to some of his detractors, some of whom he suspects don’t know much about his music in the first place (“You gon’ need more than Wikipedia to get to me,” he raps). But Wale sometimes makes himself an easy target: He comes across as pretty thin-skinned, launching fiery counterattacks against tweeters and sports broadcasters who lob unkind words in his direction. But Wale is onto something when he assails the crabs-in-a-barrel mentality that plagues the local hip-hop scene.

On “Love Hate Thing,” Wale doesn’t tread new musical territory, but he sounds less like the tortured, redheaded stepchild of the industry here. Could he have learned to let his success speak for him? We’ll wait till The Gifted to draw conclusions.

Listen to the track after the jump.

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