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  1. Tracks
  2. Wale
  3. Attention Deficit
  4. Diary

TRACK

Wale

Diary

Release date: 10th November 2009

From Attention Deficit
Spotify
More on Wale

About This Track

Wale builds 'Diary' around a sample of Yann Tiersen's 'La Valse d'Amélie', a delicate piano motif that frames a conversation between a man trying to prove his constancy and a woman armoured by the hurt of previous relationships. The track is intimate and unresolved, its narrator caught between understanding her caution and frustration at being held accountable for wounds he did not inflict. Marsha Ambrosius anchors the chorus, her voice moving through cycles of despair and determination, the repetition of "I'll keep on moving" suggesting both survival and stasis. Wale's verses shift perspective across the song, tracing the inheritance of trauma through generations and the impossible arithmetic of trying to love someone whose defences have calcified. The song does not resolve the tension between empathy and resentment; it simply holds both, the piano continuing beneath.

"Diary" is a track by Wale, from the album Attention Deficit, released 10th November 2009. Full lyrics are available below.

About the Artist

Wale

Wale

Lyrics

Diary

[Intro]

If I told you I wanted to talk to you

You know, you think I'm tryna holla at you

And maybe I am, but

You wouldn't hear me out anyways, would you?

[Verse 1: Wale]

Rather lose love than to move on

Never knowing what it feel like

Short days, long nights

By the phone, no call

Need a clear mind 'cause I been blind, got me goin' down that road

Heart made of stone

Far away from home

Black woman, you cold

Every problem that you ever had with another man I gotta face

Started off on thin ice

I'm still here but I can't skate

Slow sink, can't breathe, no remorse, don't think

Listen to your friend, get another man for a minute, then repeat

Queen, you deserve the title

But she rejects what I give, while she nurse the wounds by them

Tried them, didn't work

Got impossible standards

Nothing I'ma do is gon' work

Diary of a black girl

[Chorus: Marsha Ambrosius]

I wonder why, I sit and cry

Wish I could shed all these tears

I'm down and out

I'll keep on moving and tryna get out

I don't know how to move on

Where I went wrong

I wish I could live with no fear

So down and out

I'll keep it moving and tryna get out

Somehow

[Verse 2: Wale]

Raised by a momma who, who

Hates her baby father so, so

She don't have a problem with, with

Saying fuck a nigga quick, quick

I'm just tryna be the one who never run, but you run away from me

Your girlfriend's man cheat, cheat

Why not me the same thing

She can't see in me, what I see in her

This pain she inherit can't be reversed

I can't even stay living in the shade of all the motherfuckers that played ya

The irony in that is that I ain't even that, but you put it in those pages

Wife, you deserve the label but, but you been hurt before so you sore and don't feel your able

Tried them, didn't work

Got impossible standards, nothing I ever do works

Diary of a black girl

[Chorus: Marsha Ambrosius]

I wonder why, I sit and cry

Wish I could shed all these tears

I'm down and out

I'll keep on moving and tryna get out

I don't know how to move on

Where I went wrong

I wish I could live with no fear

So down and out

I'll keep it moving and tryna get out

Somehow

[Verse 3: Wale]

See, all I ever wanna do is be relevant

Just tell me that I ever meant anything

Or that you could ever see me and you in another light

But it's like the dark women endures the darkest nights by the wrong man

And mostly all of them have made you somewhat incapable of a first impression

What I do is I channel my aggression with no cable or antenna

Just intentions to impress you, if capable

Hoping that the material possessions can materialize to a better you

Cars, nothing I drive can drive you out of this frame of mind

With such an ugly picture in it and

Money, nothing I buy can buy me more time for your ears to tell your heart to listen to it

Diamonds, a girl's best friend is what they say, but believe me with the right allegiance shorty, you gon' shine anyways

And every day that goes by is a couple more lines in her diary

The day before is better than the present

So anyone presented in her presence endures these life sentences

No key for release

No reason to be around

Her minds in the clouds

She writes it all down

In her diary

[Chorus: Marsha Ambrosius]

I wonder why, I sit and cry

Wish I could shed all these tears

I'm down and out

I'll keep on moving and tryna get out

I don't know how to move on

Where I went wrong

I wish I could live with no fear

So down and out

I'll keep it moving and tryna get out

Somehow

Lyrics provided by LRCLIB

View full lyrics page →

Track details

From Attention Deficit

2009
Listen
Album
Attention Deficit
Attention Deficit
Wale
Release year
2009
  1. —Diary
  2. —Mama Told Me
  3. —Prescription
  4. —The Motivation (B Right)
  5. —Triumph
  6. —TV in the Radio
  7. —Beautiful Bliss
  8. —Contemplate
  9. —Pretty Girls
  10. —Shades
  11. —90210
  12. —Center of Attention
  13. —My Sweetie
  14. —Mirrors
  15. —Let It Loose

More from Wale

Albums & EPs

Wow... That's Crazy
Wow... That's Crazy
2019
My Love (feat. Major Lazer, WizKid & Dua Lipa) [Remixes] - Single
My Love (feat. Major Lazer, WizKid & Dua Lipa) [Remixes] - Single
2017
Ambition
2011
Free Lunch
Free Lunch
MY PYT
MY PYT
All Star Break Up
All Star Break Up

Explore

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  6. Blanco
  7. Caramel
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  9. Conundrum
  10. Corner Bottles

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Credits

Production & Engineering

Writer
Marsha Ambrosius, Wale
Producer
Sleepwalkers
Guitar
Stephen Breuhaus
Mixing Engineer
Șerban Ghenea
Recording Engineer
Derek Pacuk
READ MORE ABOUT WALEREAD MORE ABOUT WALE
READ MORE ABOUT WALEREAD MORE ABOUT WALE

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