Over 1,000 strong braved the rough autumn evening conditions while waiting outside the Sewall Center Oct. 27 to see Wale’s Ambition concert.

After finally being ushered into the arena, the audience then waited once again for the main attraction. Some Pittsburgh-area rappers opened up the show to a mixed reaction. Then Black Cobain took the stage and raised the anticipation level with a solid performance.

Finally, around 11:30 p.m., Wale appeared from the west end of the stage and the patient crowd went into a frenzy.

From that time until the lights came back on, Wale performed songs from his new album, Ambition, his debut album, Attention Deficit, along with songs from Self Made Vol. 1, The Mixtape About Nothing, and More About Nothing. He also took some time to tell some brief stories from his time at Robert Morris.

There have been mixed reactions to the concert.

Many folks were upset that Wale and his crew were late, but if there’s one thing to expect before a performance, it’s to believe that someone isn’t going to be on time. So even though it didn’t start for two hours past its projected start of 9:30 p.m., it wasn’t something to get too upset about.

It also seemed like two-thirds of the crowd were excited and hyped with every song Wale performed, while the other third seemed to be there just because it was the only thing going on at RMU.

Wale has stepped up his promotion game for Ambition thanks to the alignment with Maybach Music Group.

With his 2009 debut Attention Deficit, Interscope under-shipped the album, and he only sold 28,000 his first week. Ambition, however, is projected to sell over 180 thousand in first week sales, which is a huge accomplishment and rarity in the hip-hop game today. That being said, at this point, Attention Deficit has a higher rating of 77/100 than Ambition’s 73/100 score on Metacritic.

Ambition is available in stores now.