Food & Liquor

Lupe Fiasco – the savior of hip hop music

During the entire year a young and obscure Chicago rapper Lupe Fiasco was constantly warming up more and more increasing interest to his outstanding person. First he appeared with his hot cameo on Kanye West's Late Registration, then he teased the public with the Kick, Push hit single which he seasoned a bit later with video. Then there was an unofficial compilation of his songs called Touch The Sky and it’s bootleg copies, which ware spread among newly won excited fans. So, by the time of his debut album was to come, Lupe Fiasco has managed to gain a pretty intrigue reputation. And at last, after a year of playing with audience, Lupe released his first full-length album Food & Liquor to satiate the public's appetite for novelty. Even without knowing who Lupe Fiasco is, just looking at the album it is possible to understand that this album is worth listening if for no other reason than a fact that debut album released at Atlantic Records can not be a bad one, this appears from a trite capitalistic logic. And taking into consideration that people are already expecting him to be the savior of hip-hop music, this album’s value increases twice as much any other good Major label debut.

Push, Kick is the leading album’s song

The song that will draw Lupe Fiasco from the underground up to the mainstream arena is for sure album’s leading track Kick, Push. This track is dedicated to a skateboard culture in which Lupe was engaged in the past. Though it’s version was released before the album’s coming up it couldn’t get a wide spread, but now when big show business guys are in it, Lupe will get a promotion on a scale that his talent deserves. The album's sound, produced in large part by the 1st and 15th Productions duo Soundtrakk and Prolyfic, is clearly influenced by mentioned above Kanye West's Late Registration, though a few tracks here were produced by The Neptunes, Needlez and Mike Shinoda. Much of Food & Liquor is draped in stuttering, chopped strings samples and blaring guitar. Of course the main figure on the album is Lupe Fiasco. He offers the listener heaps of catchy hooks and original finds in his lyrics and the way he performs this. The best songs on the album that represent his unique style are The Cool and I Gotcha, but the special thing is Hurt Me Soul where the spirit of the entire album is placed.

Lupe Fiasco has got his unique style

Still only 25 years old, Fiasco sounds wise beyond his age, rarely raises his voice, projects different emotions with slight inflections, and is confident enough to openly admit his inspirations. While having traces of numerous MCs in his rhymes he possesses his own unique style. Lupe’s rhymes are full of microscopic detail, and he rhymes about incredibly specific subjects on a track-by-track basis. Like he did on The Instrumental: speaking about some “box”, he never names the thing directly but giving it a whole set of absolutely different comparisons and attributes. So it is up to a listener how to name that “box”. The subjects he takes for his songs shift from common rap bombastics to hallucinating ideas and every time the idea is given through his specific view upon things. Each track represents the essence of a unique thought, as opposed to mere confluence of a beat and some rhymes. Lupe is carefully choosing which beats to pause at and which syllables to either emphasize or elongate. This is a man who takes the craft of hip-hop lyricism very seriously.