This album, the long-awaited sequel to 2006\u2019s Lupe Fiasco\u2019s Food And Liquor<\/i>, finds Lupe Fiasco reclaiming his crown as rap\u2019s most outspoken, anti-establishment voice. That\u2019s not to say that his last release, 2011\u2019s Lasers<\/i>, wasn\u2019t solidly listenable. But dogged by label issues (the disc was held up for two and a half years by Atlantic, which demanded creative control and hit singles), Lasers <\/i>ended up being released with a shiny pop sensibility that just didn\u2019t allow Lupe to shine at the best of his ability.<\/p>\n
Enter Food And Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album Part 1. <\/i>Just by its title alone, you can tell that Lupe is fired up and ready to make waves. These songs were actually recorded during the hold-up of Lasers, <\/i>and the material is an interesting intersection between the incisive wordplay of his earlier albums and the cleaner, more overt stylings of Lasers. <\/i><\/p>\n
Starting from the opening notes of \u201cStrange Fruition,\u201d it\u2019s clear that this is Lupe reclaiming his essence. With vigorous, incisive lyrics and an eerily muted, Auto-Tuned hook, it\u2019s an ominous and assertive entry into Lupe\u2019s vision of our world, for better or for worse (usually worse; this track is the definition of disillusionment, whether it\u2019s with systematic racism and oppression or with the shallowness of hip-hop culture). However, as with some of the other songs here, the beats aren\u2019t fleshed out enough, often taking a backseat to the wordplay. It\u2019s nothing too detrimental, but I would have loved to see a little more variation, some more musical exploration to really match the creativity of the lyrics, especially since Lupe\u2019s writing would shine nonetheless.<\/p>\n
The momentum here is unrelenting, at least through the first half of the album (more on that to come). The saxophone-infused \u201cAround My Way (Freedom Ain\u2019t Free)\u201d is a breathless litany \u201cof the extremes of America\u2019s dream,\u201d calling attention to everything from Ghana to Wounded Knee to South Central \u2013 to an endlessly replicating culture of suffering, a world gone mad. It\u2019s all sobering to listen to, and Lupe\u2019s delivery \u2013 often without too much inflection \u2013 has a way of worming its way inside your mind, making you digest the songs as more than just vehicles for a catchy hook. Just check out \u201cAudubon Ballroom,\u201d which explores the use of the N-word with a fascinating depth, along with some powerful instrumentation: rising synths paired with ferocious drums, all giving way to a trickling piano riff. <\/p>\n
Still, that\u2019s just a prelude to what I consider the album\u2019s most interesting track, \u201cBitch Bad,\u201d which deals with how gender roles begin to take root, ultimately morphing our sense of identity. In just one stanza, Lupe shows just how unparalleled he is in rap today \u2013 really, in all of music: \u201cDisclaimer: this rhymer, Lupe, is not usin\u2019 \u2018bitch\u2019 as a lesson \/ But as a psychological weapon \/ To set it in your mind and really mess with your conceptions \/ Discretions, reflections, it\u2019s a clever misdirection.\u201d \u201cBitch Bad\u201d is just so unlike anything in our musical landscape that it demands repeat listens. <\/p>\n
And that\u2019s just the first half of the disc. The second gets a little patchier, though that\u2019s generally the case when the runtime is a full hour and twenty minutes. \u201cHeart Donor\u201d (feat. Poo Bear) is all-out cheese, while \u201cHow Dare You\u201d (feat. Bilal) sounds straight off Lasers <\/i>with its romancing ways (the hook \u201cYou shine like the lights of Las Vegas\u201d is all sorts of ridiculous, mongering for radio play in a way that it seems like Lupe would disparage). The only moment in which mass appeal actually overlaps with substance is \u201cBattle Scars,\u201d which gets an assist from Guy Sebastian; with a soaring, emotive chorus and Lupe delivering his verses from the heart instead of just going through the motions, it\u2019s no wonder this song earned him his first number one single.<\/p>\n
The album reaches its close with \u201cHood Now,\u201d which celebrates black culture with a deceptively lighthearted tone and even reaches out to Lupe\u2019s frequent target, President Obama (\u201cThe White House, you already know \/ It\u2019s hood now\u201d). <\/p>\n
Despite an unfortunate patch of the disc in which all the less vibrant, rich material is lumped together, for the most part, Food And Liquor II <\/i>is a largely cohesive statement from the ever-polarizing Lupe. His writing is nothing short of resplendent, tackling with passion and dignity areas of our culture that are often left resigned to the shadows. This is an album that demands to be thoroughly explored, questioned, and incorporated.\u00a0 Keep your eyes out for Part Two, <\/i>which is set to be released in 2013.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":31137,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[8721],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-42823","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-lupe-fiasco","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42823"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=42823"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=42823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}