When Lupe made his debut on Kanye West’s, “Touch the Sky,” I had no idea he would go on to drop the best solo Hip Hop record since Jay Z’s “The Blueprint.”
Every element you need for a classic is there: ill beats, sick flows and thought-provoking lyrics – Food & Liquor has it all. I don’t like to declare an album ‘classic’ until I’ve had it for at least two years to see if it stands the test of time. However, this album has shot to my top three this year and may just have a place in my Greatest of All Time list.
A devout Muslim, Lupe opens the album with a spoken-word artist and an Arabic prayer. “Real,” the first song, acts as the album’s mission statement. Lupe raps, “I gotta give ’em something real, something they can recognize something they can feel.”
The first three tracks are cool, but the record really kicks in to gear with the first single, “Kick, Push.” This track is total Hip Hop perfection and shows his strength as a storyteller, streaming together the escapist tale of a skater. He effortlessly captures the feeling of being an outsider, without sounding whiny. The beat has these dramatic horns and strings backed by a classic “boom-bap” beat. Together, it’s a seamless marriage of beats and rhymes.
The next track is the Neptunes-produced, “I Gotcha,” which is vaguely reminiscent of the Tribe Called Quest classic, “Check the Rhyme.” In the song, Lupe declares, “From the runner of the FNF crew, come in Hip Hop we’ve come to resurrect you.” He attacks the beat with dope wordplay and a ridiculous flow. The result is outstanding.
Another highlight, the “Instrumental,” finds him rapping over a track produced by Mike Shinoda (Linkin Park, Fort Minor). The wordplay here is nothing short of impeccable. It’s a dark tale of a man, deeply disturbed by mass media and again he finds the right flow to depict the emotion of the song.
I don’t want to be redundant, but this kid is doing everything right. He is well on his way to becoming one of the greats. What makes it even better is that he does it without succumbing to the materialism that’s so prevalent in most rap. His music has a message without being preachy.
The only problem I have with the album is the outro: it clocks in at whopping 12 minutes and 13 seconds. That time could’ve been used to give us more tracks, but when you’ve done everything else so well I can forgive this one misstep.
Overall, Lupe Fiasco put together a collection of songs that represent everything good in Hip Hop. I know that sounds a bit overboard, but it’s true. Between this and The Roots’ album, “Game Theory,” Hip Hop lovers have enough good music to last them for the rest of the year. I can only hope that these albums start a trend, so that we can finally see the return of integrity in mainstream Hip Hop.
