On the Cover: Lupe Fiasco
Lupe Fiasco (real name Wasalu Muhammad Jaco) is a young rapper from the Windy City of Chicago, famous for his independant works via his own record company, First and Fifteenth (and now Atlantic). He caught major attention with his first song, Kick, Push, a rap song about the life of a skateboarder and his eventual falling in love with a girl that shared his interests. He released two albums before Lasers: Lupe Fiasco's Food and Liquor and The Cool, which were met by quite the acclaim from those jaded on the Dark Age of hip-hop still prevalent today. Lasers was to be his final album (and was supposed to be called L.U.P.End as referenced in many of the songs on The Cool) but due to internal problems with Atlantic Records had a change of plans.A great guy through and through, and one of the best examples of Muslim musicians around. So now we get into the meat of the album:
Inside the Case: Tracklist
1) Letting Go (feat. Sarah Green)Right away we notice a substantial change: while his previous two albums kept towards a more streamlined hip-hop vibe, we're already getting signs of an R&B bend to it, not only in the emphasized vocal effects but the beats as well. The chorus is pretty awesome, but the featurette doesn't do too much here, which is rather sad - she sounds like she has a great voice. Oh, and we get an album name drop! Good start.
2) Words I Never Said (feat. Skylar Grey)
The second single released for this album, and brings in the piano for a bit of flair. The lyrics in here... um ... well, I've never been a fan of super-political songs, and it's obvious from the beginning that this song is one - when your first words are "I think the war on terror is a bunch of bullshit" it's difficult to think otherwise. Throw in some gunshots to emphasize the point, a shot against budget cuts, unimportant TV, jabs on Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh - this is unfortunately Political Song 101. I don't necessarily disagree with the man's point of view, but it's still a song that I just can't care about. On top of it, he also raps about his Muslim faith and the problems surrounding the views thereof by other people, and again, we've heard this kind of stuff before. It's to the point where the song title has no meaning - what were the "Words I Never Said"? This song is all about him complaining to his audience about jerks in the world. The lyrics are well-done, but - repeating myself here - I just don't care.
3) Till I Get There
The beat is a bit simplified, but we're past the uncomfortableness and the digital overemphasization, into some good ol' rap with a man who knows his lyricism - storyboard rap is his bread and butter, and it shows. A simple song, but boy was it needed.
4) I Don't Wanna Care Right Now (feat. MDMA)
Wow, does this sound like a Sean Paul song. Beat's rather catchy, and Lupe's flow is quite solid here. We're also introduced to the Matthew Santos of the album; Santos was a prominent featurette in The Cool, and was a Filipino singer who did exceptionally well with his collaborations. MDMA (who's autotuned here) doesn't really match up, though I'll tell you in advance this is one of his better efforts on this album - you'll see what I mean in a bit.
5) Out Of My Head (feat. Trey Songz)
Yes: Trey Songz. I had my doubts, but he does alright here. The beat's quite bombastic, a lot of influence from the keyboard - really cements this as more of an R&B song (with or without Songz's influence). Hard to really judge the song from this point - it's alright. Trey and Lupe don't really do anything wrong, the beat's quite good; it's alright.
6) The Show Goes On
Modest Mouse fans? This is your rap song. It samples one of their most famous songs, Float On, and Fiasco treats it quite well, making a fantastic chorus out of it while supporting it with solid lyrics. One hell of an anthem, and really helped to present the album to fans - this was the first single of the album. The show goes on, alright.
7) Beautiful Lasers (2 Ways)
... ball dropped. Some might think differently, but my God do I hate the intro to this song. MDMA's voice is butchered six ways from Sunday with a combination of autotune and whatever other effects they threw on it. It's the combination of effects that occur when MDMA says "trapped in" that just make me cringe. The guitar solo (?) at the end even sounds chopped up. Lupe's lyrics are quite good, but the beat is rather slow and just kinda lumbers on. This is the song I was talking about back in I Don't Wanna Care Right Now, and goodness gracious do I not want to care, either.
8) Coming Up (feat. MDMA)
Sorry for that, folks - apparently someone derped at the controls on the last song; we're makin' it up to you here. The beat here is much improved, MDMA sounds better, and Lupe's flow is excellent once again. I know the descending keyboard riff is from something, but I can't place it... in any case, this is quite a good song, and one hell of an improvement over Beautiful Lasers.
9) State Run Radio (feat. sELF)
Did I....... wha....? It sounds like a Weird Al song at first, sung by a group of men 30 years his junior. And then again we're back on "the problems in the world"... give it a break, Lupe. You're not political. System of a Down did it better, bud. I love you, but this was so unnecessary - especially since you just did this on Words I Never Said, and that song wasn't even that good in the first place. sELF doesn't really add anything to the mix; they have a part at the beginning, and they chant the title, but it's more jarring than special. It's certainly nice to see a rock flair on the album, but it's hard to juxtapose two messages in the same song, whereby Lupe is comparing news or whatever to overplayed pop songs. Kay...?
10) Break the Chain (feat. Eric Turner, Sway)
Forget rock now, let's go into.... techno! Sure!... but fuck it, I'll take the change. Especially when the lyrics are better, both featurettes kick about 3 times more ass (especially Sway, the second rapper in the song), and the beat is all around better. Why weren't these guys prominent featurettes?!
And I just found out that Sway is British. Holy crap... finally, a rapper from Britain! And a decent one, too! Sweet.
11) All Black Everything
Being a white guy, this is a rather awkward song to listen to. It's exactly what it sounds like: what if some of the most important figures of the world were black instead of white? Apparently Malcolm X would die old, Bill O'Reilly would read from the Qu'ran, and other strange little oddities. I will mention the fact that the beat's pretty unique, but the lyrics - while good - are a bit uncomfortable. He's not racist by any means, but it seems to bend the view a tad to say that "our" oppression of African-Americans caused so many of the problems in the world. On behalf of all white people, Lupe: we're sorry, alright? Jeez.
12) Never Forget You (feat. John Legend)
OK, I'm just going to say this now: John Legend is the singer on this song, and my God does he kick untold amounts of ass on this. He reminds me (positively!) of Matthew Santos, and that's a memory I want more of. It's a style not often seen in hip-hop, and it's so refreshing. The beat is pretty good, Lupe lyricizes quite well, but Mr. Legend steals the show. Maybe I'm just blinded by nostalgia. Nostalgia for an album done in 2007... ah, whatever.
After Ejection: Conclusions
When I reviewed this album on Twitter, I gave this a 7.5 out of 10; and of course, after a second run-through, I have a different viewpoint. I unfortunately have to rate it a tad lower: State Run Radio lost a lot of its edge, the political songs were more grating than before, and the loss of Santos and "gaining" MDMA was still a problem for me. Regardless, Lupe Fiasco himself still shows that his lyricism is quite solid, and he still managed to bring in some excellent performances for his featurettes (John Legend and Sway in particular). All in all though, for a third album, this doesn't hold up to his two previous albums - though one could say those two albums are hard to top.RATING: [ 6 / 10 ]
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