Review: Lupe Fiasco, “Food & Liquor”

Lupe Fiasco
Food & Liquor
Atlantic

Rating: ★★★½☆ 

The term “backpacker” has become a pejorative. Originally used to describe early 90s rap groups like Black Moon and Lords of the Underground, who rocked backpacks in “Who Got the Props”-era publicity stills, it is now used as code for hopelessly “underground” artists who seem angrily out of touch with current trends. Lupe Fiasco may be the most popular MC in recent memory to embrace the insult. Near the end of the video for “Daydreamin'” the Chicagoan hops onto a skateboard, a gleaming cream-colored backpack casually swinging from his left shoulder. That an artist as sleek and cool as Lupe Fiasco could be regarded by some rap fans as a nerd (along with Kanye West, whose high-school years were more Ferris Bueller’s Day Off than Weird Science) speaks considerably to the increasingly limited roles African-Americans can successfully adopt.

On Food & Liquor Lupe aka Lupin III is painfully conscious of his otherness, a skateboarding, drug-and-alcohol free Muslim amidst a generation of self-proclaimed crack rappers. His insecurities, which he masks as universal truths, fuel an album that is not only fresh and exciting, but hectoring and heavy-handed. It bears resemblance to West’s Late Registration, with sweeping orchestral strings typical of a Hollywood movie score. Newcomer Gemini (an R&B artist on Lupe’s boutique imprint 1st and 15th), Sarah Green and Jill Scott pepper the choruses with plaintively heartfelt vocals, making for songs as soul-searing testimony. Sometimes the formula works: On the graceful anthem “Kick, Push,” Soundtrakk’s weighty backdrop turns Lupe’s narrative of growing up as a skateboard kid into a profound tour de force. Elsewhere, as with “Sunshine,” the same producer proves too overwhelming.

With the stage set for performance as consciousness-raising, Lupe’s verses often feel weighted down, even when he’s tossing off rhymes as deft as the third verse on “Just Might Be OK,” where he describes the mind state of a young thug in Westside Chicago. “I’m cool/ I don’t foretell bests/I ain’t the nicest MC/I ain’t Cornel West/I’m Cornel Westside/Chi-Town Rivera/Malcolm eXorcise the demons/Gangsta leanin’/Who traded in his kufi for a new era/Chose a .44 over a motherboard/I ain’t accredited, institute graduate/I ain’t from Nazareth/My conception wasn’t immaculate/I didn’t master no calculus/A good addition to the rap audience/I backflipped on the mattress they slept on me on,” he raps.

If only a few of the songs are standouts (like “Kick, Push” and “I Gotcha”), then none of Food & Liquor is truly disappointing. Lupe’s raps are consistently amazing, from the U.S. government-indicting “American Terrorist” to the hip-hop lament “Hurt Me Soul.” Food & Liquor’s ambitious scope nearly overshadows him, but his dexterous wordplay shines through.

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One Response to Review: Lupe Fiasco, “Food & Liquor”

  1. Jeff G. says:

    This is one of my favorite albums of all time – “Kick, Push” stays in my cd player on repeat 🙂 Jeff G.

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