Chicago: home of such hip-hop acts as Da Brat, Common, Kanye West and the artist featured in this week’s album review, Lupe Fiasco. He was featured in one of my favorite Kanye West songs, “Touch the Sky” but it wasn’t until I was introduced to Fiasco’s music when my brother (who I grew up following around when he and his friends were skateboarding) showed me his video for “Kick, Push,” the single off his debut album “Food & Liquor.” The horns and lyrics that all skaters could relate to got me hooked so when “The Cool” was released in 2007, I was definitely interested.
The album’s first single is “Superstar” featuring Matthew Santos and it is damn catchy! So much so that it is Fiasco’s highest charting single, peaking at #10 on the Billboard Hot 100. Santos was relatively unknown before this single and hopefully he gains popularity because his Chris Martin-esque voice is quite soothing. Lupe Fiasco tells of the life as a super star … Basically, it’s that obligatory “Oh, it sucks to be a celebrity” song. I have no problem with Fiasco’s “Superstar” though, because
1) As I said, it’s catchy;
2) There’s a piano loop (can’t go wrong with piano); and
3) Lupe Fiasco flows very well.
Another song on “The Cool” that caught my ear is “Hi-Definition,” which features Pooh Bear and none other than the Doggfather himself, Snoop Dogg. The song has a very futuristic sound which you hear right away. The buzzing synths and laser effects surround Pooh Bear’s singing and the rhyming of Snoop and Fiasco. The beat mixed with the sound effects make you want to bob your head and the way everyone’s voices compliment each other definitely makes this track a highlight.
My favorite song on the album is “Hip-Hop Saved My Life” featuring Nikki Jean. This song is my favorite not really for the musical aspect (although the beat and piano melody are pretty awesome) but for the lyrical content. This song is all about making it. The context of the song is coming up from selling drugs in the ghetto to making it to a successful rapper, but really when you think about it, this song is inspiring no matter what the context is. Everyone can relate to making it in this world. Take this website, for instance! Enter The Shell started off as just an idea but has materialized into a website dedicated to informing people about a couple of the things all of us can relate to: music and life. I remember a few weeks ago I was walking back to my car after shopping and this guy came up to me in the parking lot and told me about how his unfortunate situation (sleeping on people’s couches because he can’t afford to pay rent) yet he was trying his best to make it as a rapper and tried to sell me his CD. Unfortunately, I had no cash on me but I totally sympathized with him. We all know what it’s like to have dreams and aspirations and Fiasco tells the story perfectly and in such a way that we can relate!
Finally, my other favorite song is “Little Weapon” which also features Nikki Jean along with Bishop G. Now, I am SUCH a whore for marching snares. Destiny’s Child’s “Lose My Breath“? Fucking amazing. “Little Weapon” features marching snares and a big ass beat but more importantly, Fiasco tugs at your heart strings with a song about child soldiers. The song is on a serious and very real topic that I have never heard addressed in music, let alone hip-hop. I’m sure the topic has been addressed but I’ve never heard it and the fact that an artist rising to fame and popularity is addressing it is a good thing because hopefully he will draw attention towards the heinous act of recruiting child soldiers.
This verse ALWAYS gets me:
And camoflouge suits made to fit youths cuz the ones off the dead soldiers fit a little loose …
Cute, smilers, heartless, valiant
Childhood destroyed, devoid of all childish
Ways. Can’t write they own names
Or read the words that’s on they own grave
Think you gangsta, popped a few rounds?
These kids will come through and murder a whole town
They’ll sit back and smoke and watch it burn down
The grave gets deeper the further we go down
Little weapon, we’re calling you
There’s a war, but the guns are just too tall for you
We’ll find you something small to use
Little weapon, we need you now.
Lupe Fiasco has got some really fun tracks on this album but he addresses a lot of serious issues as well. The conceptual album is said to have come from a dark place in his life as a result of loss, making some of the topics “too deep” for some people but in all honesty, if music isn’t questioning something from time to time, it’s not really worth listening to.
Other album highlights:
“Dumb It Down”
“Gold Watch”
“Intruder Alert”
“Streets on Fire”
Buy the album at our record store on Amazon
For more information on how to help struggling orphans recruited to become Child Soldiers, check out this charity.
Here are other pages on EnterTheShell.com that may tickle your fancy:
- Artist of the Week – The Bird and the Bee
- Free Song Download – “Sun of a Gun” [Yuksek Remix] by Oh Land
- Artist of the Week – Sia
- Album Review – Interpreting the Masters, Vol. 1 – A Tribute to Daryl Hall and John Oates by The Bird and the Bee
- Artist of the Week – Inara George