Lupe Fiasco, Food and Liquor [review]

It’s a tough decision buying an album these days. The cover artwork is always eye catching (why make another ‘white album’ why you can show some t&a?), the asking price is always slashed (from $19.99 to just 10 bucks? Who can resist that?) and the short quips from prominent voices in the industry all add up to what I call the compact disc conundrum.

Take Lupe Fiasco’s new major label release for example. The promotional quotes stuck to the outside packaging are, naturally, complimentary: “Startlingly imaginative.” – Interview magazine. “Cool and eclectic.” – XXL magazine. “Hip-hop whiz kid.” – Fader magazine. Yet to the untrained ear, Lupe Fiasco might easily be mistaken to a couple of clever MCs that have come before him.

As such Lupe is forced to distance himself from last season’s startlingly imaginative, cool and eclectic hip-hop whiz kid by stating in the song Just Might Be Okay that he “ain’t Kanye West.” And on Kick Push there is no denying that he has pulled the deck right from under Pharell ‘Skateboard P’ Williams’ Ice Cream sneakers.

The tracks that make the biggest impression are the ones on which Lupe gets even more imaginative than his hipster-hop predecessors, presenting what can only be described as prankster-rap, as before you catch on to Lupe’s trick, you’ll be head-nodding and rump-shaking along to his witty lyrics and genre bending beats. The vocals on the album are audible but not overbearing, colloquial but not caustic.

He name-checks Thelonious Monk on I Gotcha, keeps up with Jay-Z on Pressure and doesn’t sound sappy when his raps are paired with a sweet as cotton candy R&B hook sung by Jill Scott on Day Dream – which borrows its melody from the Beta Band’s song Squares.

Another quirk that sets Lupe apart from the pack is that he represents a youthfulness to the too-fast-too-soon culture of hip-hop. The album’s songs are not about being ‘hood rich or engaging in shoot ‘em ups. The running theme centers on a stage in every hip-hoppers life rappers are afraid to embrace these days. Are you soft if you rap about teenage parenthood, or about tagging public property with Sharpie markers? Pussy if you kick a gentle rhyme to the around the way girl? If so, Lupe seems to not know it.

I was tempted to contribute my 13.5% of the albums sticker price to the Lupe Fiasco fund, but to his disadvantage the new Fergie album Fergie As In Dutchess was at the listening station next to Lupe’s. And I’ll be damned if I wouldn’t rather donate 13.5% to Fergie’s ‘upliftment’ project than to Lupe Fiasco’s Food And Liquor binge.

+ edited version also published on Dimished7