Fresh off the release of his 3rd album, Lasers, early last year, Lupe Fiasco expressed his frustration with the project, essentially claiming to possess a love/hate relationship with the project. Many of his fans felt the same way. While the same politically-charged messages still remained in much of his music, many of the songs lacked the impact of his previous records and felt entirely forced at times. Considering the lengths his dedicated fans went through to even get the album released (seriously, how many fans of other artists would stage a protest to get an album released?), it just seemed like an utter disappointment to have an album delayed for that long that didn’t quite live up to expectations once it finally dropped.
For those fans who were disappointed with Lasers though, Food & Liquor 2 serves as a restitution of sorts. Two mixtapes and two albums later, we finally have a true sequel to Lupe’s legendary debut album, representing a return to classic Lupe form. The reemergence of Lupe Fiasco is established early on through one of the album’s standout tracks, “Strange Fruition,” which he ends with a coy taunt simply stating, “Hello evil, I’m back.” The album does start out in much the same way as the original, with his sister, Ayesha Jaco, performing the poetic intro that provides a landscape for the rest of the album. You may have also noticed the subtitle to this album is The Great American Rap Album. Contrary to what you might expect though, this album is by no means a celebration of America, but instead a condemnation of what’s wrong with it.
’Lupe Fiasco – Strange Fruition Feat. Casey Benjamin’
’Lupe Fiasco – Unforgivable Youth Feat. Jason Evigan’
’Lupe Fiasco – Form Follows Function’
Read the rest of the review & stream more tracks after the jump… Continue reading →
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