Lupe Fiasco - Food & Liquor

We're back! I know it was a long hiatus from blogging, and I apologize for leaving you all without sweet, sweet music reading for a week. Alas, vacation called, and I couldn't pass it up. Regardless of all that, follower Ashley asked that I look into some Lupe Fiasco a while back. Now, I've heard some of his tuneage here and there over the years, and never really thought twice to look into more of it. Not because I didn't like it, just because nothing ever grabbed me by the ear and made me look into more. Lupe (aka Wasalu Muhammad Jaco) was born in Chicago, Illinois back in 1982. He initially got into the hip hop genre because of his dislike for all the vulgarity in the material. Being about the same age as Lupe, I can understand his disconnection. I never minded the language, but by the time I was old enough to really listen, pretty much all of it was incredibly vulgar. He started recording music in his father's basement, and started blending styles. The rawness of Ice Cube, the lyricism of Jay-Z and Nas. He then gained some notoriety be remixing some Kanye tracks...namely 'Jesus Walks' into 'Muhammad Walks' which was big in Muslim circles and then making 'Diamonds Are Forever' into 'Conflict Diamonds', which got the attention of Yeezy himself. Kanye then asked Lupe to be on his 'Late Registration' album. He talks about the title being from Chicago where you don't have bodegas or stores, you have a bunch of shops called Food & Liquor. Which is fairly common in the midwest. I like this album, don't love it, don't hate it. I certainly see the potential in the kid based on this record, I just think it wasn't all quite together yet. Sometimes blending styles and trying to make something totally new takes time for the listener to fully concept. This is a mix of rap, R&B, soul, pop, mood - a little smack of everything. I'll go around one more time with this, but I'll be anxious to get to the follow ups.

TRACK LISTING:
1. Intro
2. Real
3. Just Might Be OK
4. Kick, Push
5. I Gotcha
6. The Instrumental
7. He Say She Say
8. Sunshine
9. Daydreamin'
10. The Cool
11. Hurt Me Soul
12. Pressure
13. American Terrorist
14. The Emporor's Soundtrack
15. Kick, Push II
16. Outro

Listen To Samples

Top 3 Tracks:
1. The Cool
2. Daydreamin
3. Pressure

FINAL RATING:
3.25 out of 5 stars