Lupe’s latest offering sees him become his own worst nightmare
Lupe Fiasco has made a name for himself as the alternative voice of modern hip hop. In a genre inherently afflicted with inflated bravado, here was a geeky skater kid from Chicago writing the sort of socially and politically conscious rap which is being pushed further underground. But despite having two successful and acclaimed albums under his belt, Atlantic Records seemed to have felt that they could give a boost to their artist’s sales and radio play.
After what Lupe describes as a “painful, fucked up process”, the result is Lasers; something so unrecognisable from his earlier work, it’s as if 2ManyDJs’ evil twins found some samples of his vocals and mashed them into a twisted 12-course meal for daytime radio. Producer Soundtrakk is gone, with his beats and the soulful sampling of other collaborators replaced by... well, the low-quality dance that you can hear on most hip hop tracks right now.
To fit with the club vibe going on, there is a guest singer called MDMA; a slightly ironic name, considering the lack of euphoria you feel from his Auto-Tuned contributions on “I Don’t Wanna Care Right Now” and the wittily-named “Coming Up”, both great examples of mediocre dancefloor hip hop. Hilariously, Lupe even runs an attack on the mainstream in “State Run Radio” which, regardless of the context, is a very weak-sounding protest. Still, let’s regard the context; that song comes on the same album which features a hook from the über-slick ladies’ man Trey Songz on “Out Of My Head”.
But maybe Lupe does have a sense of irony. Lead single “The Show Goes On” is somewhat controversial; firstly, for the fact that it’s a horrendous song and also because Lupe claims he was told to rap a certain way on it, so has dissociated himself from the song. On the song, Lupe can be heard talking against people who try to put others down, with a poignant line being “They treat you like a slave, with chains all on your soul.” Is this a thinly-veiled lyrical protest against his record company emasculating him in the recording process? Even considering the distress this seems to have caused to Lupe, every club track on here erodes your sympathy.
Not that it’s all bad. “Words I Never Said” may include a textbook radio R&B hook from Skylar Grey, but also some engaging political commentary from Fiasco. He proceeds to attack the media, both sides of the Arab-Israeli conflict, as well as both the American right and left; kudos to him for being one of the few rappers to acknowledge that having a black president doesn’t really change much. Also enjoyable is “Beautiful Lasers”, with MDMA’s Europop-like delivery fitting well on a slower track. But the highlight of the record has to be “All Black, Everything”; classic Lupe, with a real hip-hop beat (fine work from The Buchanans) and imaginative lyrics, as he fantasises about a rewritten history of race reversal.
And then... he finishes with another lyrically weak song, with a sentimental-sounding hook from John Legend. It’s a shame that the album couldn’t end on a strong note; instead, you’re given a reminder of the watered-down, commercial star that Lupe has become (or been made into?!).
We can talk all day and night about whether or not it’s right that a credible artist can bring out something like this. Admittedly, there are a number of mitigating factors. But all of that is irrevelant anyway; the simple truth is that this is a very poor record by one the most creative and interesting rappers of the last decade. Even more galling is that it comes from someone who has spoken out against the increasing commercialisation of rap music. At a gig in New York, he protested to his fans that his label had promised to let him make another album without interference. After the amount of money this record has made for Atlantic, I highly doubt it.
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