Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Lasers

"Tell 'em what it do, holla from the bottom, yell it from the roof"
Lasers is the third studio release from Chicago born rapper Lupe Fiasco.  It has been rumored as the final chapter in a trilogy consisting of Food & Liquor (2006), The Cool (2007), and now Lasers.  Released just last week (March 8th), the album has been receiving mixed reviews ranging from 91 (Entertainment Weekly) to 60 (The New York Times) to 20 (Sputnikmusic).  Now, unfortunately, I can't say I'm in the same group as Entertainment Weekly, but, fortunately, I am also not of the same opinion as Sputnikmusic.  I think I fall somewhere in the middle, much like Lasers' average on Metacritic, a 59.  With his release of Food & Liquor and The Cool being back to back, Lasers was a highly anticipated album.  I remember first hearing about it from my roommate when Lupe announced the album at a Halloween concert in Chicago (that was in '08).  With all this time and hype you would think that the album would be blowing people away.  His first two albums averaged an 83 and a 77 respectively and Lupe was easily one of the biggest breakthrough rappers of the past ten years.  

The drop in quality isn't without explanation, thankfully.  The album had been delayed for a long time and there was a whirlwind of controversy between Lupe and his record label Atlantic for some time.  When asked if Lasers was ever going to come out by Complex.com, Lupe responded with the following: "It could. The situation with me and my record company has gotten to the point where it's just like... we're really at our final straws. People could say it's me, that 'Lupe doesn't want to make popular music' or 'The label has got to have records that they can sell and Lupe is not giving them the records they want to sell' and XYZ. I'll meet a fan on the street and we'll have a full conversation about it. There's maybe six or seven people walking around who know the whole story with their mouths wide open and their jaws to the floor as to why Lasers has been held up to this point and why it's not coming out. I can't tell you that. We're in a space where we're still negotiating and some stuff isn't meant for the public."  So, for a while it seemed like the album was never going to come out, especially because of Lupe's somewhat secret side project Japanese Cartoon, but thankfully he tweeted a picture of himself and Julie Greenwald, Chief Operating Officer of Atlantic Records.  Things seemed to be alright, but after the release of Lasers, I have a feeling things still aren't so hot.

Lupe said it best when he said "Lupe doesn't want to make popular music," and that is exactly my problem with this album.  I've heard from people that it's too political, but if that's your view you don't know Lupe.  Lupe is all about politics, all about pushing the boundaries, all about bringing up uncomfortable topics and that's what makes him great.  Who could forget his "Kick, Push II" from Food & Liquor dealing with drug addiction, spousal abuse, and physical handicaps?  What about "Little Weapon" from The Cool that begins by describing a series of events leading up to a school shooting only to transition into the self-narrated story of an Invisible Child?  To say that Lupe's new album is too political is saying the opposite of what it is.  While Lupe does have his political ties in Lasers, it doesn't push nearly as many boundaries as his past albums.  What's wrong with Lasers is exactly what he said, it's popular music.

It took me a while to figure out what was wrong with it, even though the first thing I said about it was that it was "too poppy."  On my first listen through I picked out "Out of My Head" as one of my favorite songs, but once I remembered I was listening to Lupe Fiasco and not Trey Songz (the featured artist on the song) a haze was lifted.  "Out of My Head" is definitely the catchiest song of the album and will most likely be a single (if Lupe goes a long with it), but since when does Lupe sing traditional poppy songs about girls and how fine they are?  Okay, maybe "Paris, Tokyo" is an example from The Cool, but I would even put that on a different level because it differentiates itself because of its production value and lyrics.  "Kick, Push" off of Food & Liquor could be an example too, but how often do you hear love songs about outcast skaters?  What's worse is that the album is infested with other poppy songs such as "State Run Radio," "Letting Go," and, possibly the worst, "The Show Goes On," which just sounds like every other empathetic hip-hop anthem.  Several other problems loom over the album such as sacrificing quality more no-name guest appearances for more main stream ones (i.e., substituting Matthew Santos for Trey Songz).  "Fighters feat. Matthew Santos" still gives me the chills whenever I turn it on.

However, the album isn't without its bright spots.  In another interview with Complex.com Lupe mentions that he is "happy for the fans, this is their album. This is the album that they fought for and that’s what made me do songs like ‘Words I Never Said’ and ‘All Black Everything.’"  These are definitely two of the songs that hearken back most to the old Lupe.  "Words I Never Said" has a darker, heavier, more political feel with much harder hitting lyrics whereas "All Black Everything" shows Lupe's lyrical creativity and empathy toward all people, a common theme in past albums.  Another one of my favorite tracks is "I Don't Wanna Care Right Now," which arguably is a more poppy song, but Lupe's flow just reminds me of "Sunshine" from Food & Liquor.  More importantly, it sounds like he's having fun on the track, something that is almost absent throughout most of his songs.

Lasers definitely isn't the album the fans wanted and it isn't the album Lupe wanted.  Lasers consists of what Atlantic Records wanted in order to increase sales and rake in the dough.  Unfortunately, due to the demand of fans Lupe was pushed into finishing the album and the product was something he didn't know if he loved or hated.  “One thing I try to stress about this project is, I love and hate this album. I listen to it and I’ll like some of the songs. But when I think about what it took to actually get the record together and everything that I went through on this record—which is something I can’t separate—I hate this album. A lot of the songs that are on the album, I’m kinda neutral to. Not that I don’t like them, or that I hate them, it’s just I know the process that went behind it. I know the sneaky business deal that went down behind this song, or the artist or singer or songwriter who wrote this hook and didn’t want to give me this song in the first place. So when I have that kind of knowledge behind it, I’m just kind of neutral to it like, ‘Another day, another dollar.’ As opposed something like The Cool, which is more of my own blood, sweat, and tears, and my own control. With this record, I’m little bit more neutral as to the love for the record" (Ahmed).  Hopefully Lasers isn't the final chapter for Lupe and he comes out with the rumored Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album.  What's wrong with this album is that it isn't Lupe and that's something that should be clear to everyone.

1 comment:

  1. a entire lot belonging to the tunes which can be for the album, I’m kinda neutral to. Not which i do not like them, or which i loathe them
    hen we play the WOW, we need to try get the Cheap WOW Gold,thst's to say, spend less money, do we have any good way to buy wow gold cheap from trust friends or some way else? When we have that we can play the game becomes more quickly and update the levels more easy.

    ReplyDelete