Food & Liquor — Lupe Fiasco
Atlantic/Wea
2006
Rating:


Lupe Fiasco's highly anticipated debut "Food & Liquor" isn't a party album, but it is cause for celebration. With a nod to Joe Budden's "Dumb Out," Fiasco can best be described as Jay-Z before he went corporate, Kanye West without the egotism, Common before he started "rockin' the hood" for Gap, Talib Kweli and Jurassic 5 when they had "Quality" control and Mos Def without the anger. That's a lot for the 25-year-old emcee to live up to, but he earns it.

For "Food & Liquor" is a hip-hop album of strings and introspection, not deep bass and narcissism, and the most significant expansion of hip-hop's boundaries since "College Dropout."

Take lead single "Kick, Push." What the song has in common with most hip-hop tracks is limited to the general subject matter of the glory of rolling and grinding. But there are no rims on these wheels or pyrex to push; Fiasco has crafted an exemplary ode to skateboarding that would make the Lords of Dogtown misty-eyed. Even non-boarders are likely to be intoxicated by Fiasco's narrative of a boy who gets a skateboard at age 6, busts his lip and goes on to learn "aerials and varials" that land him a sk8ergrrl. Soundtrakk of 1st and 15th Productions provides the soundscape of crescendoing horns and lush strings from Celeste Legaspi's "Bolero Medley" to make the "kick, push, coast" of skateboarding sound like a freedom that's "better than breathing."

Lupe announces he's something "Real" over the propulsive guitars of Harvey Mason's "How Does It Feel" and he never disappoints. Sick of hip-hop artists coming off as pimps, macks and mobsters, Fiasco prefers to keep it fresh and clean on "I Gotcha": "My Ivorys and my Doves, my Levers and my Zest-es / It takes half of your bubble bath to match the freshness / ...And I be on my green like Irish Spring / Then I Coast."

A devout Muslim, Lupe is conflicted about the state hip-hop and has some pretty harsh words as an up-and-comer. Over electronica group I Monster's "Daydream in Blue" and with Jill Scott as back-up, Fiasco parodies the paradigm of most rap on "Daydream": "Now come on everybody, let's make cocaine cool / We need a few more half-naked women up in the pool / And hold this Mac-10 that's all covered in jewels / And can you please put your titties closer to the 22s? / And where's the champagne? We need champagne! / Now look as hard as you can with this blunt in your hand / And now hold up your chain, slow motion through the flames." On "Hurt Me Soul" he confesses his own hypocrisy, saying, "I used to hate hip-hop because the women degraded / But Too $hort made me laugh."

Fiasco's global social consciousness comes to the fore on "American Terrorist." Smartly using a sample of the soulful "The Romantic Warrior" from Chick Corea's jazz fusion band Return to Forever, Lupe explores how "Torahs, Bibles and glorious Korans, / The books that take you to heaven and let you meet the Lord there, / Have become misinterpreted, reasons for warfare."

Yet, as Karen O might say, Fiasco is sometimes bigger than the sound. Lupe devotes intelligent lyrics and a conscientious flow to "The Instrumental," but Mike Shinoda's production is better suited to Linkin Park. "Daydreamin'," like many of the tracks, slightly suffers from its hooklessness and lazy day beats.

Despite this, Fiasco's lyrics and flow indisputably put him in the upper echelons of hip-hop. For those worried about the future of hip-hop, thanks to Lupe Fiasco, we might just be OK.

Posted Thursday, December 21, 2006

Link to this review:
http://filmzeus.pressbin.com/music/lupe.fiasco/food.liquor