Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor - Dark Publications

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Editorial Reviews:

Amazon.com
Let's see...a rap artist is hyped insufferably, his music is leaked incessantly, his album is delayed indefinitely, the hype grows, rinse, repeat. Welcome to the world of pop music in 2006, when "unauthorized" Internet seepage can somehow manage to simultaneously make and break an aspiring young performer. Lupe Fiasco's unfinished debut CD was slathered all over the Web for months, like some sort of Lonelygirl15, before finally seeing the legitimate light of day. That said, the Chicago-bred rapper, who rose to prominence thanks to his "Touch the Sky" collab with Kanye West, is hardly a slouch. His skittering, low-key rapping style is truly distinctive, and his lyrics are mostly thoughtful and creative without being heavy-handed. Despite frequent comparisons to "thinking man's rappers" from Tribe and De La Soul to Nas, the most apt comparison might be to Kanye West himself: Like West, Fiasco rises above the trappings of the street without sounding condescending or out of touch, and his sound has the same "timeless" quality--partly old-school, partly of the moment. Yet somehow, Food & Liquor isn't quite a home run either; it lacks fire and it cries out for an infectious track or two that really sticks. Still, Lupe distinguishes himself as an artist to watch. --Marc Greilsamer

Album Description
With Food & Liquor, Lupe Fiasco sets no boundaries for himself as he creates a revolutionary brand of alternative hip-hop in which he shares his mind through original storytelling techniques. He takes hip-hop off the streets and onto the half pipe, off the streets and into the sneaker shops, off the streets and into the hands and in front of real people.

Customer Reviews: Read 116 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

He's the rap game's sunshine. September 28, 2006
31 out of 35 found this review helpful

I can't express in words how much I love this album. There's some albums I just vibe to right away, and then there's some I start liking after a few listens. This was the former. Upon my first listen I was bobbing my head to the beats with a smile on my face. I agree with a lot of reviewers when they said that this is just what hip hop needed. The majority of rap is being plagued by mediocre mc's who care more about their chain and their street cred then the lyrics they let flow from their mouth. It's time people supported REAL MUSIC. Favorites include "Kick push" "Instrumental" "Sunshine" "Daydreamin" "He Say She Say" and "Hurt Me Soul". I can't even really pick a bad song on the entire album. Go out and get this now!!!

5 out of 5 stars

No "Fiasco" here, Lupe shines on his debut CD October 25, 2006
15 out of 21 found this review helpful

I first heard Lupe Fiasco when most people did on Kanye West's "Touch The Sky" from his "Late Registration" CD. He was very energetic on the track but I was still unsure what to think of him as an artist. After I heard "Kick Push" all of that changed because I was impressed on how Lupe carried himself on the track and the beat didn't hurt things either. I later found out that his CD would be called "Food & Liquor" and would definitely pick this CD up when it was released. Just when things were looking like they were under way, Lupe's whole CD was on the internet, so he wanted to keep some of the old songs but he wanted to make some new tracks as well, since the public had access to the original CD.

Lupe gets things started on the "Return". This track, in my opinion, is more of an intro just to let people know that liked his verse on "Touch The Sky" and "Kick Push" that he can actually handle an entire CD by himself. The 2nd single from "Food & Liquor" is the Neptunes produced "I Gotcha". This track is the closest thing to another single from the CD and was the right track to release since "Food & Liquor" is a CD full of album cuts. The A&R will definitely have to earn his money on this CD. "I Gotcha" is a midtempo jam from The Neptunes and it's nice that for once Pharrell doesn't try to take over the entire track like he does with doing the chorus and rapping over some of his beats. He allows Lupe to do his thing. "Just Might Be OK" is definitely one of my favorite songs on this CD because this is one of Lupe's best lyrical performances on the entire CD. The track will come off as being inspirational like "Never Let Me Down" from Kanye's 1st CD. "The Instrumental" sounds like it's something from the Need For Speed or the Nascar video game series but it's definitely different from anything else on the CD. However, the track is still easy to like. "He Say She Say" sounds like it's an open letter to his father. Lupe is expressing his feelings of how he doesn't want his father to bless him with material things and money, he just wanted him to be there as he was growing up and even now. Many children growing up in the year 2006 will definitely be able to relate to this song. "Daydreamin'" features Jill Scott and is the closest thing to another single on "Food & Liquor" after "Kick Push" and "I Gotcha". First of all, the sample on this track is "sick". Although, Lupe and Jill Scott give A+ performances on the track, you'll be left trying to find the original version of the sample so you can play the sample in it's entirety. My favorite song on "Food & Liquor" is definitely "The Cool", which I am still not sure if I have the full understanding of the track yet. "The Cool" is the only track that Kanye West produces on the CD. My meaning of the track is that Lupe is describing a situation where a man was shot, killed and buried. The song takes off from the point where if a man was in a casket and dead, what would happen if he actually had a chance to try to return to Earth and to see life as it is today. How much life has changed and actually how much it has stayed the same. I may have misinterpreted the meaning, but either way you look at it, the song is very deep. On the chorus Lupe says, "This life goes passing you by, it might go fast if you like, you gonna live and you die...Oh Oh Oh Oh. Kanye definitely hooked up the beat as well. "Hurts Me Soul" is another one of my favorites as Lupe reserves a track to talk about the trials and tribulations of living in the world today, just as GZA did on "Liquid Swords". This is probably the best hook that Lupe wrote for the CD as well other than "The Cool".

You knew since Jay-Z was one of the executive producers on "Food & Liquor" that he would grab the mic to show you what he's got and to see what it would take to make the kingdom come. "The Pressure" gives you 2 verses from Lupe and Jay-Z finishes things off lovely on the last verse. However, Lupe holds his own next to Jay-Z and the chorus is nice as well. "Amercian Terrorist" definitely has a Latin flavor to it, as you will see by listening to the chorus. Matthew Santos definitely adds some nice flavor to the hook. Lupe definitely has a story to tell on the track and although some people may not like this track compared to others things work for me. "Kick Push 2" actually ends up being another separate track instead of a remix. Although, I did hear a remix to the original track with Pharrell on the 2nd verse. The edition of "Food & Liquor" that I purchased also has three bonus tracks: "Tilted", Carrera Lu" and "What It Do" with "What It Do" being the best tracks in my opinion. However, none of the bonus tracks are better than the tracks that are on the actual CD.

Overall, Lupe Fiasco has immense potential. You would have originally thought that this CD would be full of Kanye tracks like Common's "Be" but even with lesser known producers Lupe is able to shine and try to make an identity of his own. He has displayed that without a doubt on his debut CD and I look forward to hearing future Lupe CDs.

James' Top 6

1) The Cool
2) Daydreamin' w/Jill Scott
3) Hurts Me Soul
4) Kick Push
5) Pressure w/Jay-Z
6) He Say She Say

5 out of 5 stars

Great Debut Despite Release Date Changes September 19, 2006
10 out of 13 found this review helpful

This past summer no release was more anticipated than Chicago rapper Lupe Fiascos major label debut Food & Liquor. Weeks before the June release date, the projects release date was changed to TBA after a nasty Internet leak. Fans who did download the leak called it a classic and some online publications went as far as to actually review the unauthorized leak.

Lupe went back in the studio and recorded new songs and Food & Liquor got a new release date. The bad part of all of this is the buzz died down slightly and the anticipation waivered a bit as people werent sure if the new Food & Liquor would be as good or better than the leak.

Food and Liquor is now in stores. Just who is Lupe Fiasco? Based on Food & Liquor he is insightful, relective and a artist who still cares about the lyrics moreso than just making some hot tracks for the radio. Upon opening Food & Liquor one cant help but notice on the CD flap that one of the executive producers of the album is none other than Jay-Z himself. Its not often that a non Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam artist has their project co-signed by the Jiggaman. Lupes debut was released via his 1st and 15th Productions and Atlantic Records.

Lupe helped to build his buzz via some not so hip-hop traditional methods. Fans could interact with the young MC earlier this year during his weekly radio show FNF radio where Lupe even answered the phone lines sometimes. He also maintained a heavy Internet presence via Myspace and other websites. Lupe also was a featured artist on the song and video for the Kanye West single "Touch The Sky." The first single released was Kick/Push, an ode to skateboarding with a laid back track.

The second U.S. single I Gotcha is a thumping track meant to be played loud produced by The Neptunes. Food & Liquor is a satisfying hip-hop album and unique in the manner that Lupes not really trying to do what everyone else is doing. Although there are a few featured artists on the CD most notably Jay-Z, Jill Scott, Lupe really could have pulled the album off solo.

Stand out tracks on the album include He Say, She Say, which features 1st and 15th Productions vocalist Sarah Green and Gemini and Just Might Be Okay, which features 1st and 15th artist Gemini.

Overall, Food & Liquor is solid from start to finish, the only track that probably could have been left out is Kick/Push II. The song features a different track and is decent but there were so many remixes of Kick/Push, it would have been nice to have an authorized Kick/Push remix on the album.

The album isnt packed with radio singles. If you dont hear Lupe on the radio every hour or see his videos in massive rotation in no way discounts this artists talent.

Is this version of Food and Liquor better than the leak? This reviewer couldnt tell you because I waited for the final CD. I can tell you that Food and Liquor is meant to be played loud filled with thumping hard beats. Lupe Fiasco does Chicago proud, and although he is unique in style he does the recent Chicago hip-hop legacy created by Common, Kanye West and Rhymefest proud and fits in perfect. Food & Liquor will satisfy the appetite of the music lover looking for a good hip-hop album.

5 out of 5 stars

Renaissance Man September 20, 2006
10 out of 12 found this review helpful

At long last - after being put back more than once - it's out. The album from "that nerdy looking bloke who wears specs, uses long words and drives a skateboard" (and not a Bentley). The quotation is from my nephew, the add-on in brackets is mine.

"Food & Liquor" is rare in that three of the singles (or at least, the videos for them) have been out some time now before the album's eventual release. I hope that turns out to be a positive thing. For me personally, it just added to the anticipation. "Kick, Push", "I Gotcha" and "Daydreamin'" (featuring my girl Jill Scott), are the kind of hip-hop I've been hungering for now for some time. I just hope there are scores of other people out there who feel the way I do as it would be a huge shame if this dude doesn't get the props he deserves. Critical acclaim is all well and good but it's commercial success and only commercial success that makes music careers these days. As it is, "Kick Push", which I thought was a great song, entered the top 40 in this country in the mid-thirties and disappeared from sight after a week. It entered the Billboard top 100 at number 98. This could all be due to the fact that the album was reportedly leaking all over the internet (which was also the reason behind the release getting pushed back) but I was still shocked. "Daydreamin'" was released last week and seems set to do better but I was really hoping for more. I wanted everybody to be talking about Lupe Fiasco.

The point I'm trying to make is that while this album wins five stars, hands down, for me (and is already one of my top 25 hip hop albums), I'm wondering if it will be the same for the vast majority of music fans in this day and age of lok at me! look at me! look at 'my' flash car/s, 'my' massive house, lavish lifestyle, bling bling, half-naked women and the bottles of expensive champagne I drink! - a point Lupe seems well aware of. This is intelligent, introspective stuff and unfortunately, introspective intelligence has become too rare in hip-hop.

But, Jay-Z has enough faith in him to be his executive producer and if any man out there knows what's what in hip-hop it is he. There is any number of potential singles on this album apart from the ones I mentioned earlier, not least of all "The Cool", "Hurt Me Soul", "American Terrorist" and "Pressure" featuring the Jigga man himself (though I'm not sure why he bothered, really as he doesn't really add anything to the song) and I really think this album is going to blow up. I recommend that anyone who is into good music gets this album. I love every note and I genuinely wish Lupe Fiasco the success he deserves. I thank him for being part of a movement that's taking hip-hop back to where it belongs. This is a Renaissance Man.

5 out of 5 stars

Lupe Fiasco- Get Full Off of THIS! (Wow! Incredible!) September 20, 2006
9 out of 9 found this review helpful

All I can say to begin this is that the kid is something special! Then again, I really knew that from the moment he spit his verse on Kanye's Touch The Sky. It had me asking who was that on the last verse of that track cause that boy is hot. His verse totally outshined Kanye on his own track. I knew he was on the verge of putting his own album out. Once I heard word that it was dropping sometime this summer, I was in anticipation ever since. The most anticipation that I have had for an album in a long time cause you knew that he was going to come with that hip hop you wanted to hear and longing for. It kept upsetting me when the release date got pushed back twice. It must have been that it was so hot that it kept leaking on the Internet. That's when you know you DO have something special.

Finally, Lupe Fiasco's Food and Liquor came out yesterday and I must say he did not disappoint and totally exceeded expectations. The whole album from start to finish is truly a blessing to the game and world of hip hop and if you are a fan of true music, this is a CD for you! Like the album cover suggests, he takes a lot of different elements & layers (thoughts and feelings) of himself and blends them into the center of his life and that is through the stereo for us to hear. He blends in a lot of styles, patterns and beats as he has the definite hip hop flavor along with some soulful blues, jazz and rock. I have not heard something like this in a long time if ever where he goes back to the roots of hip hop while all in the while he just has tremendous wordplay, creativity in the way he gives his tracks (the way he gives the story) with a great delivery and flow in where he starts slow but by the middle & end of verses he picks it up and goes real fast-paced (like 100 words a minute) as he gives you true, real hip hop. I'll be brief but just want to give you a background on the tracks.

It all starts with the intro which leads into Real, a strong emphasized start and great beginning as he tries to tell you that he's about to give you something REAL! Just Might Be OK is a pretty good track, and I think is saying that we might be ok if we start dealing the real in more ways than one (not just rap). Kick Push is one of the best singles of the year! Just imagine a young black man from the inner city rapping about skateboarding and making it tight! But there is the point that it was his way of escaping the harsh realities and negativity of where he grew up and the world. It was his coping mechanism, the same way writing is for me. It is how he deals with pain. Excellent song! Then comes probably one of my three favorite cuts on the album, I Gotcha. Pharrell produced this track and I love the beat as it is laced with a classical piano style. Lupe is just saying that look no further if you want the real (there is that word again) cause he's gotcha. The Instrumental is a song I heard off Madden and just love it(produced by Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park, another favorite of mine). Still trying to figure out the concept, but I get that it is hip hop in general mocking itself and the negatives of society and just saying redundant stuff and taking away their own voices, and all you have left is the beat which leaves you with just an instrumental. If that is it, ingenious! He Say She Say is a song we can not talk about enough when it comes to this issue and that is absentee fathers in the hood/black community. It is a mother and son (might be Lupe himself) talking to the father trying to get him to be the man he is suppose to be and be there for his son. There should be no wonder why young black men are dying or being locked up cause no one was there to show the way. As Lupe says, there was no positive male role model to play football with or to build railroad models. One last deep lyric was that saying that his mom was his #1 fan: But it's like your booing from the stands (the father) and you know the world is out to get me/ So won't you give me a chance. The world is definitely out to get blacks especially black men and prey on the young ones, even moreso when they have no sense of direction. They can get aggressive cause there is no one there to calm them and tell them how to channel their feelings which can lead to disaster. Very heartfelt track and I love how the two R&B singers (Sarah Green and Gemini) go back and forth with the chorus at the end as if they were trying to reach each other like parents would in that case. Sunshine is a great track for women that does not degrade them none so ever where he compares a certain one to all that takes up space in the sky and universe. Very nice! Daydreamin' with Jill Scott is just down right creative. It hits home on how hip hop has become one big daydream in the sense that you can write yourself in your own image and make it look street but it not really be you so you can sell records and how videos & lifestyles of most of these rappers has become fiction with all the cars, clothes, houses, guns and women they say they have in glorifying material things. One of the best tracks! Period. The Cool, produced by Kanye, gives a situation where someone rises from the dead to review the life they lived and that's trying to be gangsta for whatever reason. As Lupe I believes tries to deliver, living that lifestyle and trying to look and act cool only leads to an early meeting with the grave. Another splendid and creative track! Hurt Me Soul is another one of those soulful tracks and I song I can relate to again. He speaks not just us as fans, but even himself getting sucked into the way hip hop has become and letting it go on. But only with him, it hurts him so cause he knows hip hop can be more if we all just reached deeper. But he relays that about the world in how all the things that have went down have penetrated our ways and affected us. The Pressure with Jay-Z is a great track, and it doesn't even crack my top five (And I one of the biggest Hov fans). That should tell you how great this album is right there where a track with Jay doesn't outshine a lot of songs. American Terrorists has a kind of different sound to it as it sounds like an African-type of beat with its drum patterns and sort of flutes in the back. The deal with this song is how we are dealing with terrorists in our communities with the police and our own country with the government and how we need to become terrorists to them by learning all we can with our education cause that is the truly the only way we can fight back. Outstanding message that he delivers! The Emperor's Soundtrack and Kick Push II end off the album (both great tracks) and he puts his shout-outs and thank yous on wax instead of in the back of the booklet as he goes on for about 11 minutes. Kind of long, but nice touch! (I know this was long, but bare with me cause there was so much to tell about this album that I tried to shorten it as much as I could but still give you things that could make you see that this album is a must have. Tryin' to influence and sell you on something so rare in these times.)

In the end, this whole product just works, man! The beats, the production, the blend, the writing, the stories and concepts. This is where the whole is DEFINITELY greater than the sum of its parts because it all adds up to make a must-have album. We all have been looking to get back to some down-to-earth, not fantasy, but true real hip hop. Lupe has help show the way along with a couple of others like Little Brother and Kanye to an extent. It's almost totally clean as well as he curses maybe 10-11 times through the whole album and it is still a hot product (flashback to the days of Rakim perhaps). How many rap artists can pull that off? And Jay-Z (not Shawn Carter, but Jay-Z; inspiration for a comeback? Hmmm. Pretty much.) executive produced this without Lupe being on Def Jam which should tell you something as well. This is an instant classic in my opinion, definitely in my top 25 favorite rap albums. This is almost a 100% shoe-in for rap album of the year, most definitely new artist of the year! Mostly it takes a couple of listens to a CD before I know I love it, but I knew off the bat what my outcome and judgment was like I did for Blueprint, Stillmatic, The Minstrel Show and others like it in the past few years when great hip hop has dwindled. Simply loved it! Truly a gem and jewel amongst a lot of trash. I also finally found someone in the hip hop game I can truly relate to these days. If you are into Mos Def and Talib Kweli, Common, Nas, Rakim, the deep side of Pac, KRS-ONE, Little Brother in some ways and even Jay in some ways or just looking for a touch of the real, go out and get this album: NOW!

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