Lupe Fiasco’s career has been an absolute roller coaster since he rose to prominence in the mid-2000s. Lupe climbed up the chain lift with his feature on Kanye West’s “Touch the Sky” and really started to soar with the release of his debut record, “Food & Liquor.” Then came his sophomore LP, “The Cool”, which brought him even more sky-high acclaim. But after his ascent to the stratosphere, Lupe began his freefall with the release of the disappointing “Lasers,” followed by the even more criticized album, “Food & Liquor 2: The Great American Rap Album, Part 1,” which was far from living up to its predecessor.
At that point, fans and critics alike were starting to doubt Lupe as an artist. Ghostface Killah even ranked Lupe at number 9 on his annual “Softest Rappers in the Game” list. But after multiple battles with his label, Atlantic Records, for refusing to release the radio-friendly pop music that dominated “Lasers” and “Food & Liquor 2,” Lupe reverted to his old ways on the newly released “Tetsuo & Youth,” which could very well be one of the best albums of 2015.
“Tetsuo & Youth” has everything a hip-hop listener can want. It has catchy, bubblegum tunes such as “Dots & Lines,” abstract hard-hitters like “Chopper” and even the call-out song, “Blurred Hands,” referencing Lupe’s turbulent departure from Atlantic Records.
The record is divided into three distinct sections separated by brief interludes named after the four seasons, with “Summer” launching the album. Immediately following the minute-long opener comes “Mural,” one of the most savage, beautiful, lyrically insurmountable odysseys the hip-hop world will ever come across. Sampling Cortex’s "Chanson d'Un Jour d'Hiver," “Mural” is a twenty-first century hip-hop equivalent to “Stairway to Heaven.” On this near-nine-minute beast, Lupe repeatedly punches bars after bars after bars of the lyrical wordplay that has landed him where he is now and it is absolutely stunning.
Later comes “Prisoner 1 & 2,” another eight-minute long monster describing the corrupt prison system in America, cleverly rhyming, “Love is looking over Various Errors, and Hate is Habitually Accelerating Terror Everywhere but the mural.”
Though many of the tracks on “Tetsuo & Youth” display the aggressive side of Lupe’s work, there are some lighter, prettier songs such as “Little Death,” which reunites Lupe with Nikki Jean, the featured artist on his 2008 hit, “Hip-Hop Saved My Life.” One of the three Nikki Jean-accompanied tracks on the record, “Little Death” features Nikki’s smooth, elegant vocals paired with Lupe’s clever rhymes and it works perfectly, bringing back shades of Lupe’s “The Cool.”
“Tetsuo & Youth” has just put Lupe Fiasco back in the conversation as one of the best rappers in the game. Though he spent much of the 2010’s fighting a battle with his record label, attempting to blend his outspoken rapping style with pop and being one of the most criticized artists in hip-hop, Lupe quite possibly just released a modern classic in the hip-hop genre. Lupe wasn’t being taken seriously by many critics leading up to the release of this record, myself included, but he is now and this return to form is exactly what he needed.
“Tetsuo & Youth” is a must-buy. In an age where free downloads dominate the music world, this is the kind of record that you want to invest your money in. Considering the fact that Lupe is trying to split from Atlantic Records, expect him to take the independent route and continue to build on this monumental release.
My rating: 10/10
