On Food & Liquor:
Fiasco covers a wide variety of subjects on the album. “Kick, Push” tells the story of a young skateboarder. The lyrics follow the skateboarder through many stages of his life such as his childhood, finding love, marriage, and adulthood (It is also understood to be an extended metaphor for hustling). Although the literal meaning of this song is skateboarding, the actual meaning of the song is rejection, and being criticized for doing what one loves. On “The Instrumental” Lupe addresses addiction to “boxes,” or television. “He Say She Say” deals with the story of a child without a good father-figure and the effects that it has on the child. This child grows up to become “The Cool,” one of the main characters which Lupe bases both of his albums on. “The Cool” follows the story of a dead man who rises from the grave and returns to the hood where he lived and died. “Hurt Me Soul” deals with Lupe’s conflicting feelings about Hip-Hop, stating in the lyrics “I used to hate hip-hop. Yup, because the women degraded. But Too Short made me laugh, like a hypocrite I played it.” He even references Jay-Z’s (who is an executive producer of the album) line “I don’t pray to god. I pray to Gotti” on D’evils. The chorus features Lupe rapping from the perspective of various people who tell their problems in the world. On “American Terrorist”, Lupe discusses his Muslim religion and racial profiling. He discusses the history of America terrorizing its own citizens and others. For example the song opens with,“We came through the storm, nooses on our necks, and a smallpox blanket to keep us warm.” The album ends with Lupe reading a list of people who helped with the album (similar to that of “My 1st Song” by Jay-Z and “Last Call” by Kanye West).
On The Cool:
Lupe Fiasco’s The Cool was received with mostly positive reviews from music critics, with an 77 (out of 100) rating from review aggregator MetaCritic.com. Entertainment Weekly said “Sonically, he’s got the same kind of gratifying ADHD going on. Some tracks, like ‘Paris, Tokyo,’ contrast his Twista-style rapid-fire delivery with a lazy rhythm that’s close to smooth jazz which can comparable to A Tribe Called Quest. ‘Hello/Goodbye,’ at the other extreme, has U.K. electro outfit Unkle providing a tense rock feel.” The New York Times, hailing the album as “one of the year�??s best hip-hop albums,” added that “The songs only grow more urgent as Lupe Fiasco expands his sociopolitical perspective. ‘Intruder Alert’ starts as a wary love song and broadens its topic to immigration. ‘Little Weapon,’ produced by Patrick Stump of Fall Out Boy, looks at children with guns, from child soldiers in Africa to high school shooters.” Allmusic said “He is one of the most clever artists around, and as far as telling stories with rhymes goes, he’s way up there, best exemplified by ‘Hip-Hop Saved My Life’ (a gripping story about a struggling rapper) and ‘Gotta Eat’ (where Lupe’s inspiration for metaphors is a cheeseburger, yet it is no more corny than Main Source’s classic ‘Just a Friendly Game of Baseball’).”
So it’s not like storytelling is dead. The fact that mindless drivel like Souljah Boy is even remotely popular speaks more about the retards who listen to such shit. It’s like stupidity is contagious or something.
