“Love Always Shines Every time Remember to Smile”
Chicago’s own, Lupe Fiasco, has finally released his 3rd album, Lasers, after 3 years of anticipation. Fans are divided: some love it, some hate it. Some people say it isn’t the same Lupe as before. Here’s my point of view on the situation:
As a Lupe fan myself, I do think that Food & Liquor and The Cool stand on another level compared to Lasers, but, either way Lasers is a good album and can easily stand on its own. Fans have argued that Lupe’s record company (Atlantic Records) has influenced Lupe in changing his style, making this album have a more of a mainstream sound. I get it that we are not getting the same chill, laid back beats like in “Kick, Push”, there are some songs that I would get into more detail later on, but even though if it sounds “so mainstream”, its still Lupe, and it is still a good product. As a true fan would know: Lupe isn’t just about hip-hop, its about rock, and pop and everything else. Regardless of what people say, listen to it and you will know that Lasers is worth your bucks.
In Lasers, we still get more of Lupe’s iconic thought-provoking lyrics as in the previous albums. Songs like “Words I Never Said” we listen to Lupe talking about the war on terror, politics and society in general, the words Lupe never said were those: his thoughts about what is going on. Or even in songs like “All Black Everything”, where Lupe talks about re-visioning America: Martin Luther King dying as an old man, President Bush sending condolences from Iran, Bill O’Reilly reading the Quran, etc, they all fit into one of Lupe’s utopian fantasy. This song surely will make you think about what if things hadn’t happen the way they did, where would we be now? “Now we can do nothing bout the past /But we can do something about the future that we have“.
Lasers features different artists such as Trey Songz, Skylar Grey, Sarah Green, MDMA, John Legend, sELF, Eric Turner & Sway. All of their songs with Lupe were very enjoyable, and I get why some fans think is “so mainstream”. Perhaps, the fact that these artist are providing hooks/choruses to the songs, that are rather catchy, I could definitely see some of the radio stations playing some more Lupe often. Songs like “Out Of My Head” featuring Trey Songz have that power to be on the Billboard Hot 100 and for people to get to know more about Lupe. “Til I Get There” has the typical chill hip hop sound that defines Lupe, one of my favorites for sure.
In my opinion, Lupe is one of the best lyricist, if not THE best at the moment, and he is the type of rappers who actually delivers a message through his songs, without talking about profanity, drugs, money, as the majority of the rappers nowadays do. Lupe is an artist that even though he is on his 3rd album, still needs to breakout, still needs to show a brighter side of himself that will attract more people, and I’m positive that Lasers is the album that will do it for him.
Some of my favorite songs: “Words I Never Said”, “Beautiful Lasers”, “Out Of My Head”, “Til I Get There” and “Never Forget You”
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“Lasers” is available at our TYF Store!
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