Album Review: Lupe Fiasco - Food & Liquor II: Great American Rap Album Pt.1

Rating ****/5

This album was a great listen. The beginning was very heavy, I really dug it. I didn't like the bottom end of it so much, but I feel like it wasn't directed towards a person like me as much as the beginning. He starts off with a really strong message and delivers different messages throughout, all with a ton of informational value. Every track has its fair share of Lupe tier word-play. I think it's the most lyrical album he's put together. It is surely on par with the first Food and Liquor album and I think almost everyone can enjoy this.






1. Ayesha Says - The opening track matches the first F&L album, with a spoken-word verse by Lupe's sister Ayesha Jaco. It paints a strong mental image by referencing some cantankerous subjects in American culture. It touches on topics such as Treyvon Martin, the economy and unemployment rates and the ghettos. Over the background the sounds of the crowded streets can be heard. It really brought back that classic Lupe vibe. It's a nostalgic track for a big fan of Lupe's debut.


2. Strange Fruition, Ft. Casey Benjamin - This is an absolutely beautiful piece by Lupe. Perhaps one of the most impressing and favorable tracks he's ever made. It's a song about waking up (fruition) to the mental slavery people succumb to. It contains a lot of symbolism and connotation. All the word-play maybe an ode to Shakespeare. The entire song is written as a Shakespearean Sonnet. Strange Fruition carries a heavy amount of metaphors and Shakespeare himself has some of the most notable metaphors in history. "All the world's a stage.", for example, which seems to be the vibe this track has. Topics in the song include; the ignorance of the youth, crooked cops and greed over money.
The track name is a play on a Billie Holiday song "Strange Fruit". The Holiday song is an "anti-racism" twelve-bar blues song that paints a gruesome image of hanging slave corpses. The hook on the song (done by Casey Benjamin), touches on the Holiday reference a bit, referring to swinging imagery and tying it in with a modern line, "They're dodging 5-0." Sountrakk produces the beat, just like the 2nd track on F&L1, perhaps again to match the vibe, which perfectly fits the feel they aimed for. It's a very layered production with a few real instruments and light synth chords. Strange Fruition all adds up to being a track about mental slavery and trying to bring the listener to a fruition of it.


3. ITAL (Roses) - I'll start this one by saying, this track is lacking in more than one field. I wasn't a huge fan of the producing, done by 1500 or Nothin'. (Maybe they should call him 1500 or Nothin' special.) The beat felt a little repetitive, along with Lupe's flow. The first two verses had Lupe rapping about the "lying images" of mainstream rappers. The current state of rap music is clearly something he doesn't agree with as he notes quite a few times on this album. In the first verse he's attempting to inform the young fans of hip-hop to realize that everything these other rappers do may be flashy, isn't always smart. The second verse is on the same topic, but directed more towards the the rappers actually causing the problem. Making them aware of the state that they're not "building up their confidence" just "teaching them they aint' shit." The final verse he raps about the time he referred to the time he called the President a terrorist and tries to justify it. He also cases some other things we don't really put into perspective too often. Like life in a middle-eastern country for regular children, which he actually compares to growing up in Chicago, lol. All-in-all, this was a good track, that I personally didn't enjoy a whole lot, due to the weak repetitive instrumental and Lupe's inability to do anything special with the same topic that he's always rapping about. I know what he can really do with the subject so I wasn't very impressed by this one.


4. Around My Way (Freedom Isn't Free) - Ok, the beat on this one definitely recovers the life of the album after the last track. It sampled 'Pete Rock- Troy' one of my favorite old-school tracks period, so it was pretty fun to hear. Lupe's flow is certainly in full effect, show casing his ability to spit fast and still sound as good as he does with his popular slow flow. The only thing I can be sure of about this song after only a few listens... is that the lyricism is amazing. Some of the best by Lupe, it seriously might be his wittiest work. It's going to take a couple more times through this track to take everything in. The whole song sticks to the album title and theme "American". It mentions the hidden purposes that things we so commonly glamorize. Like how clothing and cars maybe coveted and seen as fancy, realistically those cars are wasting fossil fuels and the shoes and clothes we all want doesn't help out any real problems, the corporations just market them to get "gas for the jets". I know this track is supposed to carry meaning and all that, but I really want to point out again the amount of lyricism in here. Some of my favorite references consist of, a brilliant Simpson's reference, "..you can be Mr. Burns or Mr. Smithers, the tyrant or the slave, but nowhere in the middle." The line following, also another one that really had me thinking, "Of the extremes of America’s dream, Freud fighting Neo, Freddy Krueger refereeing, now." This one particularly took me a few reads to really understand it for what it was. I took it as some pseudo-deep bar, until I realized the layers it really had. The fact that Sigmund Freud, Neo, and Freddy Krueger all deal with dreams is a cool concept. The thick of it really kicks in when you realize that Sigmund was all about how your unconscious brain was what really directed everything that goes on in your actions. Neo was almost an opposite of that, conquering the Matrix of robotic like people acting out of unconscious thoughts forced onto them. Freddy Krueger (symbolism for the more powerful forces, such as government), being a controller and villain in your dreams won't even let you choose a side. How could you live out the American "dream" if Freddy Krueger is the referee? There's also a Cadillac's & Dinosaurs reference in there. :) And a comparison where he put's Meth and masturbation in the same category. :( Overall this is a great song, the beat may not justify or credit the lyrics, but the tempo is suiting and Lupe does a great enough job with the words to make the entire track enjoyable.


5. Audubon Ballroom - This song kind of had that newer Diddy feel to it, which I'm not really into. I thought the hook here was very iffy. You'll know what I'm talking about when you hear hear it. The track as a whole is something I will probably give a listen when playing the full album, but nothing I'd go listen to on it's own. The Audubon Ballroom was the place where Malcom X was killed, so this song consisted of a lot of Black History and other throwback cultural references. It didn't really have any stand outs or specific strong points, I guess you could say the message was, then again that's standard for this album so this track's nothing too special.


6. Bitch Bad - This is a stand out track thanks to the content of the lyrics. This is easily one of the most important and inquisitive rap singles of the year. It's about the use of the term bitch in rap and the identity it holds as positive and negative. There isn't too much word-play here, but it's unnecessary, as this track is mostly story telling. Each verse provides a different persons point-of-view on the term "Bad Bitch." In the first verse there's a boy riding in the car with his mother and she's singing about being a bad bitch. Lupe touches on how it's not cool for a boy to hear his mother talk like that and the idea he's going to have of a bitch, since his parental figure is now a "bitch". In the next verse we have a group of young girls watching videos online (Nicki Minaj - Stupid Hoe, maybe? Lol). Lupe talks about the impact this video has on the young girls. On the last verse we have a couple teenagers, maybe even boy from the first verse and a girl from the second, hanging out with each other. The girl has been influenced by music that refers to "bad bitches" and acts that way, while the boy doesn't really find it attractive. Lupe also speaks on the paradox of bad bitch with some pretty clever bars in the end. The beat here is fantastic, I love it. It's purposely done in a mainstream sound to connect it to the message. I'd almost rather here it over a song about bad bitches and their asses or something so I could hear it in the club lol. That would definitely take the art away from this great track though.
Here are some discussions by forums members on this song.
http://www.funkvolumeforums.com/t4365-lupe-fiasco-bitch-bad-video
http://www.funkvolumeforums.com/t4690-lupe-fiasco-talks-bitch-bad-with-rapgenius


7. Lamborghini Angels - The beat here was awesome, keeps the velocity from the previous track. It's got a slightly more chill vibe to it. It opens up with the hook, which is a sample from 'Angels Remix' on Enemy Of The State. It was definitely one of my faves on that mixtape. This song has quite a bit of religious reference and symbolism. Even at that, it is an incredibly lyrical song. Not for a weak stomach, it has some shockingly grotesque lyrics. Most of the body of this track is about how religion is used as a negative tool. Although, he uses some bible quotes to spread his message, he goes on to almost bash Catholicism with a verse about a girl being operated on by a priest so that she can be changed or controlled by him and the other people that think what he's doing is right. There's a third verse about a priest raping a boy, it's almost disturbing. This is a very unique track all in all, with great production quality. If you are a true 90's kid, you'll recognize the intro sample. ;D ("AMANDA PLEASE.")


8. Put Em Up - This is the first time on the Album that Lupe strays away a bit. This song has a decent beat not great (not surprising from 1500 or Nothin'), a little bit heavy like the last two. Put Em Up has a lot of allure towards a mainstream audience, which confuses me on why he didn't put it out as a single. As expected, this song is reliant on Lupe's flow and the catchy hook. I can't really express how awesome the opening verse on this track is. This song might have the most pop-culture references on the album, from The Flintstones to NFL to Goodyear to Harry Potter and plenty more. It's a pretty fun song with a lot of potential to be a radio hit, if he wanted to promote it that way.


9. Heart Donor, Ft. Poo Bear - The energy slows down a lot when this one starts. It's a positive track with pretty lackluster production value. It has a meaningful, yet terribly sung hook by Poo Bear (Poo Bear?). I feel like he ruined his feature on The Cool too. Anyways, the song doesn't really allow Lupe to shine. He's got pretty good lyrics here nothing amazing. The message consists of him letting us know he's a positive type of dude showing love (Donating his heart? I guess). About how he "puts his heart and soul" into his music and just wants everyone to know he's here for them and through music he wants people to feel the love and that he means well.


10. How Dare You, Ft. Bilal - How Dare You is the first track towards the ladies here. It's got a good uplifting feel with a jazzy type beat. I like this one, it's definitely classy. There's not much to say about this track. It's mostly flirtatious word-play and similes directed towards a woman, maybe his wifey. This song does a good job at showing his range of style. It really sounds like one of those feel-good Young Jeezy tracks, especially with the piano and all the Jeezyesque ad-libs. (Heeyy Yeahhh! Ohhh! etc.) A certain lyric at the end of the second verse really stood out to me. "You know I got you. Have you looked in the mirror? You know that's not cool." The way he words the last bit sounds like "...you know that's Haiku.", which would carry it past the entendre that it is into a double-meaning, into even more considering that those last 3 lines are written in Haiku format. Just something I thought of... Lupe offers a lot of content like this. The hook is well sung and the beat is well layered and something I could really enjoy as an instrumental.


11. Battle Scars, Ft. Guy Sebastian - Another "newer Diddy" sounding instrumental here. Lupe keeps it metaphorical yet dumbs it down a bit. Maybe because this is a single and he wants the unsuspecting radio listener to catch on to some clever word-play, yet be simple enough for most people to understand. The song is an analogy for "Love" being a battle and the pain from a relationship or the "war with love" being battle scars. It has two relatively weak 8 bars from Lupe with mostly hook and bridge done by himself and the feature. This song was clearly not directed towards fans of hip-hop but, was definitely necessary for album hype. Guy Sebastian delivers a nasally performance with faux-range implicated through production. It's a pretty strong track to buzz off of, considering it really expresses how Lupe is a positive person. However, it will probably be skipped when re-listening to this album.


12. Brave Heart, Ft. Poo Bear - 'Slow Flow' Lupe over a semi-decent beat. The track is nothing special. Poo Bear bombs on the hook again. I'm guessing here, Lupe had this awesome song written (the bars in this track are very good), but I don't believe he wrote it for this beat for some reason. Well, the song goes on to talk about overcoming certain obstacles through courage and having a "Brave Heart". (I'm sure there's a Wizard of Oz reference somewhere in this song, lol). It's only two verses and he raps about certain issues he has overcome like nervousness during rapping or having all this money and not letting it get to him (What a scary problem...). It's about just being brave and generally standing on your feet and just pushing through problems. It gives the album a nice flow with the previous track being Battle Scars, a song about getting torn up from relationships, on to Brave Heart pushing through shit like that, even though you have scars. This track was decent, but it was a little low-tempo for me and it's something I might listen to if I wanted to get out of a shitty mood.


13. Form Follows Function - The album drops out of that poppy vibe its held over the last few tracks here. There is some very encoded rap here. Lupe has three amazing verses that all roll into each other. Pay very close attention to the word-play here, you can really get lost. He carries a solid flow smoothly over this beat. There is a very excessive amount of homophones, heteronyms and similes. Lupe proves here that he is an Mc's Mc. This is the kind of track that's built Lupe's amazing fan base. I can't say too much else about this track, he makes some of the most complex lyrics sound easy. The depth of this song is potentially endless.


14. Cold War, Ft. Jane $$$ - "The complexity is enormous." Lupe says, on the second verse of Cold War. This song has a pretty relaxed beat, another 1500 or Nothin' production, repetitive and simple at that. The hook is not anything I would have ever put on a track. I still don't understand why they had to mention anything about the government in the U.S.S.R. The lyrics in the body of the song on the other hand are just on another level. He has three strong verses. One where he talks about a funeral for another Muslim he attended in New York, doesn't explain how he died though (He may be referencing Esco from Rocafella. They don't know how he died and he was Lupe's best friend. He's referenced later in the song). He just sort of describes the pain and talks about the day of the Jannaza. He goes on to talk about how the world can turn you into a colder, darker person and some pains he's had from his past and the memories from it. In the final verse he is obviously speaking of someone who is not alive anymore, "his brother" who I think was Esco from Roc. He mentions in this verse that the song is dedicated to him and creates imagery of him sitting in his chair, maybe as a ghost, enjoying it. It's a pretty cool idea. This song definitely holds a lot of meaning to Lupe. It's enjoyable, I probably would skip, I don't really like the hook.


15. Unforgivable Youth, Ft. Jason Evigan - This song is deep, but I'm not very into the hook. I really didn't like this song, which is unfortunate because it had one of the strongest messages on the album. It was a story style rap. The first verse contains information about the pilgrims that came to America and how they took the land, etc. The second verse goes on to touch on slavery and then into America being started and built up into what it is. And finally, the third verse is about a future of America. He raps about archaeologists digging up the past (our present) and discovering the "Unforgivable" things we did, but seeing them as fine. He mentions how they would have no idea how there was starving people and poor people with all the amount of things they dug up. Then they end up digging a temple up, which is revealed as the white house. It was a pretty cool song, but the sound was something I just couldn't get into.


16. Hood Now - A nice synthy beat for the outro, the most enjoyable 1500 or Nothin' production on the album. I took this track as a reflection on certain subjects on the album, mostly talking about how rap and the hood have made such an impact on things in American culture now. He's says something that was previously known as high-class, and then goes on to say "it's hood now" a few times. Like fashion shows.. it's hood now! Or diamond rings and chains... it's hood now! It was a decent outro, it carried out a bit, but definitely creating the feeling of a fade out, standard for any album of this caliber.

Looking forward to it!

yes cause Lube checks these forums

DGCK wrote:Edit: I will actually put this up tomorrow, when the album legally drops. Seems fair to Lupe.

Man I was gonna do this. Can we both make one and see whos is better?
I don't really care.

STRANGEgenius wrote:yes cause Lube checks these forums

I am Lupe, haha bitches!

anthonyFv wrote:

DGCK wrote:Edit: I will actually put this up tomorrow, when the album legally drops. Seems fair to Lupe.

Man I was gonna do this. Can we both make one and see whos is better?
I don't really care.

Go ahead, mine is up.

STRANGEgenius wrote: lube

LUBE

[quote="DGCK"]

anthonyFv wrote:

DGCK wrote:Edit: I will actually put this up tomorrow, when the album legally drops. Seems fair to Lupe.

Man I was gonna do this. Can we both make one and see whos is better?
I don't really care.

Go ahead, mine is up.

Alrite I might still do it. I like yours though, except for when you said you werent to impressed with ITAL. That was probably my favorite song on the whole album! along with strange fruition,audobon ballroom, and maybe form follows function. Still a great review though.BTW My least favorites were probably Heart Doner,Battle Scars, and Lamborghini Angels

[quote="anthonyFv"]

DGCK wrote:

anthonyFv wrote:

DGCK wrote:Edit: I will actually put this up tomorrow, when the album legally drops. Seems fair to Lupe.

Man I was gonna do this. Can we both make one and see whos is better?
I don't really care.

Go ahead, mine is up.

Alrite I might still do it. I like yours though, except for when you said you werent to impressed with ITAL. That was probably my favorite song on the whole album! along with strange fruition,audobon ballroom, and maybe form follows function. Still a great review though.BTW My least favorites were probably Heart Doner,Battle Scars, and Lamborghini Angels

I didn't like Heart Donor or Battle Scars very much either. Sorry about the ITAL opinion, I just couldn't vibe to it. I liked it for sure. It just wasn't on par with a lot of the tracks on this album. But hey, I loved Lambo Angels but it seemed like it wasn't one of your faves.

well thats a long review

STRANGEgenius wrote:well thats a long review

I didn't realize it till it was actually done. I had listened to all the tracks at least 3 or 4 times before this review, I've been working on this here and there for the past few days lol.

Amazing review! extremely well written and I enjoyed the read
Keep it up bro, best review I've read so far

Jeet wrote:4th sentence: "Every track has its* fair share of Lupe tier word-play"
8th line in the 3rd paragraph: "hanging slave* corpses"
6th paragraph: "The track as a whole is something I will probably give a listen when I listen to the album, but nothing I'd go listen to on it's own." You may want to re-arrange the wording on that
14th paragraph: "The album drops out of that poppy vibe its* held over the last few tracks here."
15th paragraph, 6th line: "He's referencing later in the song" not sure if you mean referenced*?
16th paragrapy, 6th line: "He mentions how they would have no idea how there* was starving people and poor people with all the amount of things they dug up"

But otherwise, amazing review! extremely well written and I enjoyed the read
Keep it up bro, best review I've read so far

grammar nazi.

[quote="DGCK"]

anthonyFv wrote:

DGCK wrote:

anthonyFv wrote:

DGCK wrote:Edit: I will actually put this up tomorrow, when the album legally drops. Seems fair to Lupe.

Man I was gonna do this. Can we both make one and see whos is better?
I don't really care.

Go ahead, mine is up.

Alrite I might still do it. I like yours though, except for when you said you werent to impressed with ITAL. That was probably my favorite song on the whole album! along with strange fruition,audobon ballroom, and maybe form follows function. Still a great review though.BTW My least favorites were probably Heart Doner,Battle Scars, and Lamborghini Angels

I didn't like Heart Donor or Battle Scars very much either. Sorry about the ITAL opinion, I just couldn't vibe to it. I liked it for sure. It just wasn't on par with a lot of the tracks on this album. But hey, I loved Lambo Angels but it seemed like it wasn't one of your faves.

Its all good. Its your opinion. And I do kinda like Lambo Angels, just not as much as most of the other songs on this album. Great review by the way. Im not making one anymore because you already did one that would be way better than anything I would do.

I am doing Kendrick Lamars Album though.

anthonyFv wrote:I am doing Kendrick Lamars Album though.

I really wanted to do Kendricks album, :(

DGCK wrote:

anthonyFv wrote:I am doing Kendrick Lamars Album though.

I really wanted to do Kendricks album, :(

haha we can both review it. I will win (and actually do it) this time.

you guys can both review the album.

can you please add the numbers of the tracks?

I was actually surprised when I read this, not that I don't think you were capable enough but you've obviously put a huge amount of thought into it and I enjoyed this a lot, man.

STRONG CONTENDER.

I was actually surprised when I read this, not that I don't think you were capable enough but you've obviously put a huge amount of thought into it and I enjoyed this a lot, man.

STRONG CONTENDER.