Lupe Fiasco’s Food & Liquor

𝘍𝘰𝘰𝘥 & 𝘓𝘪𝘲𝘶𝘰𝘳 is a solid hip hop record, but nothing particularly groundbreaking. While Lupe Fiasco shows skill as a lyricist and storyteller, it’s hard to imagine this album having the revolutionary impact on hip hop that some claim. The 12-minute outro, basically a long thank-you list put to a beat, feels unnecessary and drags down the experience. There are some strong tracks here, but overall it feels more like a competent debut than a classic. In the end, it’s good, just not essential.

Super toothless and generic modern rap.

This album is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too long. 72 minutes...

Surprisingly good. I enjoyed it pretty much. Good instrumentals, good lyrics and vocals, this had it all.

Second hiphop album on the trot. This time someone I’ve never heard of. Actually enjoyed most of the music. Maybe I’m softening up to hiphop? 


Of course, this being 21st century hip hop, some of the lyrics are a bit crap. But in general I can’t understand what they are saying half the time and I can’t be arsed to read a lyric sheet. Like I care anyway. Nice of him to read the sleeve notes on the Outro though!
So based on the beats, the melodies, the rhythm. It’s a 3.

Rap crap

It's a really solid rap album. Kick push was a huge hit. Daydreamin' was an amazing cover. I would recommend it for fans of conscious rap.

Bro really did a 12 minute outro consisting of looped 10 seconds for said 12 minutes and him thanking and giving shoutouts to people involved in the album, inspirations, TV stations, radio stations, other bands and artists and rappers, family, friends, even some clubs etc. etc. Well, quite an interesting experience, I wouldn't exepct that. These thank yous were longer than in any book I've ever read and I've read not a small amount of books. Besides that, I enjoyed this album, maybe not 100% of it, but more than less. I am not sure if it's because I've been getting better hip-hop albums recently (including this one), or is it because I built up a tolerance of hip-hop over time - listening to many of them from this list. And please, change the album cover, it's horrendous.

If I were approached in public to talk about Lupe Fiasco, chances are that the one thing I would recall off the top of my head would be "The Show Goes On" from his album Lasers, a song I enjoy that people can point to as the biggest highlight of his career. A couple of years after that, he went independent, and unless you were following his later material, it would appear as if he fell off the radar. It's rather bizarre to me, considering how much of the music industry was backing him up, especially given early connections he made with Jay-Z and Kanye West. Case in point, his debut album, Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor, made the most of this backing, and I consider it a success.

Between the variety of sharp beats and instrumental motifs from the multiple producers on this record, as well as Lupe's lyrical flow and intricate wordplay, enough is going on here to keep me intrigued. Also helping matters is that Lupe chose to stray from any violence or misogyny in his subject matter as he felt that was too prevalent in hip-hop music. Instead, we have songs that get on the cusp of greater philosophical understanding, such as the dissection of human nature and the actions one can take on "Just Might Be OK", the chronicling of stages of life through the lens of a skateboarder on "Kick, Push", the obsession with electronic devices on "The Instrumental", to the challenging of hip-hop culture stereotypes on "Daydreamin'" and "Hurt Me Soul", and a rather scathing critique of the United States's track record with humanitarian efforts on "American Terrorist". Sure, in moments, there are opportunities to go lyrically deeper, and a couple of tracks deal with a similar theming of Lupe's reconciliation with hip-hop music in its then-current state and how to move forward within the scene. But, I would say for the most part, this album proved to be thoughtful and introspective in its approach.

If anything, my issue with this album is that it is rather long. At the very least, I didn't feel the need to include a 12-minute outro where Lupe thanks everyone who was involved in his upbringing up to this point, no matter how small their contributions may have been. While well-intentioned, it does not feel necessary to the overall product.

Still, I'm rather impressed with Food & Liquor. I certainly get the appeal of Lupe Fiasco as a lyricist, and it has me curious how the rest of his output has been.

Sometimes, I start listening to an album and I’m pretty unimpressed for the first couple of songs, and then something, usually a lyric, will catch me, and I’ll start listening with a different mindset, like a switch has been flipped. This album is one of those.

For the first few songs, I was bored. It sounded too much like Kanye, I didn’t think the production was all that interesting, and it was just background noise. And then we got to I Gotcha, and the wordplay, the flow, the peppy beat - it just grabbed me. The album just got better from there.

This is some of the best storytelling you’re going to get in a rap album of this era. This project needs more modern hip hop, and this is an absolutely worthy inclusion.

I think I'd give it a 4 if it was shorter but 1h12m is just too long to spend with generic 2000s beats

Better than Coldplay

Never heard of Lupe Fiasco before today. Kanye West, Jay-Z, and Mike Shinoda apparently helped produce the record. You can hear the influence Mike had on the albums sound in a few tracks (sounds like the rap sections of Linkin Park songs).

In the song Real, the background singer sounds exactly like the band Vitas performing the chorus of their song The 7th Element (iykyk).

I didn't need a 12 minute track of Lupe reading the album liner notes. Kinda a dumb concept.

Overall, a pretty good album. Nothing too exciting, but a solid album nonetheless

Favorite songs: The Instrumental, "Kick, Push", He Say She Say, Hurt Me Soul, "Kick, Push II"

Least favorite songs: Outro, Intro (fuck skits)

3/5

Quite epic. He has a lot to say as most rappers do. Again I’m not the audience for this but it’s appealing. Really moved by KickPush and the reprise at the end. Listenable with shades of jazz and soul. Not bad!

Gonna be honest, I'm thinking I'm harsher on this album than I normally would be since I'm kinda feeling like I'm not in the mood for this record. It's something I might be able to appreciate more if I give it another shot in the future, but gonna go off my listen now.

That said, I still don't think its particularly great. Extremely, distractingly overproduced, just way too much going on. Also way too long. Hour and 12 is indulgent, especially for how stuffed/overproduced this thing is.
Kinda feels like budget Kanye to me.

I Gotcha has a terrible beat. Like he's rapping over an Animal Crossing tune. Those two things don't mix unless you're K.K. Slider.

Some solid tunes though. Sunshine (even though the start with the stutter was annoying, Hurt Me Soul has a similar start), Kick Push, Daydreamin'.

But overall, I'm just not feeling it.

I was not excited to listen to this. I had never heard of this guy. But I really liked it!

I will admit that I did not listen to the entire outro. Woof.

Now this is an album that I'm definitely going to revisit! Good flow and beats, there's a lot of multifaceted skills and personalities in the background of this album. The outro is heartwarming as well: it's nice for a rapper to give credit where credit is due. Albums like these rarely are the complete domain of a single person: it's usually a team effort.

Sorry, but... No. Just so generic.

A food and liquor I didn't mind visiting

I’m not listening to this

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