Lately it seems that every time someone mentions the name Lupe Fiasco, stories of Twitter beefs and a possible retirement sprout up.

There’s no debating that Fiasco is securing his position as one of the most militant yet socially conscious rappers in the game today. And if you take a listen to his latest album, “Lupe Fiasco Food and Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album Pt. 1,” it can be argued that the he’s really about that life. It’s not just an act.

Inspired by Nas’ “It Was Written,” Wasalu Jaco — better known as Lupe Fiasco — got into the rap game at 19 when he joined the group, Da Pak. The gangster rappers released one single before disbanding, but it only took the small taste of success to get Fiasco to re-evaluate his career.

“We had a song out about cocaine, guns and women, and I would go to a record store and look at it and think, ‘What are you doing?’ I felt like a hypocrite,” he told the Chicago Tribune in July 2006. “I was acting like this rapper who would never be judged, and I had to destroy that guy. Because what Lupe Fiasco says on this microphone is going to come back to Wasalu Jaco. When the music cuts off, you have to go home and live with what you say.”

Fiasco is known for his mixture of social consciousness with a distinctive delivery and doesn’t disappoint on this record. Probably from his background in poetry, Fiasco’s rhymes seem to flow like cool pieces of spoken word set to up-tempo and slow beats.

An excellent track that shows off his skills is “Lamborghini Angels.” Fiasco has a fierce but smooth delivery, paired with a high-energy beat that is impossible not to rock to. However, he flaunts true artistry when he uses flawless storytelling skills and intense metaphors to compare worshiped material items and the closed-mindedness of the music industry to exorcism, mind control and sexual abuse. The result is a catchy, powerful song, which if interpreted as intended is not overly abrasive, but rather enlightening.

This has always been a common trend in Fiasco’s music, despite the rather radical views on anti-establishment he’s often displayed. There was almost a unified, national gasp when he called President Obama and the United States terrorists in 2011. Adding fuel to the fire, he was recently involved in a Twitter war with comedian D.L. Hughley and journalist Roland S. Martin, who criticized his anti-voting stance. Ill words claiming that Lupe was “dumb” and that the others needed to back off were exchanged.

But take it or leave it, Fiasco is here to drop as much of what he calls knowledge as rhymes and, surprisingly, the root of his messages preach values that most people probably agree with. In the controversial single, “B***h Bad,” he addresses the notion that society’s use of the term to refer to women is degrading.

The chorus says “b****h bad, woman good, lady better, you’re misunderstood” while he tells the story of boys and girls whose image of women are distorted by music’s use of the word. The video for the single, though, had many questioning if he went too far when he featured characters in blackface, perhaps to portray what people are reduced to when terms are ingrained in our lives. But the overall message is effective and true.

And on “Around My Way,” he talks about everything from racism to his views on the government to “a bunch of nonsense on my TV,” set to an enjoyable groove and killer saxophone.

Despite what you may have heard, Fiasco isn’t quite the anti-American vigilante he seems to be. He is simply a man with a message, regardless of whether or not he takes it too far sometimes. Pick up “Lupe Fiasco Food and Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album Pt. 1” and see for yourself. You might even learn something.

Published on September 25, 2012 at 2:34 am

Contact Ibet: ieinyang@syr.edu