Lupe Fiasco

Released: November 24, 2011

Songwriter: John Coltrane Lupe Fiasco

Producer: Bob Thiele

[Verse 1]
She said love is a hard thing
Somewhere between golfing and gardening
Or parole board pardoning
But she was still down for a hard swing
Flowers she would pick like guitar strings
For a real good whiff
Of how life behind par seems
Until then she a bar-teend
And pour hot lead shots out of carbines
If an inmate ever even think about departing
Before it's time for the theft of a hard thing
Wanna see what a bum riding BART dreams
Before he get gunned down, cause some sharp scene
Saw it all on the way to the art scene
Around the time they kicked us out, they had the park cleaned
She ain't living in a car she just RV-ing
Life on ice like the San Jose Shark team
Hard times, tryna duck em like Darkwing
Known for burning clothes and petty car-keying
And other less harmful skylarking
Bought a bag out of American Rag
A small Chinese-made American flag
Took a dollar bill then split it in half
The picture that she bought wouldn't fit in the cab
On the train trying her best not to live in the past
A bum probably asked could he spit in her ass
And that was it, fits, tantrums random
Helter-Skelter, a world gone Manson

And I'll spare you the details
Dinner is ceviche out of seashells
Annoyed cause her date really can't speak well
But she forced to press on like Lee Nails
Next table was abhorred by the weed smell
She was done at the moment that the tee fell
A thick wool jacket on a cool night
Unimpressed by poems or the moonlight
Doesn't satisfy her like a game of pool might
Thinking "what if Fantasia had a broom strike?"
Tuned right out of that school life
Soon as reality became a camera crew and a boom mic
So what do you do like?
She said "Absurd last words from a dude off a Zoosk site"
And then left him
Like the Roots left Geffen
And the state Howlin' Wolf left Chess in
Stop to watch flows have an unpaid session on the steps of a Westin
She really need to check in
And to apologize to her best friend
New bras to put her chest in
Love life and death in...

The Chicago born Wasalu Muhammad Jaco first tasted success when he featured on Kanye West’s hit “Touch the Sky”, a track that shortly preceded his real breakout, his 2006 debut album Lupe Fiasco’s Food & Liquor, and he never looked back. He has established himself as one of the greatest urban wordsmiths of all time, with Genius even dubbing him the ‘Proust of Rap’.

While he’s now regarded of one of the 21st Century’s Hip-Hop greats, he wasn’t always a fan of the genre, initially disliking it due to the prominence of vulgarity and misogyny within it. In his late teens, he aspired to make it as a lyricist. In his early twenty’s, he met Jay-Z, who helped him sign with Atlantic Records in 2005. The following year, he released his debut album (Lupe Fiasco’s Food & Liquor), which was met with acclaim from fans and critics alike, as did his sophomore effort, Lupe Fiasco’s The Cool.

The following eight years of his career saw far less output than many would’ve anticipated. This can be partly attributed to his struggles with Atlantic Records. The executives wanted him to sign a 360 deal; however, as he refused to do so they instead shelved his already completed 3rd album, Lasers, and wouldn’t promote him as they had previously. The overseers at the label also interfered with his music (as they had tried to do with his fan-favorite track “Dumb it Down”); subsequently effecting the quality and sound of his third and fourth albums.

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