Lupe Fiasco

Released: December 2, 2013

[December 2, 2013:]
Teriyaki Joe: Neo-Harlem Detective

Chapter 3: Gravy

---Download Complete--- Hmmm looks like I'll be heading upstairs.

The cab stinks. The stale intensity of so many burned out digital cigar cores left to decay on the floor. The acid graffiti. It doesn't fit.

Not fit transport for somebody "Going Upstairs" as they say. We all say that. Some champagne and classical music would be nice.

Maybe a chauffeur would give the trip up top a fancier sentiment. I mean the best of us should travel with a little more class and dignity.

This is like being in a port-o-potty with thrusters. A couple coughs. A well aimed spit. Yeah thats how the "Best Of Us" do it, precisely.

Up through the clouds. Directly into the Moon. We pass through it. It's only a meter thick. So warm. So fake. Color is still wrong to me.

The cab slows to a halt. Border patrol scans the ID tags. All clear. One step down. Disinfection nozzles spray the cab down. Missed a spot.

Step three is up next. Blindness. Total sensory disconnect. 3 seconds. 3 weeks. It's all the same in "non-sense." Helpless. Out of touch.

"EOJ LAER TON RUOY" --------- *digital sizzle"

----------------------—•----------------------------------------------------music-------------------------------------------------------

---------------!!! Awww Nice. Grass. Glass. Nothing else. Central Fucking Park Baby! It's all tai-chi and vegan techno utopia. Upstairs.

NH is Downstairs. Can't see it from here. Shit I wouldn't wanna see it either. Most these folks never have. Never will. Where's my devil?

Birthing out of Non-sense mode is always a mellow moment. Has to be or the shock would give you a heart attack. Wish I could smoke here.

Man would you look at that. The real Sun. Son of a bitch. My devil approaches. His name is 11. Mid level manager at a pill manufacturer.

I don't believe him. He's not my devil. Too many questions. He's just checking me out. He knows I know. He changes to his real voice.

All this espionage. Games. The real voice isn't really right either. Neither are the eyes. All tests. The "air" is thick with nano-machines

It's like wading in a pool of thin water. It's what moves things here. A seamless, all encompassing soup of nano-machines & information.

A spoonful of this stuff would sell for millions back Downstairs if we had real sunlight to keep it alive that is. What'd he say???!!!

"That's right Mr.Teriyaki (-It's Joe!-) I want you to bring my daughter back."

Impossible.

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.

more tracks from the album

Teriyaki Joe: Neo-Harlem Detective

From the album

Teriyaki Joe: Neo-Harlem Detective (2013)

Lupe Fiasco popular songs

Teriyaki Joe: Neo-Harlem Detective (Chapter Three: Gravy)Lupe Fiasco

Lupe Fiasco

Teriyaki Joe: Neo-Harlem Detective