Released: July 8, 2008

Songwriter: Lupe Fiasco

Producer: Wildstyle

[Intro]
Neeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrdd!
Westside, Baby, what's good?
I'm only gonna do this once, man, once
Till the album come
So, check it out

[Verse]
From the M-A...D-I, to the S to the O-N
Potent, to get ya open
Moving like a nigga supposed to get the dough
In the 'Go with the flow that I'm holdin'
Yo, man, they ain't "On Enuff" or up on enough
To stay in the zone that I go in
That I go in, when I go in and go in
Of the poems, that were wrote and
Crucial Conflict was smokin'
But a nigga like me, I don't be chokin'
So I proceed at a low speed, low key
Like a OG in a '03 Loc-in'
Rollin' like a OZ, in a b-leaf
Both pins, like a bowlin' ball when I ball
But I never fall for the okey-dokin'
Whitewalls and the slow-speed motion
Stash-box for the police pokin'
Rolie showin, shorty showin, Hokey Pokin'
Turnin' it around with me
To bust 'em down cause they know he golden
Exactly, I'm in it from the minute I was in it
'Til the minute that I spit it and I'm finished
And it's sad for me
Until the second wind, and reinvent it with a vengeance
Revisit it and make 'em give it back to me

[Outro]
All right, that's all you get
I'm done, you know what I'm sayin'?
In the streets where the traffic be, nigga, what
Shout out to all of Chi-Town
Crucial Conflict!
Wildstyle, what's good? Coldhard, what up?
Never, what up? Kilo, what up?
Psycho Drama! The Snipers!
Do or Die! Um, let me see
Twista! C-Wall! Legit Ballaz!
Um, Traxster, what up, baby?
Um, who else out there?
Oh! Triple Darkness!
Um, Soldiers at War! Um, who else?
Y'all gotta forgive if I, if I can't remember everybody
But, y'know, there was some people that had a lotta influence
On the kid
Revenge!

Lupe Fiasco

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.