Released: March 30, 2020

My door
Is the scariest place on earth
I fear what is on the other side
But I love what is there, too
The balance of life in life
On me, I have armor and sword
On me, hang the hopes
On me, call the needy
On me, call the frail
On me, depend the palace
On me, depend the fragile
In this I rally
In this I prepare
Into that I go
My door is the scariest place on earth
For on the other side is me
And my sword and my armor and my hopes
On me, the cause are hung
On me, are the walls
My doors keep me not safe
My doors protect the ills from me
My door is the last chance for that which reared head and breathed fire and stole joy and ended youth
My door is the scariest of doors
To the malady and the kings
When it opens the world will shake, the hearts will fill
When it opens the winds will come with
And the light will shine off my armor and my sword
And the voices will rise and the calls will become hollas
And the temperature will soar, the arrows will strike me
I will be pierced
I will be overwhelmed
I will break
I will collapse
I will be consumed
But I will regain my footing
I will drag my armor my sword in the weight of the cause
Step by step, until I reach the door
The door of crisis
The door of malady
And I will close it

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.