Lupe Fiasco

Released: December 12, 2016

Songwriter: Lupe Fiasco

Producer: J. Cole

[Verse]
Too many best-rappers, not enough best-rhymes, though
Guess I'm delusional, used to doing it all the time, so
Maybe I'm just jaded, out of touch and unrelated
Unable to connect greatness based on the person who makes it
Or maybe I just hate it
And that would make me hater
Maybe it is great but that don't mean it's greater
Having your profile raised doesn't make you a raiser
Being ambiguous with assertions, isn't making you safer
What you mean, though?
Line us up, paddling us on the back
Like we steamboat, you president of the frat
You goin' sling toast, like you Ringo
And you think Doc Holliday's
Just goin' tolerate and too sick to let that thing go
It's just a matter of returns
Ashes to ashes, scattered them from the urns
To start a fire shaky to gather them from the burned
And reassemble these ashes, the blackness is something firm
Then moving blackness backwards in the bread of some other shit
Any deep we spreadin' wheat seeds from a bucket shit
McDonald had a farm and he lovin' it
Rolls Royce of the scented voice against the arms of the government
Artists gettin' robbed for their publishing
By dirty Jewish execs that think his alms from the covenant
I'll retire when I'm tired, that's a Firestone death
Easy to say when nobody's there, like a microphone check
They wanna hear what I'm gon' say before the microphone check
Make me sign an NDA before the microphone test
'Less you face that type of faith, institutional opposition
Then with all due respect, you are not my competition
Nah

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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