Its always exciting to find a new artist who you really enjoy listening to. And when they have a great debut album that's strong from start to finish. Lupe Fiasco's debut album, Food & Liquor is definitely one of those. I first heard "Kick, Push" and thought it was a great chill rap song, and liked the different vibe. Very laid-back. When I finally was able to check out the album, it was a great hip-hop album. I wouldn't say there are a lot of tracks that stand out, but the album flows smoothly from start to finish with Lupe putting together some great rhymes without needing to fill them up with cussing. Food & Liquor is definitely an album worth checking out.
1. Intro
A little bit of rhymin' and a little bit of introducing, basically introducing the concept of the title, that there's a little good and bad in all of us -- Food & Liquor if you will.
2. Real
For some reason I don't have anything to say about this song...
3. Just Might Be Ok
...Or this one.
4. Kick, Push
As I said earlier, this was the song that made me check out the album. Its a song about skateboarding and love and love of skateboarding.
5. I Gotcha
This song's got a nice piano melody playing throughout, while Lupe lays down the verses over the top.
6. The Instrumental
This song has some of the wickedest rhymes I've heard in a while. I'll put some of the lines here, but you really have to hear it to do it justice.
"He just sits, and listens to the people in the boxes7. He Say She Say
Everything he hears he absorbs and adopts it
Anything not comin out the box he blocks it
See he loves to box and hope they never stop it
Anything the box tell him to do, he does it
Anything it tell him to get, he shops and he cops it
He protects the box, locks it in a box"
A song about dads who aren't around and how it affects their kids adversely.
8. Sunshine
Another of my favorite tracks. Very chill. Sounds like walking outside on a perfect day, like today.
9. Daydreamin'
A great song about daydreamin'. Feels like a ghetto Alice in Wonderland. First verse is about driving a giant robot that's filled with ghetto people. Second verse seems to be about filming a music video.
10. The Cool
A song about a zombie coming back from the grave to get back to his life of drug dealing. Cool music.
11. Hurt Me Soul
A song about hip-hop music and how he didn't like it and its themes, but then as he grew up he saw that lots of what he heard in the music was all around him and it led him to write rhymes himself.
12. Pressure
I guess its worth mentioning that this track features Jay-Z who at the time was in about month 5 of his seemingly 6 month retirement.
13. American Terrorist
A song looking at acts of "terrorism" and racism in America.
14. The Emperor's Soundtrack
Not sure what this song is about, but I like the way it sounds. Its like a gospel record.
15. Kick, Push II
A revisit to the skateboarding theme of Kick, Push. Talks about a group of kids skating together and how they held together when they didn't have much else going for them, and how getting away from trouble at home to skate was an escape that wasn't drugs. Its almost like a remix of Kick, Push but with totally different verses and chorus and sound. I know that doesn't make sense, but to me, somehow, it does.
16. Outro
A 12-minute track featuring more shout-outs than I've ever heard in a row, including shout-outs to pretty much anything you can think of. Myspace, for example, or Dave's Quality Meats.
If you made it all the way to the end of this review, you deserve to know that this might be the last of the "Albums That I Love" series. I'm kind of at the end of the albums that I can think of to write about for now. I'm going to have to figure out what the new weekly feature might be. Feel free to offer suggestions.
In case you hadn't figured out you could click on the "labels" on each post to find more of the "albums that I love", here's the full list:
#1: August & Everything After by The Counting Crows
#2: The Carnival by Wyclef Jean
#3: Donde Estan Los Ladrones? by Shakira
#4: Ocean Avenue by Yellowcard
#5: Joyspring by Kurt Bestor
#6: The Blue Album by Weezer
#7: Best of 2006 (as voted by me)
#8: The Rising Tied by Fort Minor
#9: Sueños Liquidos by Maná
#10: This Desert Life by The Counting Crows
#11: The Hits by Garth Brooks
#12: Let's Face It by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones
#13: Code Red by DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince
#14: Come On, Come On by Mary Chapin Carpenter
#15: Food & Liquor by Lupe Fiasco
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