Track Review ⊙ Daily Ops Home
Lupe Fiasco :: "Failure"From Fahrenheit 1/15 (Mixtape; 2005)
A word of assurance that, yes, we still got one ear on streets outside of Ottawa, or at least half an ear. Also, our half-ear hears a year later, like seeing starlight. But this track review isn’t really about that mixtape up top, of course, or even as much as it should be about the actual track, it’s more about establishing some perfunctory CMG & Lupe history, some relationship (“Hey, Lupe, it’s C, remember the way we were… last month?”) before the young wild card from “Touch the Sky” drops his full length debut this June, before the we of Cokemachine peg our donkey-tail intentions on that album with a fat praise dollop inflated by this year’s deprivation of rap worth raving on. I keep dreaming of 10 the Hard Way.
Chris Alexander: “Hip Hop in 06 (besides Dilla and Ghost)?” The Glow’s hop-inclined contingent: “Maybe P.O.S.? The new Lupe Fiasco? Shrug. ” Aaron Newell: “That Lupe’s pretty ok, huh?” Clay Purdom: “Yeah, he’s pretty impressive. He also pretty cleanly bridges backpacker lyrics with Roc-A-Fella production.” Aaron: “What’s ‘backpacker lyrics’?” Clay: “You know those kids that tuck their iPods into their backpacks and have really big headphones and hoodies and a little bit of ill-kempt facial hair? The shit they listen to.” Aaron: “What do people who dress like that listen to?” Scott Reid: “Sole.” Scott Reid: “j/k, no one listens to Sole.”
The convo’s publicly regurgitated here because Clay nails the basic Lupe Fiasco formula, and the niche-conscious reactions serve as a cross-section as to what’s probably gonna be the general response (e.g. a tad confused) to anything this boy does. He wears spectacles and has a deal with Atlantic. On this particular and very representative Fiasco track, he drawls out all manner of clever/corny similes over a slightly bent banger, and so it’s like the cool kids and the kids too cool to be actually cool and the kids who completely reject the concept of “coolness” on grounds of political belief, they’re all gonna run into each other on the same Chi-town street corner, and those blingers and backpackers and doctorate students are going to do a little toe-stepping. It’s not like Kanye, though, who clearly just wants to be Top o’ the Pops. Lupe’s appeal is very hip-hop oriented, and so, within the hip-hop fan community, his appeal’s also going to be debated, perhaps even a bit undermined by his intra-genre breeding. Here he drops lines like “niggas is tall as Yao Ming” and “no plaque, but a whole lot of cheese” and spells out his name and Chicago as if all that were somehow euphemism for pushing crack. The thing is, though, that the blend’s a big, sharp hook for kids like us. Us = CMG writers. Even Connor Morris took a sip and called it “refreshing.”
Dick Simmons announces himself to a baby shower in less time than it takes Fiasco to make his overlong “I’m here!” statement on “Failure,” but with the Idris Muhammad sample, the kid-gloved keys and the spandex streeeetch on the cymbal snuggling in together nice and cozy, Lupe rocking his backpack with confidence, chrome on the zippers… who’s counting down those five minutes? Track should start off every iTuned then iPodded then Escaladed Food and Liquor playlist next month.
Clayton Purdom :: 2 May 2006 |
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