ARTIST: Lupe Fiasco
ALBUM: Lasers
LABEL: Atlantic Records
RELEASE DATE: March 8, 2011
The Show Goes On
Photo by Andrew Zaeh
Written by Jeremy Weeden
Do you remember the old Sprite commercials with the tagline “Image is Nothing”? Well I bet Lupe Fiasco would beg to differ. On the rap star’s third studio album, Lasers, it is obvious the rapper is straddling the line between his established image as an underground revolutionary and the music his label, Atlantic Records, wants him to put out. In the days leading up to the album’s release, Lupe seemed to be preemptively preparing his fans to be somewhat disappointed. Lupe spoke of how he was forced to compromise and meet a middle ground between the underground, politically aware rap he is known for and his record label’s more commercial ambitions. This is evident by the album’s first single, the smash hit “The Show Goes On.”
In an interview with Complex Magazine in February 2011, Lupe told the interviewer, “There’s nothing really to tell about that record, to be honest. I didn’t have nothing to do with that record. That was the label’s record. That wasn’t like I knew the producer or knew the writer or anything like that. That was one of those records the record company gave me; they even gave me stuff they wanted me to rap about.” He goes on to say, “It wasn’t like, hey I did this and I went to a mountain and found inspiration and it was this.”
Lupe is right in that “The Show Goes On” is by far the most commercial single he has made to date, but it has also lead to a career best; Lasers is his highest selling and charting-ranking album to date. The album is definitely influenced by the record label’s desire for Lupe to be played on the radio, but despite being more radio friendly than past Lupe albums, the results are not all bad. For fans of Lupe since his beginnings, this album will have different beats than past Lupe Fiasco releases, in order to fit in with the commercial music of today.
However, while the beats may sound a little different, fans can rest assured that Lupe still manages to rap with more focus on lyrical content than almost any other popular rapper today. For instance, even on “The Show Goes On” he not only manages to be profound with his rhymes, but also takes a shot at the very people who forced him to record the song with the lyrics “They treat you like a slave, with chains all on your soul…and put whips up on your back, they be lying through they teeth hope you slip up off your path. I don’t switch up I just laugh, put my kicks up on they desk.” This is the metaphorical, colorful language fans of Lupe have come to expect and he fully delivers in that aspect.
One of the best songs on the album is the Skylar Grey assisted “Words I Never Said,” produced by Alex Da Kid (best known for producing “Airplanes” and “Love the Way You Lie”). This song has a heavy, slow bass track and Lupe drops some of the most thought-provoking lyrics on the album with lines like, “If you turn on TV, all you see is a bunch of what the fucks/ Dude is dating so and so, blabberin’ about such and such/ And that ain’t Jersey Shore, homie that’s the news/ And these the same people supposedly tellin’ us the truth.”
Lasers is not a perfect hip hop album; there are some Euro-club beats which may not be for everybody and Atlantic Records obviously made him include certain tracks (such as the obligatory Trey Songz collaboration found on most hip hop/r&b albums recently released). Despite this, Lupe manages to keep his essence flowing throughout the album with smart lyrics about the issues of the day. So if you are tired of hearing rap songs about cars, girls, money, and champagne, Lasers is a must pick up — just don’t expect the beats to blow you away.