Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album Pt. 1 Reviews
As a long-time, avid Lupe Fiasco fan from the "Kick Push" days who has listened to all his albums, and as an African-American who has been touched by Lupe's music, I really wanted to love Food & Liquor 2 (F&L2). It was easily my most anticipated album of the year. Unfortunately, it doesn't live up to "Food & Liquor I" (F&L). It doesn't even live up to "The Cool". I would say both of these previous albums were classics of the last decade. The way he always painted sometimes heartwarming, sometimes dark and tragic stories of pain and struggle in modern urban life and the ghetto always gripped and moved me, which made Lupe one of my favorite rappers of all time. On F&L2, I saw that Lupe has become less of a storyteller, and more of a lecturer...which is most likely a reflection of his evolving, if not eyebrow-raising extremism in the Obama age. While Lupe was always a bit of an activist and spokesperson for the ghetto and urban youth, he has seemingly become more radical in the Obama age (his extreme Obama critiques, refusing to vote, etc.), and has developed a messiah complex that is weighing down the overall enjoyment and quality of his music. I say this, because it's written all over F&L2, and is the main thing weighing the album down from the landmark, industry-shaking album it could have been. As I said before, the expert, moving storytelling of F&L1 and "The Cool" is barely present on F&L2 at all. Lupe, instead, lectures--a lot. The worst offender is "Form Follows Function"; the song title even sounds like a lecture title, and the song unfolds as such. The lackluster production doesn't help the replayability of the song--but that's perhaps not surprising, since his themes relegated the entire song as just a backdrop for his message. This same phenomenon happens with many songs on the album, making them hard to want to listen to again, lyrically or musically. "Around My Way" was a single I initially enjoyed, but after being underwhelmed by the rest of the album, I can, in retrospect, even see some of these overarching album issues with this single. Whereas Lupe instead vividly painted pictures and told stories of local and global suffering in songs like "Hurt Me Soul", "Hip-Hop Has Saved My Life", and "Intruder", and left the visceral imagery and lyricism to impact the listener on their own, he flat out bashes you as a listener with depressing world events like a reporter, such as flatly saying "...the horn of Africa is now starving to death", and "Katrina, FEMA trailers, human body sandbags". He throws a slapdash, messy mosaic of dark world events at you, seemingly in hopes that one or some, if not all of the above, hit and stick to you somehow, like throwing balls at a wall and seeing what sticks. As I've cited and said before, Lupe is more creative than this. I know he can do better than this--because he's done it before, but doesn't do it on this album. By attempting to slapdash so many events into one album, one song--even one line--he diminishes all of them, and loses the listener, in an overly ambitious effort that instead becomes sloppy and unfocused. "ITAL (Roses)" is one of the more uplifting productions on the album, but even then, Lupe can't stray away from didacticness, down to the point of outright saying "It's called being fiscally responsible" (never thought I would hear the words "fiscally responsible" in a rap lyric--he literally says it). Again, his message weighs down the overall enjoyment and impact of the song. This song had the potential to be an inspirational hip-hop anthem, of the "Fight the Power" ilk; instead, Lupe's didactic messages make it more of a public service announcement. That, and this song reveals hypocrisies between Lupe's message and his actions, given that he drops the word "b!tch" and "n!gga" casually despite denouncing the use of these words on "Bitch Bad" and "Audubon Ballroom", and is promoting getting a Camry instead of the typical luxury cars the rap industry idolizes, despite the fact that Lupe is known to have several Ferraris. The tracks where Lupe takes a break from his propagandizing are then crippled with uninspired production and maudlin lyrics. "Battle Scars" exemplifies this; clearly groomed for the radio, and as such, very dull. "Heart Donor" is just downright cheesy and sappy, even by "Lasers" standards. Being a whooping 17-track album, I was a mixture of excited and worried--excited for so much new Lupe material, but worried that the high track number might indicate a lack of direction, and almost guarantee many duds. Unfortunately, my suspicions were right, mainly for the aforementioned reasons. Okay, that was all the bad. For the good: there are a few gems on the album, that keep me coming back for another listen. "Strange Fruition", "Put `Em Up" (despite the bad chorus), and "Hood Now" are outstanding. "Lamborghini Angels" and "B!tch Bad" deserve honorable mention, too. Unfortunately, though, again, being a whopping 17-track album, these few gems are outnumbered by many mediocre to poor tracks that are either overly simplistic ("Heart Donor") or overreachingly preachy ("Form Follows Function", "ITAL (Roses)"). Lupe can't seem to find an enjoyable, healthy balance between his message and his music. Again, I consider "F&L1" and "The Cool" to be classics of the last decade; they had no dismissable songs on them. Every song was great and mindblowing in its own way, and worth a replay. I cannot say the same for F&L2--which is the first time in Lupe's career I can say this. "Hood Now" was perhaps the most even-keeled, inspiring, and frankly not outright didactic and depressing song on the whole album. It's the first track in the album which Lupe sounds like he's actually having fun. As the outro, however, it comes 16 tracks too late. This is the Lupe I missed, reminiscent of his early days, that I was hoping to see more of. I love Lupe Fiasco and everything he stands for. I stand by all his messages and beliefs of black unity, of black intellectualism, of rejecting the transgressive, retrogressive stereotypes of mainstream hip-hop ("hip-POP", as I call it--drugs, sex, violence, etc.). I also sympathize with his empathy for the various plights that plague the world at large: poverty, starvation, imperialism, etc. I believe with F&L2, however, he is now on the opposite end of the extreme from the very forces he is battling--perhaps an overcorrection from the forcedly commercial makeover of his music in "Lasers"--and needs to come back to center, and back down to earth. If you're already a Lupe fan like myself, you'll perhaps still enjoy and appreciate the album, just for the effort and attempt alone, and for his meaningful, conscious messages that you find so little of in mainstream hip-hop. If you're an honest Lupe fan however, you will acknowledge after listening to this album that it just doesn't hold up to F&L1 or The Cool. As painful as it is to say, I think even Lasers might have been a better album, as far as overall cohesiveness goes. If you're not a Lupe fan at all, or have only been a Lupe fan since "Lasers", I would NOT recommend this album to you. Unless you're already a committed fan, the didactic tone of F&L2 will most likely turn you off, and give you a horrible first impression of him. I would listen to F&L1 first, then "The Cool", and then come to F&L2. I hope F&L2 Pt. 2 will overcome the stated weaknesses of this album.. this is my
Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album Pt. 1 reviews 
Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album Pt. 1 Specs
- Audio CD (September 25, 2012)
- Original Release Date: 2012
- Number of Discs: 1
- Label: Atlantic
- ASIN: B008J2F3HG
- In-Print Editions: Audio CD | MP3 Music
- Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (81 customer reviews)
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,873 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
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