Lupe Fiasco - DROGAS WAVE

Lupe Fiasco
DROGAS WAVE
2018
Spotify

From the jump Lupe Fiasco has had a unique voice in Hip Hop. Before Chance the Rapper the lyrical king of Chicago was Lupe, might still be even though his star has faded in recent years. His past few albums have pushed boundaries, both creatively and artistically some soaring high while others landed with a thud. A retirement and then an un-retirement has had fans confused and often frustrated, but the more time goes on the more you can see the parallels between Lupe Fiasco and Kanye West. The two never allowed the limits of their chosen genre to restrain them, they can't work in a classic label environment putting out an album every year or two that is more or less the same. They get bored, they get inspired and they always have something to say. Why would Lupe still be putting out songs about skateboarding when it isn't the main thing in his life anymore? This is the thing people need to understand when approaching a Lupe album. This record is lyrically dense with political philosophy, history, thoughts on slave culture and how we move forward as a society. It is uncompromising in it's scope, but then again Lupe always is. His music is complex, He will shift into reggae on tracks like "Gold vs. The Right Thing to Do" or allow a violin to play a haunting interlude just when things are getting going. He is not ever going to do what you expect, or dumb himself down for your amusement, it something to respect but it also makes his music a bit unapproachable. He transitions so effortlessly between these ideas though like thoughts popping up in your mind for a moment, then allowing them to slip away.

"WAV Files" is truly a stunner, this somewhat old school beat that has a vivid piano line and Lupe's crystal clear voice coming through. ON this album things come together in a more unified way than they have on his previous outings. He has so many ideas in his head that it's often hard to articulate them all in a clear way, even here it takes him over an hour and a half and 24 tracks to get to the point. The theme of "slaves" being "Waves" is peppered in throughout the album as well as Lupe's long view of history. For Lupe there is right and wrong, good and evil even if at times the line isn't clear it still exists. Lupe's stories are so in depth that you almost need to read them in order to glace their full meaning, yet He manages to make them catchy enough to actually enjoy...sometimes. Other Times Lupe can loose himself in the thought experiment or the history and we loose a bit of him as an artist. On this album however He finds that balance and nails it. On Jonylah forever Lupe puts himself in the place of a six month old murdered by gang violence in the south side of Chicago. Lupe has a long history of telling stories from a first person perspective, but on this track He takes the position of the who that six month old might have become in order to save herself in the past. There is so much going on with this album that I could write about it forever (pretty much already have), but take my word there is something really special here that you need to hear.

8.3 out of 10