After sitting with this for two days, this feels like Lupe's most mature body of work to date. The album's short production window lends itself to the content being more blunt & direct, but Lupe's talented enough to avoid cliche even while being more concise (and less abstract). What's equally impressive imo is that none of the songs particularly sound alike, he covers a lot of ground ranging from storytelling verses to address-style verses to conceptual verses and his performances across the board match the energy of the production, none of it is phoned-in or meandering. Subject matter-wise, this is the most outward-looking album he's made in a long time. It has moments where it feels like a state-of-address but more often it feels like Lupe is openly mourning the (sad) state of the culture.
The production is cohesive, at first it felt too low-key (and especially for a summer album) but it complements the back-to-the-basics feel of the album. Nothing on here feels operatic or overproduced, there's no thump either though so I think a lot of people won't give it a proper chance from just skimming through it.
This is a very good album, no filler and the highlights are very strong. 8/10
Hell nah breh. Arby's. I do fukk with their fries. The gyros ain't too bad.
. Them fukkers are wild for that.
