Lupe Fiasco - Tetsuo & Youth (Discussion thread)*Stream*

[Ziggiy]

If Tetsuo & Youth doesn't convince you Lupe is the best rapper ever, or at least in the top 5 nothing will. That boy could lyrically back flip off a balcony cleanly through 4 flaming rings blind folded with no safety net beneath him, land on a hand stand with the left hand, give the crowd a thumbs up with the right hand, and people will still be like "He ain't nicer than Drake tho!" lol. What he just put out transcends anything in hip hop I have ever heard and is an entirely unique experienced wrapped in the universally palatable coating of amazing production and hooks. The musicality on this is just too much brehs.



Atlantic Records undershipped the album. The final "screw you" to Lupe on his way out the door lol.

There is only a handful of MC's fukking with Lupe when it comes to pure lyrical talent

Nas (The Goat)

Talib Kweli

Mos Def (people sleep on Mos, and it's mostly his own fault but Black On Both Sides era Mos Def was one of the deadliest MCs with the pen)

Jay Electronica ( I know I know he'll never put out an album, he's lazy, a Cac bytch took his soul and keeps it in her Armani bag for shyts and giggles, etc. But Jay Elect when he's ON can eat your favorite rapper for breakfast, lunch, and dinner)


That's it. Those are the ONLY artists I'd accept a debate about whether or not their on Lupe's level. I debated on whether or not to include Kendrick, who I think is a phenomenal artist, but he needs 2-3 more albums where his lyrical content is TOP NOTCH before I put him on the level of Lupe.

I also considered pre-Wyclef era Cannibus but that dude fell off so bad it would be an insult to all consistent MC's...

 

[Versa]

I had a hunch the sexy sounding girl on Body of Work and TRON was a sista, so I did some research.



Her little adlibs and questions in between the bars on Body of Work are so sexy

Nicki Jean bad too. Lupe should wife one lol.

 

[Khalil's_Black_Excellence]

Lupe going to improve a nikka's vocabulary and diction game listening to this album, then having to go look up what word he dropped means

Maybe...if your vernacular wasn't broad much before coming here.

Honestly, while he definitely brought it to another level here, I didn't feel like he used many, if any words that anyone of moderate middle/high school knowledge would not know of. If anything, it's the level of how he used the words and the combinations of such is what was the real showmanship on display here. Now, some references may go over folks heads and obviously all the double/triple/quad/etc. meanings and interpretations, but not the definition of words used, I don't believe are too confusing here. Which brings me to wonder why some folks make such a big deal about more cerebral rappers. A lot of "rappity-rap" rappers out there use complex rhyme schemes and multitudes of vocab in their rhymes, but like 90% of the time and 90% of the rhymes, it's still words that the average person actually knows of. Whether or not they use all of them is another story.

Funny, I scrolled back quite a few pages and I saw some posters listing another meh-ass complaint that gets me at times like these. Folks talking about "this isn't reletable" or "I can't relate to what he's saying". I'm like "really"? Does every form of entertainment in cats lives solely or only revolve around what they directly relate to or going/been thru n shyt? shyt, as a black man alone, if that was how you went about enjoying movies, your choice of movies would harshly limited to some degree. Also, I don't even believe that "relating" to shyt should be the best indicator of enjoying shyt anyways. The more important aspect should be if the artist or art in question does a well enough execution of portrayal in that area anyways to make others enjoy it nonetheless, relating to it or not. I ever so slightly get folks not getting down with having to dig deep into something complex to get real fulfillment out of it (in music or other mediums of entertainment), but sometimes just digging beneath the service will get you that state of relatability anyway.

 

[Nephilim_BC]

To early to call Mural a GOAT track/intro track?

or is it the GOAT Outro track?

 

[Abstract83]

If Tetsuo & Youth doesn't convince you Lupe is the best rapper ever, or at least in the top 5 nothing will. That boy could lyrically back flip off a balcony cleanly through 4 flaming rings blind folded with no safety net beneath him, land on a hand stand with the left hand, give the crowd a thumbs up with the right hand, and people will still be like "He ain't nicer than Drake tho!" lol. What he just put out transcends anything in hip hop I have ever heard and is an entirely unique experienced wrapped in the universally palatable coating of amazing production and hooks. The musicality on this is just too much brehs.



Atlantic Records undershipped the album. The final "screw you" to Lupe on his way out the door lol.

 

[ineedsleep212]

I'm assuming alyric on canvas is intentional.

 

[Jack Don the G]

So I think we all are agreeing on the Resurrection theory by now?

The Skee interview also confirmed this I think.

1. holding the track list upside down.

2. He said there are no children on the winter interlude.

It made me think about the winter season. Playing the album the regular way. There are mentions of children on every song except TRON (which is not on a "earthly level" so it dont count).
But playing it backwards. The winter season is now childless just like the interlude.

coincidence?

 

[NoHalfWay]

The ressurection/reverse theory can obviously be confirmed now. But it's Lupe... there are other themes at work here

There's a theory out that the whole album is someone stuck in "The Game", literally and figuratively the streets & an actual game hence all the video game references...

 

[Jack Don the G]

Is it just me or is one of the narratives on Body of work about Chilly and Lupe? it almost seem like he is talking about his alleged involvement with the coke business and him being quiet about it.

What made me think about it was him talking about prisoner 1 & 2 on Skee. He quickly mentioned visiting Chilly.

Listen to the song again and there are so many references to coke, talking in code, keeping quiet and having two side (a god and an evil).

So listening to the album backwards you go from this song into prisoner 1 & 2.

You could make the point that this event changes Lupes life. And that he is now trying to redeem his "alleged" sins from his younger years. So after Prisoner 1 & 2 the mood of the album gets lighter.

Im not that sure about this theory tho. Since the rhymes on Body of work is so complex they could be about so much more. But as Lupe said, some of the songs on the album have 3-4 narratives going on at once.

 

[intilectual recipricol]

If these mufukkaz dont stop buggin me at work... im tryin to listen to T&Y and they keep askin me questions

Ima get fired off this shyt. Not answering calls n shyt. Lu tryin to get nikkaz back in the hood wit no pizza

 

[Billy Ocean]

Lol. Y'all whiteboy nerds in here is funny as sh!t. Top 5 funniest threads I've read on the Coli. Real spit.

 

[NoHalfWay]

Is it just me or is one of the narratives on Body of work about Chilly and Lupe? it almost seem like he is talking about his alleged involvement with the coke business and him being quiet about it.

What made me think about it was him talking about prisoner 1 & 2 on Skee. He quickly mentioned visiting Chilly.

Listen to the song again and there are so many references to coke, talking in code, keeping quiet and having two side (a god and an evil).

So listening to the album backwards you go from this song into prisoner 1 & 2.

You could make the point that this event changes Lupes life. And that he is now trying to redeem his "alleged" sins from his younger years. So after Prisoner 1 & 2 the mood of the album gets lighter.

Im not that sure about this theory tho. Since the rhymes on Body of work is so complex they could be about so much more. But as Lupe said, some of the songs on the album have 3-4 narratives going on at once.

Makes sense.

Body of "Work"

 

[NoHalfWay]

Lol. Y'all whiteboy nerds in here is funny ass sh!t. Top 5 funniest threads I've read on the Coli. Real spit.

I'm a full-fledged black boy

I admit I gotta lil nerd in me tho

 

[Nephilim_BC]

http://www.kanyetothe.com/forum/index.php?topic=2349521.0

 

[Billy Ocean]

I'm a full-fledged black boy

I admit I gotta lil nerd in me tho

Naw, you got a LOT of nerd in you if you're fawning over this just good album. Just finished listening to it on Rhapsody. I read every word in this thread that was posted these past 2 days and I swore I would've been converted back into a Lupe fan but this album just isn't as great as y'all trying to make it out to be. It's absolutely what I expected from a current Lupe album and it's indicative of why I stopped being a fan. Good album but I have no desire to ever listen to it again. I enjoy Joey's album and even Wayne's new tape over this.