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  Release Date: September 19, 2006
  Website: Lupe Fiasco Website
  Label: Atlantic Records / WEA

Lupe Fiasco “Food & Liquor” Album Review
Lupe Fiasco taught me something about myself this week … something I wasn’t ready to admit: I’m a hater, dogg. An old fashioned, cockblocking player hater. I commonly yet often unknowingly participate in haterism. And yes, you can occasionally find me sitting on the couch, bumping underground hip-hop and drinking a tall, cold glass of hater-aide.

Hip-Hop Haterism
The concept of a hater is something that could have only originated in hip-hop culture, and is thus something I have always found very intriguing. On the most basic level, a hater is a person who is incapable of being happy for another person’s success, mostly because the hater does not believe that person is deserving of such success. This often causes the hater to lash out at the successful person, pointing out flaws or unfavorable traits about that person.

I guess haterism started with the commercialization of hip-hop. As corporations and marketing gurus took control of the rise of mainstream hip-hop and decided to recycle the same tired gangster-thug-bling rap marketing schemes to the American public, followers of underground hip-hop started to lash out at the wack rap artists that were willing to play the role determined by their bosses. In response, the mainstream started referring to these people as “haters” who were simply upset by the success the so-called sellouts were experiencing. Nowadays, most fans of real hip-hop won’t even give a mainstream artist the time of day.

And that’s how I felt about Lupe Fiasco. To me, Lupe was Kanye’s boy, or Jay-Z’s boy . somebody handpicked to be the next rap superstar based on his good looks, charm, marketable image and relationship to the mainstream’s favorite MCs. When his album dropped, I didn’t even think twice about not buying it. I just assumed that it was another replication of the popular sound, and many underground hip-hop portals reinforced this opinion by clowning on Lupe and his debut album.

However, over the past month I have consistently come across a number of reviews claiming that Lupe Fiasco’s Food & Liquor was a classic hip-hop album … the best release of this year. Therefore, I decided to pick up and copy and give it a chance. After just one listen, I realized how wrong I was about Lupe Fiasco. His debut album is dope, even to someone like me who is loyal only to the underground.

The production is refreshingly unique, and combines complex futuristic-style hip-hop beats with instrumental interludes featuring keys, horns, strings and a variety of other hypnotic jazzy sounds. Lupe’s flow is also refreshing, and he demonstrates myriad ways to approach and attack his music, once even successfully flowing over a 5/4 beat . a complex musical time signature that is not at all common in hip-hop production. And lyrically, Lupe came correct, using mostly storytelling approaches to progressively discuss topics such as fatherhood, religion, skater culture, hip-hop and TV obsession, among others. Next to my top two picks of the year, KRS-One’s Life and Jedi Mind Tricks’ Servants in Heaven, Kings in Hell, Lupe Fiasco may just have the year’s best hip-hop album, mainstream or underground.

Can You Blame Us?
I don’t know, man … the last thing in this world I’d ever want to be is a hater. But I’m not going to give a wack album props just out of fear of being called one, because that’s what they want. Instead, I wish I had the open-mindedness to give everyone’s album a chance, regardless of who they are or with whom they’re affiliated.

Still, it’s hard sometimes. I mean, look at all the crap they play on the radio, MTV and BET. For years now, we have been promised brilliance in the mainstream and been disappointed the majority of the time. Everything tends to sound the same and almost nothing played in the mainstream is representative of true hip-hop. Can you really blame the underground for jumping to conclusions about the mainstream?

Regardless of what the rest of the mainstream is putting out, take the word of a true follower of real hip-hop: Whether considered underground or mainstream, Lupe Fiasco’s Food & Liquor is off the hook. Give it a try. At the least, it will make you realize that not everything they play on the radio is garbage, and that maybe everyone deserves a fair listen before jumping to conclusions. After all, not doing so would just make us all haters. Peace.