Album Review: Lupe Fiasco - Tetsuo & Youth
The Chicago rapper's follow up to his 2012 Food & Liquor part II proves to be solid effort. Lupe Fiasco isn't a rapper you see everywhere, unlike most rap superstars if today, he is more a voice of the people than he is for strippers. That being said I went in to this album knowing it was going to be very conscious and straight forward, laced with confidence but not arrogance. What I was surprised to hear such an artsy and sophisticated record.
The album is separated into four sections, the intros to each section are instrumentals appropriately named Summer, fall, winter and, spring. Mural, the first song on the album sets the tone for the tracks that follow. The delivery is one the many things that are fantastic with this album, it's one that you can listen to from beginning to end without feeling the need to skip to songs with the most or best features. Songs like "blur my hands" featuring australian singer-songwriter Guy Sebastian express the emotions of the album right away. While other hard hitting songs such as "chopper" which features Tre the truth and glasses malone and "deliver" featuring ty dollar sign are strong both musically and lyrically.
The features are strong and impressive but not reliant on them either. Like "They.Resurrect.Over.New which features TDE's Ab- Soul is one of the greatest finale tracks I've heard on an album. Is this lupe's best album? Probably not but it definitely deserves a listen, I think that this is a very prominent artist at the peek of his career and is just getting started. I don't think he's done making music by a long shot.
I give it 8.5 out if 10. - Joshua Smith
