Tetsuo & Youth: Don't Call it a Comeback

Good music just has a way of creating a universe filled with emotions, revelations and experiences that you can always call back to whenever you hear that certain song. When I pushed play on this album, I was reminded of all the places and different stages of my life when I first heard a Lupe song that stuck with me. Being in the car with my dad on the way home from high school graduation and hearing his verse on Touch The Sky for the first time while giving Late Registration its first listen. Or  listening to Steady Mobbin' (Ghetto Story) while walking to an 8am French class as a freshman on Baylor's campus in the dark hours of the morning cause it was right after Daylight Savings. Or hearing Streets on Fire in Tosin's car on the way home from playing basketball one night at the gym. Good music just does that to you and helps you capture every detail from certain moments. I haven't gotten that feeling from a Lupe project since 2007. 

Yeah Lupe... The excitement that Lupe fans had after The Cool for his next album died down over the years. Lasers won him a Grammy, but alienated him from a few fans (myself included). I barely remember Enemy of the State or Friend of the People. Food and Liquor II had some great tracks but overall it wasn't the album fans were expecting. His online persona didn't help with his popularity; while trying to be a conscious voice of the people through social media and interviews, he ended up estranging more fans. The weird thing is if you've ever heard a Lupe track before, his message never changed. His methods of delivering them did, ranging from overt to just plain outlandish. The Cool felt like a slow poison that took its time winding it's way through your nervous system. Food & Liquor II was a bazooka. What fans appreciated in his music was his ability to speak out on social issues in his lyrics so subtly, while telling a story that plays out like a movie in your head. His messages were never quite in your face. They were there. But woven into a tapestry of rhymes, metaphors and punchlines that always had the listener coming back for more because there was always a good chance that you could pick up something new on the 100th listen. On the first few listens of Tetsuo & Youth, it feels like Lupe has reestablished his own voice. And boy can he rap. 

  Mural (Lyrics) - Lupe Fiasco

On first listen of the album, it takes about 2.5 minutes before you first hear him rap. The anticipation builds up. Then he unleashes over 7 minutes straight of word-play on the second track of the album, Mural, in which he literally paints out a story with his lyrics.

          "We're all chemicals, vitamins and minerals/Vicodin with inner tubes, wrapped around the arm/To see the vein like a chicken on the barn/Top Cat chat, let's begin another yarn/That's flying saucer cheese, or is it chicken parm'/But roosters don't fly like boosters don't buy/So what powers cowards to get them to the top/Just to fall asleep listening to Bach?"

Those opening lines set the tone of what to expect for the rest of the album. With features from Ty Dolla $ign, Guy Sebastien and Crystal Torres, Lupe has tracks with great production and hooks that should be the singles off the album. Deliver with Ty Dolla already has a video out and is my personal favorite track so far. Lupe uses pizza delivery to illustrate imbalances in the US economy. The beat rumbles. Ty delivers the album's best hook. It reminds me of Ghetto Story but more subtle. And Lupe is a goddamn beast on the track. 

  Deliver (Music Video) - Lupe Fiasco

        "Can I get delivered from the sin and get a little slice of Heaven I can enter in again/Or maybe just imagine that I'm livin in a mansion or a palace and my pizza gets delivered in a Benz/Make a savior out of savage like they made it out of magic/So it take a nigga havoc and it make it into friends/You don't even need a salad, it don't make a nigga fatter/Actually take a nigga backwards and make a nigga thin/That's a deep dish/Chicago style get the peace stick/Homerunner hitter, I be drillin' on the weak pitch/Pay into the plate then I put it in your face/I'm a man, never bitin' on the hands that I eat with"

For the first time on a Lupe production, I think it's safe to say there's something here for everyone to listen to. But as an overall album, it's surprising and impressive that it all melds together so well. "Chopper" initially sounds like something I'd hear on a Juicy J or Que track. Admittedly I only knew two of the featuring rappers before but everyone knows Trae Tha Truth as the legendary whisperer of the streets. It flows with a trap beat, a catchy hook and ad-libs Migos would be proud of.

I can pick and choose different tracks to support my argument that this album shows the rapper's evolution as an artist; at the very least he's returned to form. After going through the track-list four times, I know it's not enough. Lupe productions work like an RPG video game or Candy Crush. You just listen to them over and over again until you unlock the next meaning behind each line. There are no skip tracks on this album. Everything comes together and fits perfectly like a jigsaw puzzle being solved by a machine. Yet it flows with beautiful ease considering the many different parts he's implemented into it. It makes a strong impact on the avid listener and should have the passive listener pushing the rewind button several times per track. The Judo Master of Juxtaposition is back.

Note: 

• All BS aside, despite the stuff he's released over the last few years, I was excited for this album after he dropped this freestyle on Sway In The Morning.