Lupe Fiasco, Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album (2012)
On the follow to 2006’s Food & Liquor, the politically outspoken Lupe waste no time applying pressure on the U.S. government as he raps, “There was never nothing equal for us in your math/you forced us in the ghettos/and then you took our dads…” on the Soundtrakk-produced “Strange Fruition.” Lupe continues to rep’ for the underdogs on the Simonsaz and B-Sides-produced, “Around My Way,” by shouting out Pine Ridge Reservation, where U.S. Government attacked the Native Americans and subdued their land, which is known as Wounded Knee Massacre.
Lupe exposes massacre on Native and African Americans. On the tear-moving King David-produced, “Unforgivable Youth,” where the Chiraq MC gives a lecture on the dark history of the United States. With poignant lines like, “His head would be the first that they would sever/stuck upon pike on a beach/kept as a warning for the rest to turn away from their beliefs/And so began it here/and for five hundred years torture, terror, fear until they nearly disappeared…” one can’t help but picture Native Americans struggling to keep their identity.
Identity is also one of the themes on F&L II. With bangers like “Audubon Ballroom,” “Bitch Bad” and “Lamborghini Angels,” Lupe sheds light on low esteem with lines like, ‘Want to ride in that Benz like it’s crystals castles/In addition to the chain, but that’s just to take the attention away from the pain..” and hooks like, “Diamond flooded demons/Lamborghini Angels,” Lupe’s thought provoking concepts makes one want to invest in some history books.
Mixed with intelligence and direct perspective, Lupe or your local professor could teach F&L 2 in a Race & Gender or African American History class.
