Welcome to the Boolin Tunes Staff Spotlight, a special segment on the site in which we dive deep into a classic or simply personally beloved album to shine a light on releases that we feel deserve a second glance.
In 2015, many believed Chicago-based rapper Lupe Fiasco to be an artist in decline. Lasers flopped critically despite charting at number 1, and Food & Liquor II failed to reach the heights of the original. Fiasco revealed his next album, Tetsuo & Youth, in 2013. However, he delayed its release for nearly two years, furthering fears of its failure.
“You’re witnessing the last kicks of a dying horse,” Fiasco said in an interview with Billboard just before the album’s release. “I’m not as relevant as I was before,” he admitted.
Tetsuo & Youth, however, reveals a very different truth:
“You gotta treat your vocal chords like it’s a fortress
And treat every single one of your words like reinforcements
And especially when you’re recording
Cause that’s the portion that’s important
When I was reporting that I was poor, but now I’m more than”
At the very start, Lupe Fiasco emerges with the greatest track of his career in “Mural”. Nearly nine minutes long, it winds through a variety of topics and themes with constant bars. Foregoing a hook in favor of a barrage of imagery-laden lyrics, the track sets the stage for this cerebral, thematically-heavy album. With the album split into the four seasons, “Mural” anchors the “Summer” section.
“Fall” features a similarly-strong anchor in the explosive “Prisoner 1 & 2”:
“Love is looking over various errors
And hate is habitually accelerating terror
Everywhere, but the mirror
I just wanna be collected when I call god damn
I don’t wanna be accepted, not as all as I am”
This track draws on the similarities between prisoner and corrections officer, with both of whom trapped in the same system. Fiasco manages the comparison by punctuating each line with visceral experiences behind bars. The cruelty of Prisoner two, who would “throw away the keys” with vigor, stands out. This part of the story serves to instill anger and disgust in such a way that strengthens the experience told by Prisoner one. Lupe Fiasco is obviously no stranger to conscious rap, and this track is a master clinic on storytelling in hip-hop.
Naturally, Tetsuo & Youth‘s mood chills as the seasons progress to “Winter”:
“The ghetto was a physical manifestation
Of hate in a place where ethnicity determines your placement
A place that defines your station”
“Deliver”, the highlight of the album’s second half, focuses on the album’s theme of inequality. Though perhaps heavy-handed (“get a little slice of Heaven“), the track does well to take this simple action and show that, yes, there are places where it does not happen. Folks in these areas find themselves not only locked out of delivered pizza, but also locked out of deliverance; from evil, from their current situations, etc.
On the negative side, the album relies too heavily on its front half, and the second half does not quite reach the same heights. However, tracks like “Deliver”, “Madonna”, and “Adoration of the Magi” down the stretch make the long runtime (nearly 80 minutes) easier to swallow (Don’t feel bad if you skip the album’s low-light, the nine minute long posse track “Chopper”).
Ultimately, Tetsuo & Youth manages to subvert expectations, proving well worth the two year wait time. Fiasco enjoyed a career revival with this album, which remains a compelling and rewarding listen.
Otherwise, we hope to see you next week for another retrospective from our team.