I won’t lie y’all, I felt guilty as fuck enjoying that Bhad Bhabie album. I’m about to be 30 years old, I shouldn’t be enjoying a 15 year old girl rap about beating up other 15 year old girls. Luckily for me, Lupe Fiasco dropped a new album recently.
Lupe Fiasco is one of the most lyrical rappers in the game and 9 times out of 10 is the smartest guy in the room. Unfortunately that combination also makes you the most pretentious person in the room 9 times out of 10.
I won’t lie, there’s been multiple times I’ve rolled my eyes reading something Lupe has said. He reminds me of me if I had a 4.0 GPA and didn’t take 5 years to graduate high school. He’s smart, he knows it, and god dammit he wants you to stop being an idiot.
I’ve been a fan of Lupe since mixtapes reigned supreme and Limewire was king. I remember downloading “Fahrenheit 1/15 Part II: Revenge of the Nerds” track by track right next to Bootytalk 17. He spoke to me with his nerdy references and intricate storylines that stretched over 20+ songs. I thought he was going to be the king of rap.
I learned a hard lesson watching Lupe, no matter how smart you are, things don’t work out the way you think they will. But luckily a truly talented person never stays down too long and now Lupe has given us a new album: Drogas Wave.
Naturally I have some thoughts.
This album is good. There’s no doubt about it, Lupe has had a long enough career so he knows how to make a cohesive piece of work. It’s a lot to take in though. If you’re like me and you’re coming out of a haze of trap music and reckless ignorant shit this album is difficult. This album reminds me of the first time I used Hooked On Phonics as a kid: it was daunting, I was scared, but eventually I learned. Lupe doesn’t dumb himself down on this, instead he builds you up to his level so you can understand exactly where he’s coming from and where he’s trying to take you.
At first it’s intimidating to listen to because it’s 24 tracks and almost 2 hours long. However if played in the right setting it makes time fly by. Drogas Wave is a great Barbershop on a Saturday album because after you listen to it you’ll
be able to drop knowledge on everyone in the shop. I listened to this album one time and was ready to argue online, this is a “I’m gonna gonna get mad likes on my FB comment” Ass album.
It’s hard to criticize the music because Lupe knows how to rap. At a certain point you can’t call it good or bad, all you can really criticize is his decision making. When I talk about Lupe I can’t say “oh that verse was trash”, all I can say is “why did he decide to do that”? What I will say is that there were a few songs that I didn’t fully understand, but I knew that a quick google search would clear things up. So I’ll say at some points Drogas Wave reminds me of watching a Game Of Thrones episode because I felt like I needed to do research when they finished.
I won’t mince words, this is a great album. Lupe Fiasco has developed into a complete artist and if you like hip hop you will like this album. If you like being the smartest person in the group chat, you will like this album. Check out Drogas Wave, I give it 8 glasses wipes out of 9.