Sach O‘s background sings, his background sings for the Crossover.
As we speak, Lupe Fiasco is curled up in the fetal position trying to figure out where exactly he went wrong. For my money, he stopped being interesting sometime between changing the track list for Food & Liquor and claiming 8Ball is a better emcee than Q-Tip. Still, one can hope that the spectacular failure of Lasers will serve as a cautionary tale for emcees considering the PM Dawn route to a successful rap career. It’s been disheartening to see rappers succeed with truly awful music and reinforcing the notion that the only way to succeed as a rapper is to not rap. From CuDi to B.O.B to Cee-Lo plus Jay-Z scoring his only #1 with a show tune, it’s safe to say that the past few years of major label music have been abysmally formulaic when the whole point of jettisoning the previous 1-size-fits-all model of gangsta rap should have been to inject some creativity and variety into the scene.
Faced with either selling quality releases to dedicated fans who want to support artists and pushing mindless drivel on the remaining morons too dumb to work bittorent, the majors have obviously gone with the race-to-the-bottom approach. If anyone at all was supporting Lupe, it was because he represented an alternative to that sort of faceless corporate synergy but sadly, Lasers is just as beige and vanilla as any Smeezingtons production and Lupe is no less corny than B.O.B even if he did turn down “Airplanes” (bad move, if you’re gonna sell out at least be successful at it). Who knows, the album may still do well: I’ve got younger cousins who swear by the guy and who look at me like a dinosaur when I say he ain’t got shit on Raekwon. Plus, this type of shit is far from the only problem facing Hip-Hop right now, only the highest-profile. But if a high profile flop by rap’s leading cornball gives a smarmy A&R pause before promoting yet another rapper with tight jeans, a new wave haircut and a bad market-tested sounding pop song as a single, it’ll have all been worth it.
As for Lupe, maybe he can become Waka Flocka Flame’s weed carrier and battle it out with Wale to see who gets to release an album. I’ll be listening to Danny Brown, Gibbs, Tyler, Zilla and Roc Marciano anyways.
Download:
MP3: EPMD – Crossover
MP3: Scarface – Sellout
12 comments
Cale says:
March 2, 2011 at 5:10 am (UTC -7)
its a shame to see him wind up like this. its really disheartening to see someone who can put out fire like enemy of the state go down the rabbit hole of craziness and shitty music. on to the next one i guess…
Zu says:
March 2, 2011 at 9:25 am (UTC -7)
It’s rare to know the exact moment when an artist becomes irrelevant and it’s not like he wouldn’t have been forgiven for fucking up a verse from electric relaxation. More than likely most folks would have forgotten about it by now, but damn, the shit he said afterwards was not only a horrible excuse for a performer of anykind but he managed to shit on legends in the process. Career suicide. I think a lot of heads tuned this dummy out after that nonsense.
Test says:
March 2, 2011 at 10:42 am (UTC -7)
Don’t forget those Scarface/Steve Francis Reebok ads. Never forget.
Sach O says:
March 2, 2011 at 10:54 am (UTC -7)
For the record though, 8Ball is fucking dope and the first 3 8Ball & MJG records are essential gangster rap. It’s just that the Q-Tip comparison was some confused contrarian bullshit.
Victor says:
March 2, 2011 at 12:56 pm (UTC -7)
Thing is that most people forgive fuckery if quality music follows (as in the case of Kanye). But after streaming Lasers on youtube I’m glad I didnt waste time d/ling it, let alone spending my monies on it. I know the label wanted him to make concessions, but it’s hard to see much evidence of anything won by Lupe. One track from Soundtrakk and one from the neptunes? Both of which are itunes bonus cuts.
The writing is on the wall for mainstream hip hop though, this euro-electro shit cant last much longer, particularly if even Dr Dre can release a single like “I need a Doctor” off Detox produced by someone else.
Sach O says:
March 2, 2011 at 1:44 pm (UTC -7)
“People forgive fuckery if quality music follows (as in the case of Kanye)”
Exactly, if you’re going to be a bitch about the label not releasing your album and it turns out to be a giant wet fart, people are going to clown the fuck out of you.
Say what you want about “Hell Hath no Fury” but that was a dope album once the hype died down. Lasers makes Saigon’s album sound like a good idea.
D. $cience says:
March 2, 2011 at 2:16 pm (UTC -7)
I lost interest in Lupe when he came out with The Cool. Lupe stans swear that it’s a classic, but listening to that album, I’ve realized that he was heading down this Hip-Pop/Post Punk route anyways.
I also think that, despite him saying “The label forced me to, blah”, he’s copping out and not owning up to the fact of making cornball music. He knew what route he was going towards; trying to make Lasers as this anti-mainstream rebellious album, mixing “mainstream” beats with lyrics discussing “social and political issues” for the public to catch on. I don’t know what the issues are behind the scenes, but he was whining about Lasers not being put out, his fans were whining and petitioning to get Lasers out, but his sh** leaked and now he’s getting sh***ed on for not putting out a quality album. He needs to stop Tweeting, stop bitching about how things aren’t going his way, and he needs to make a HIP HOP album. Rappers need to rhyme again, not sound like BOB & Cudi.
Meanwhile, I will be copping Shaolin Vs. Wu-Tang on March 8th.
janklow says:
March 2, 2011 at 10:29 pm (UTC -7)
i just don’t understand the point of trying to dismiss your album by declaring it’s been screwed up by the label while simultaneously claiming it’s awesome. if you’re going to throw it under the bus, just commit fully. it’s not like the label’s sentiments and/or the sales will be drastically boosted by a painful half-hearted attempt to not be 100% negative.
Justin says:
March 4, 2011 at 12:26 pm (UTC -7)
How can an album that was due out in 2008 sound so rushed and incomplete? I normally listen to an album 3 times before fully formulating an opinion but upon two full times through this piece of shit, my fully formulated opinion is: Hot Garbage.
The Mind says:
March 5, 2011 at 12:41 am (UTC -7)
I love it how someone of are already saying ‘Lupe” sold out lmao its funny how most of these people wanted the album to come out, knowing full well it was not going to be what Lupe envisioned. His album sounds rush because the final tracks are brand new tracks that Atlantic forced to put on his album.
Kid A says:
March 9, 2011 at 2:33 pm (UTC -7)
I actually became a Lupe stan after hearing that “Enemy of the State” mixtape, and I was pretty jazzed for “Lasers” after hearing that datpiff created “Abstract Art Form” mixtape, but as soon as I dowloaded this new shit, I knew it would suck, and it sure did it’s job to be as unimpressive as I thought it’d be.
WIG E says:
March 15, 2011 at 5:01 pm (UTC -7)
Album is going to debut at #1 with 240,000 sales. What did BOB do, like 80k? So much for successful.
And dude never said 8Ball was better than Q-Tip, just that he listened to one and not the other.
“’ll be listening to Danny Brown, Gibbs, Tyler, Zilla and Roc Marciano anyways.”
Fucking sheep.