Lupe was one of the first rap cats to really pull me into Hip Hop.
It started with “Kick Push” and “Daydreamin'”. Those two tracks opened me to the world of an artist whose psyche was unfolding, and Lupe stood to share every stage it passed through.
When he followed up with the release of The Cool, it was the first Lupe album that I got to watch drop. That record would also be the first concept album I heard audit really is an important part of the foundation for my understanding of Hip Hop.
The album’s structure was fluid and the abstract concept of street life butting heads with greed and power made for a rap album with this theatric foreground. The beats fit Lupe’s voice and flow perfectly. The whole record came together like cogs in a well oiled machine.
Over the past year Lupe has been pumping out music at the speed of someone like Migos without losing any quality. The Tetsuo Season tracks were only a prelude to Tetsuo & Youth yet had enough content in them to fill two albums.
After the phoenix-esque Tetsuo & Youth, I have full faith in Lupe creating a worthy sequel to his sophomore masterpiece.
art by your homie, Arthur Banach
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