Tags
Art, Artwork, Lupe Fiasco, ROTHKO, Wasalu Jaco, WOLF, Yet for computers
R.I.P.
- Words By | Charles E. Singletary
- Pen Name | Profex
- Twitter | @Profexxion
I blame Mike Shinoda.
October 30th, 2005…..give or take a few days. Fort Minor (the hip hop side project of Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda) collaborates with DJ Green Lantern and drops the unexpected and impressive We Major mixtape. I’d caught a scattering of Fort Minor tracks all over the web and enjoyed what I heard. There was no doubt in mind before downloading. I sat in silence as I enjoyed the ride from track to track, honestly awaiting a steep decline in the music quality that never came. Instead, six tracks in, I hear this:
Spraypaint & Inkpens / I use to write in every color I think in / To paint a picture with every rhyme that I speak in/ Yeah, the gallery is the beat then I…
My eyes went wide at the potential dopeness that was about to ensue. The tracklist had Ghostface, one of the dopest storytellers, leading the charge and I anticipated what Mike Shinoda could bring to the table. Third name. Lupe Fiasco? Wrote him off. Never heard of him and he’s probably just on the hook. Tony Stark slayed his verse in typical fashion, transporting us to a scene lyrically crafted. Shinoda followed up with an impressive story of his own. Then Lupe happened. Wasalu Jaco came through and delivered arguably the best verse on the tape altogether. I immediately dove into the internet crates and seeked out anything Lupe related I could find.
The journey since has been exciting if not extremely rocky. His debut album leaked. Snubbed on the Hottest MC list. Anti “leak” rant. Interscope blues. DL Hughley. Food & Liquor II: Part 1 companion to a canceled Part 2. It seems for every positive thing you can find for the artist, there’s a collective of negative tweets, emotional rants, and even horrible hooks (Heart Donor?) to be attached. Then…..ROTHKO happens.
Artwork ^
Lupe Fiasco’s twitter was purged and put into a state of limbo last year following some terrible tweet tours featuring Chief Keef. Recently, though, a tweet appeared teasing a collaboration to be released on February 26th, the anniversary of painter Mark Rothko’s death. The interwebz went ablaze at the hint of a new Lupe track so soon after his recent album drop (soon by Lupe time at least). Imagine the surprise when said track was a 5 second audio clip featuring two muffled thumps and an accompanying article describing it as “art”. He ALSO proceeds to offer up said art along with a music video and personal live performance for 2.1 million euros in possibly the worst kickstarter attempt ever……
…..Bruh.
No *@%$# given.
I watched as the tweets rolled in. I saw attempts at humor, some sloppy and some solid. I saw anger. I saw some come to the realization that defending Lupe is a waste of time (myself included). The antics made me think of a moment I had with my father a couple months before F&LII dropped. I pulled up the video of Lupe spitting the first verse from Food and Liquor II hoping my Dad would be as equally impressed as I was. My Dad had a firm hatred for today’s mainstream music, but had surprised me when I found a copy of The Cool in his car one day. He sat in silence as he took in the lyrics.
Once the video ended, he spoke words I’d blocked out until yesterday: “That was great, but hope he doesn’t turn into Kanye.”
Whelp.
There is a major difference between Lupe and Kanye. True enough, they both are known to rant and rave, sometimes about things not really important or relevant to the craft of hip hop. HOWEVER, Kanye has had a steady output of music. Even his “artistic” phase gave the listener something to actually listen to….
Also, funny comment: Someone said that ROTHKO (Yet For The Computers), “Sounds like someone taking a dump, from the toilet water perceptive.”
I couldn’t agree more
– D Gut
My parallel for them, personally, is the misconception that everything they do is “art”. I agree that Kanye has done a better job overall.
Kanye at least still puts out quality stuff and a bit more frequently. Maybe it wasn’t fair how we have treated Lupe though. Much more lyrically was expected of Lupe than most other mainstream hip-hop artists.
I agree with your comment to a certain extent. True, much was lyrically expected of Lupe. This is because he is capable of bring that kind of music to the table. In the early days of Lupe (Pre-Food & Liquor – The Cool), as a rapper, lyricist, artist, and storyteller, he provided content at a high level time after time. To say that fans treated him unfairly, is a bit of a stretch. In my opinion, Lupe has been treated very unfairly (However I don’t think he was being treated more differently than most players in the game of industry hip-hop) by the machine. I think if it wasn’t for his fans, the Book of Lupe would have been closed in 2007 after The Cool. His loyal fanbase has kept Lupe relevant enough TO HIS LABEL to allow them to release albums (though poorly handled). I don’t think that the art that is “ROTHKO” is deserved of Losers… correction: Lasers. As a hip-hop artist, no, as a musician (unless your name is John Cage) passing off a *thump, thump* as artwork to your dedicated hip-hop fans is pretty low.
I wholly agree and its a shame that Lupe can’t understand that. For an artist so intent on escaping his contract and going independent, you’d think he’d embrace his supporters.
Ironically I rediscovered F&L II today, and my overall census is that people just aren’t ready for the mirror Lupe is STILL holding up. Expectations aside, the content Lupe has released is full of substance. The messages hit me very clearly today and it made me think, maybe I’m just getting too old for the current state of music. I couldn’t exactly pinpoint anything besides the overall message of ‘We need to do better’ that could rub people the wrong way, and honestly I had no idea about this “ROTHKO” ordeal. Truthfully, it sounds silly. I understand people being disappointed, but so much has been made for cases outside of the actual music nowadays it’s just tiring (hence, the maybe I’m too old comment). Maybe if the focus was on the actual art instead, things would be different? Keep up the good work y’all, I really enjoy reading the content on here.
Thanks for reading, man. The thing about Lupe is that he seems to be preaching, as opposed to relating. So it makes it easier to come down harsher on him when he goes something like… well, this.
That might be a completely different topic in itself, honestly. Lol.
I hear you, definitely. Thing is, ROTHKO started off being about the music. I’ve learned to ignore Lupe’s antics outside of music for the most part. But, when he parades them in my face like this, what can I do?
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