I almost feel bad for Lupe Fiasco. He seemed pretty wrecked when the unfinished Food & Liquor leaked in March. After rumors of a significant push back or even cancelation, it looked like it'd come out on September 19th and all would be well.
And then it leaked again. Poor guy. It kinda rules though if that means anything. I thought it was pretty okay the first time around, but this version is way better. The cover art is still dumb and Lupe still sounds goofy, but it's way better than anything on Def Jux or whatever retarded nerd "Hip-Hop" label has put out lately.
A bunch of songs from the first leak are back. "The Instrumental" (Never Lies on the old version) bored me first few times around, but for some reason I like it a lot more now. "Just Might Be OK" and "Sunshine" (leaked as You My) are back too, as is "American Terrorist" (Close Your Mind the first time) and they sound a lot better here. Being a finished album, it all fits together pretty well now.
There's problems here and there, those being that Lupe Fiasco is just flat-out boring sometime. He's not quite to the point of being able to stay consistant with interesting things to say. With the length of some of the songs, this gets pretty unbearable. The only guest rapper on here is Jay-Z on "Pressure" and it's not the best thing either. Maybe if the song was shorter or the beat wasn't so dull this would be cool, but at this point it's just kinda there. "Kick, Push II" is also the most unnecessary thing ever. Actually,that twelve minute outro is.
When it comes down to it, Food & Liquor is pretty alright. It's not going to change the world or anything, but I'll happily listen to the first eight songs, especially "Daydreamin'" which is probably one of my favorite songs this year. I wonder if the 12" has this cool
cover art. I'd buy it.
