Chicago rapper Lupe Fiasco's third album "Lasers" is a difficult album to review. While it fails to reach the lyrical or production levels of his previous album the critically and popularly acclaimed "The Cool" "Lasers" is an innovative and unique album in its own right, representing some of the best and worst aspects of hip-hop today.
Perhaps the biggest talk surrounding "Lasers" was the delay of its release, a result of Fiasco's creative differences with his record company, Atlantic Records, who were pushing for (read: demanding) a more commercial framework for Fiasco's "conscious rap."
Not to say this is necessarily a bad thing I'm the last person to criticize music because its production is catchy. The problem arises, however, when the artist dissociates himself from many of his songs, such as "The Show Goes On," the inspirational ghetto anthem that samples Modest Mouse's catchy but played out "Float On." With regards to that song, Fiasco himself remarked, "I didn't have nothing to do with that record. That was the label's record." "The Show Goes On," ironically enough, was "Lasers'" first and biggest single which highlights the extent of Fiasco's distance from the album.
The "commercial" sound can be downright irksome to the ear in other tracks, such as "Never Forget You" and "Out of My Head," which feature sexed-up romantics John Legend and Trey Songz, respectively. It's hard to believe that a song with the lyrics "Girl I want you to know I can't get you out of my head, my head, my head" could be a bearable soundtrack to any activity, let alone sex.
On the other hand, some of the tracks are straight fire. Fiasco takes on the war on terror, education policy and racism against Muslims in the politically-charged "Words I Never Said" featuring Skylar Grey. In "Till I Get There," he puts his burdensome experiences with music celebrity on display having to please both the record companies and fans at the expense of being true to himself. Other bangers include "Letting Go" featuring Sarah Green, also featuring themes of celebrity introspection, and "State Run Radio" featuring Matt Mahaffey, another political track.
But the real gem of the album is "All Black Everything," a post-racial fantasy with lyrics that are at once poignant, controversial and bitingly funny, such as, "Extra, extra on the newsstands/ Black woman voted head of Klu Klux Klan/ Malcolm Little dies as an old man/ Martin Luther King read the eulogy for him/ Followed by Bill O'Reilly who read from the Quran/ President Bush sends condolences from Iran/ Where Fox News reports live/ That Ahmadinejad wins the Mandela peace prize."
Despite a catchy production style like the rest of the album, the deeply powerful and intelligent lyrics on this track put it a notch above the others. As is the case in "Words I Never Said," in which Fiasco claims, "They let me do what I want, they didn't interfere," it is clear that he is at his best when granted creative control and not forced to dumb it down (no pun intended).
Despite these powerful tracks, "Lasers" suffers from the tension between Fiasco's thoughtful and politically provocative mentality and the commercial mindset of Atlantic Records, whose representatives pressured Fiasco not to "rap too deep." As a result of the creative differences over how the album should have turned out, "Lasers" fails to be particularly defining in any way and ultimately feels like a B-side version of Kanye West's splendid "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy." "Lasers" is good, but only if you hit "next" a few times.
