Lasers by Lupe Fiasco- for opinion writing class

Keshia Smith
Review a Review

I read a review for the Lasers album by Lupe Fiasco from Pitchfork.com. The review gave this album a meager three stars, while reviews from previous works by the same artist got ratings of 8.1 and 7.9. While in no way do I believe Lasers is Lupes best album, I believe it deserves more than the three stars pitchfork graced it with.
As a self-proclaimed “socially conscious” rapper, Lupe Fiasco generally try’s to talk about issues that people in his music. He talks about the government, struggling families, problems in society and problems within himself. To keep his music interesting, he usually laces his lyrics with puns and wordplay that listeners probably will not catch unless listening closely. In his most recent album Lazers, there is less wordplay and the music sounds a tab more commercial. There are more “made for radio” songs as well as songs where he appears to be trying to make his lyrics easier to understand.
In a sense, he does “dumb it down.” My question is, what’s so bad about dumbing it down? We live in an age where newspapers for adults are written at an eighth grade reading level and blogs post have been replaced by tweets. I enjoyed the more lyrically profound Lupe songs such as “The Coolest,” where he paints a picture of how silly the things we view as ‘cool’ in society are. This song is full of wordplays, metaphors and even references to famous works of poetry. However, there is an art in getting straight to the point as well. In Lasers, Lupe says things straight out instead of hiding the meaning in circular lyrics and metaphors. He is also putting the music up agents more commercial beats and teaming up with more mainstream artist. It may seem as if he is being inauthentic, but I think there is a method behind his madness.
The pitchfork review says that “You can't knock him for trying something new, but the tools he should be using-- his rubbery wordplay, thoughtful commentary, sheer love of the art form-- get ditched.” I disagree with this statement. Music is a difficult industry. In one of Lupe’s previous songs he says, “So what's happening, what you rapping about, Is it cars? Is it girls? Is it money? The world? Or is it something they can never believe? Or is it something you can never achieve? Is it beyond your means? Is it inside your dreams? Can it never come out cause it's scared to unprepared to? Too worried about the words of the people it's weird to?” I think he is reflecting on the fact that a certain type of music sells, and that if he doesn’t cater to the audience than his message will have no platform. Producers only produce what they believe people will purchase. That doesn’t mean an artist should set aside their personal ideals to accompany what a producer wants.
Even in his Lazers CD, where Lupe is obviously trying to appeal to a more mainstream audience and to please his producers, he still is able to sneak in some of what makes him unique as an artist. Lyrics such as “Complain about the liquor store but what you drinking liquor for? Complain about the gloom but when’d you pick a broom up? Just listening to Pac ain't gone make it stop A rejavascript:void(0)bel in your thoughts, ain't gon make it halt. If you don’t become an actor you’ll never be a factor.” Still hold true to his signature style of making music that tries to make audience think about their actions and place in the world. For this reason, I disagree with Pitchforks review and I believe the Lasers album deserves between five and six stars.