By T. Love

What is it going to take for a super-lyrical rapper to blow up?  It seems  an impossible task for the overwhelming majority of emcees with elite level rapping ability.  Canibus had a cosign from Wyclef and a good back and forth volley with LL Cool J, but it wasn’t enough to keep popping.  Underground darling,  Pharoahe Monch, had a monstrous hit with “Simon Says” but to mainstream Hip-Hop fans he’s a one hit wonder.  Although Lupe Fiasco is having difficulties releasing his latest project, Lasers,  he still has the most potential to bring super lyricism to the masses in the same way Eminem did.  DJ Absolut has gotten a hold of something to satiate Lupe  fans with his Vintage Fiasco mixtape.

Vintage Fiasco consists of unreleased Lupe Fiasco songs that were made while he was on Arista Records.  It’s a look back to an early incarnation of Fiasco, where he rhymed a little more street and gully, but it’s still possessed by  elite lyricism.  The mixtape was released as one entire cut but it’s so good that there’s no need to skip around because it’s great the entire time.

A prime example is Lupe’s warm up on the first track, a freestyle over a Neptunes banger.  Lupe not only goes in but goes off the deep end with a complex rhyme scheme full of multisyllabic lines that go on for eight-plus bars and metaphors carried for a whole verse.

“Ya know my mind remain on gun play/while ya’ll nigga sleep like Jermaine on Sunday/the heat stay packed like the train on Monday/yes, I lick off the time you gotta be there/push bout the time that you get off/and I pump 8s til I reach lunch breaks, like twit off…….that’s the unofficial master plan/minus any unforeseen traffic jams/like my songs carry in the club like Bagger Vance/or getting caught by them long arms/like Mr. fantastic, damn but I can’t fade like Fantastic Sams/and taper off, I’m a better n***a, man/this is Edward Scissorhands with my back against the wall/til I’m a V12 Sixer I’m a 132 round clipper as if was Elton Brand”

“Hey Lupe” is a blaxploitation sounding homage with a menacing, funky guitar riff complimented by DJ Absolut’s scratching. Lupe touches upon selling dope and blow with some braggadocios rhymes mixed in to balance out the drug talk that sounds strange coming out of his mouth.  It works though.

“When you gon learn? You not breaking mine/best change your mind like Frankenstein/ or change the mind to Franklin crime/or movements, I move with two chicks like a I chamber nines/these players praying that our games align/Picture that, with this here I’m solitary confined/you still behind my bars, commissary declined”

T.I. and Young Jeezy come by to drop verses on the “Superstar” remix and both give valiant efforts with good verses by their standards.  If anything though, the song just demonstrates how many light years Fiasco is ahead of your average rapper.  He blacks out in such a ridiculous manner that it’s questionable that he shares DNA with the rest of us human beings.

Remember Lupe’s response to the BET cipher that featured Mos Def, Black Thought, and Eminem? Something along the lines of “I can see everybody except maybe Em.”  Let’s just say that after Vintage Fiasco Lupe is fully capable of demolishing anybody, anyplace, anytime.

**DOWNLOAD**

out of 5

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