By Odeisel

It has been a winding road for the artist known as Lupe Fiasco. From being heralded as perhaps the best writer of his generation to having his main homie locked up for years to losing his credibility to pop but achieving crossover success, Lupe has been all over the career map and back. After releasing the solid but unspectacular Food & Liquor 2 last year, he’s back with a new track Light Blue.

The track is full of heavy distorted bottoms and a simple drum fleshed out with light atmospherics and other disparate sonic elements. Vocally, there is a distinct accent that cuts off some of his words and make him harder to understand than normal. I’m not sure whether this is a parody of Southern rap or trap music or whether it’s just artistic device but it doesn’t really work for him.

The intelligence is still there with slick almost over your head lines like “No rights like NASCAR” and his ability to draw subtle connectivity to different ideas is still near the top of the food chain. That said, the song isn’t really that catchy or tight enough to overlook the weak hook. It’s very possible that the song is over my head, but I don’t think so. If it is, it’s in the Light Blue of the shy above. You be the judge.