The talented 30-year-old’s fourth album speaks to a young adult audience of both R&B and hip-hop backgrounds. Food and Liquor II: The Great American Rap Part 1 is full of lessons for teens through the lyrics by taking an old-school, yet modernized style of hip-hop.
Lupe Fiasco uses his R&B talents by making the album catchy, but most of the songs are presented as a political statement. He focuses on social issues in our world today, which he addresses in “ITAL (Roses)”. “Pills make you stupid and liquor do the same thing,” Fiasco raps.
While Fiasco is great at sending a message as shown in “ITAL (Roses)”, the background of the songs do not match the style of poetry that he raps. They seem to sound like he decided to add different keyboard sounds to random places within the songs.
Overall, Fiasco did what he meant to do. He got into the heads of young people and showed them how to take a good look at what is right and what is wrong. He is the example of a piece of poetry that can stick in one’s head and actually mean something.