Album of the Week: Lupe Returns to his Own

Sam Vander Forest

Lupe Fiasco officially released his long awaited project “Tetsuo & Youth” Jan. 20 and, like he teased over the past year, he dropped the politically conscious verses and got back to his “ratchet” style.

While he was working on the album over the past year, he did various interviews and teased that he would be dropping the act of rap’s conscience and not be drawing attention to himself or any sociopolitical idea. Instead, he would be experimenting with new sounds while returning to his old style when he was up and coming, like he did on “Food & Liquor.” He was also quoted saying that the album would be “ratchet,” and it is safe to say he achieved what he wanted.

The 16-track album is broken up by four interlude-style tracks titled each of the four seasons, which gives the tracklist a nice flow and chronological feeling. The fifth studio album also avoids distractions or overshadowing from multiple guest rappers. The biggest names featured include “Ab-Soul” and “Trae Tha Truth.”

People have inferred what the album’s title may mean, as Tetsuo is a character in an old Japanese anime film that has repressed anger and gets to release it in a destructive way. However, he denies directly naming the album after that character, but he says that in a way he may have been indirectly inspired by his story and what he goes through.

“You can hate him for what he’s done, but it’s not just him being a jerk,” Fiasco said in an interview with Rollingstone. “How that relates to me as a person — you can take that however you want, but it was more like, ‘let me get to the emotion of that misguided anger and make this sound like a song.'”