Happy Birthday To The Legendary Lupe Fiasco

Lupe Is The Greatest Lyricist & Wordsmith of All Time.

But Is He Really?

I Made A Thread On The 3 Main Categories of Lyricism Here.

In Short, They Are Yin(Bars), Yang(Concepts), & Yong (Technical)

While Many MCs Show Excellence In All 3

Lupe Has Shown MASTERY Time & Time Again In All 3.

At The Highest Level.

https://twitter.com/frostedtakes_/status/1360297311692292096?s=21

Let’s Take A Look At Lupe’s Handle On Yin:

BARS

Wordplay, Punchlines, Metaphors, References, Entendres, Imagery, Homonyms, Etc.

Young Lu Came Into The Game As A Bar Master.

But It’s Not Just Wordplay With Lupe

HE MADE A SONG DESCRIBING A CHEESE BURGER WHILE SIMULTANEOUSLY DESCRIBING A DRUG DEALER

There Are Witty Entendres-

And Then There Is Lupe...

The Entendre GOD

Punchlines With Layers.

Very Few Rappers Have Mastered Imagery The Way Lupe Has

He Is Consistently Using Cunning Bars And Sly References To Paint Pictures

Which Is Probably Why He Made Mural

Lu Takes Full Advantage of Visuals In His Lyricism So It’s Even Harder For Those With “Aphantasia”

And That’s Lupe Holding BACK

If Lu Bar For Bar Wasn’t Already Over Everyone Else’s Head, He Went Over The Moon With His “Mural” Series.

His Song “Mural Jr.” Is Basically Rock Lee Taking The Leg Weights Off And Going Full Speed Ahead

The Question Really Is, Can You Keep Up?

So Lupe Has Many Times Over Proven To Be An Elite Tier Yin Master.

But Does He Have The Yang To Match?

Let’s Take A Look At Lupe’s Handle On Yang:

CONCEPTS

Storytelling, Perspectives, World Building, Plot Twists, Imagery, Emotion, Cohesion, Etc.

Drogas Wave Is A Concept Album

It Tells The Story of Captive Africans Turning Amphibious To Survive From Their Sunken Slave Ships

The Brilliant Way Lu Paints Slaves Jumping Overboard As An Entendre For Artists Being Taken Advantage of By Major Labels(Atlantic)Is 2nd To NONE

-Just The Tip of The Iceberg

Speaking of, Lu’s Album “Tetsuo & Youth” Is Like A Giant Iceberg Theory

Played Front To Back, It Goes In Order of The 4 Seasons Spring, Winter, Summer, & Fall

But Played Backwards? It Tells A Narrative of A Christ Like Figure Rising From The Dead?

Sound Like A Stretch? Maybe.

But Lupe Does These Type of Concepts All The Time

Without Any Warning & Very Subtle Indication

Take His Song “The Coolest”

A Love Song From Fictional Character Michael Young Stuck Between Choosing Commercial Stardom Or Cocaine Dealing

And This Isn’t Even Going Over His Remix of Lil Wayne’s “Mona Lisa” Where He Lyrically Creates Leonardo Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” From Left To Right

In Pure Lyrical Vastness There Are Only A Couple of Lyricists In Lu’s Weightclass

It’s Without A Doubt That His Yang Is Maxed Out!

Let’s Take A Look At Lupe’s Handle On Yong:

TECHNICAL

RhymeSchemes,Alliteration, Assonance, Homophone, Syllable Placement, Vocabulary, Etc

Lupe Fiasco Has One of The Largest English Lexicons In All of Music

His Knowledge of History, Science, & Language Allows Him To Find Infinite Words To Use At His Disposal

On “King Nas” He’s Practically Rhyming Whole Sentences While Staying On Topic Layered With Wordplay

And Mural Needs No Introduction

The Fact Alone That Lupe Is Pulling Off Some of Language’s Most High Brow Metaphors & Imagery

But Still Managing To Make It All Come Together Via Rhyme Is Just Otherworldly

There’s A Reason Joe Budden Refers To Lupe As An Alien

And This Is It

And Just When You Thought You’ve Heard It All..

The Man Raps In Spanish...

Lupe Fiasco Is A Lyrical Genius.

He Has Overwhelmingly Mastered The Triad:

Yin

Yang

Yong

And Beaten It To Death Many Times Over.

Lupe Has Maxed Out All of His Stats.

There Is Nothing Left For Him To Prove With His Pen

And There Are Few Who Stand Beside Him

Lupe Fiasco Is Unequivocally The Greatest Lyricist To Ever Grab A Microphone

His Status? Untouchable.

Check out the lyricism theory https://twitter.com/FrostedTakes_/status/1360297311692292096