It's no secret that 2011 was a lost-year for Chicago alt-rapper Lupe Fiasco. True he topped Billboard, but the uber-slick L.A.S.E.R.S. was the worst kind of rapper record, long on mediocre hooks and short on the commentary we've come to love from Lupe. When the "typical" Lupe track popped up, as on the phenomenal "All Black Everything" it was a breath of fresh-air on an otherwise stale album. Since then Lupe's been back at it, breathing life into the body of conscious rap. Not to say it was dead without Lupe, but the first two Lupe records had a way of seamlessly blend of the conscious and commercial that rivaled peers Kanye West and Common and past-masters A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul.
So in 2012, Lupe's been steadily releasing tracks in anticipation of Food and Liquor 2, and each is a love-letter back to his past. On this new track, Lupe inhibits the familiar role of the "voice of reason," examining the weight of the word "b***h." Over a laid-back electro beat, Lupe asserts "b**ch bad, woman good," and tries tricky rhyme schemes nowhere to be found on L.A.S.E.R.S. The whole lesson runs less than 5 minutes, and at the end, much like Wale did a few years back, Lupe makes you think twice about a word that's all too common in the rap lexicon. It's clear that in 2012, Lupe's voice is no longer lost and he has a few things to say to us all.
"B***h Bad"
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