#drogas wave

I saw my first love last night 🥹🥹🥹🥹

Lupe Fiasco - WAV Files

Lupe Fiasco. No other musician has had the kind of impact on me that he has had.

24x36 in. canvas.

..:: #48. Lupe Fiasco - WAV Files ::..

Lupe Fiasco's back with his seventh release and it's his best since 2007's The Cool. Within, he guides us through a haunting history lesson, following along with a set of ships as they made their passage from Africa to America during the slave trade. The centerpiece of this potent and powerful concept album is "WAV Files" where Lupe enters the mind of slaves that considered jumping ship and letting their souls float back home. The beat is held together by just a simple repeating forlorn piano riff, but Lupe's deft and deliberate flow keeps us hanging on every line.

Best Moment: The third verse starting at 2:45 where Lupe soberly lists off the names of slave ships for the entire (long) verse, making it starkly clear how large our national shame really was.

The Album [Drogas Wave]: 9/10

Lupe Fiasco has had one of the most interesting rap careers. He set the bar high with his first two albums, Food & Liquor and The Cool. He then kind of ran into a wall with his record label, Atlantic and released Lasers. Lasers was not a bad album but it did not sound like the kind of album Lupe wanted to make. It sounded very forced but it wasn’t bad. Food & Liquor II was a return to form and then he dropped his magnum opus, Tetsuo & Youth in 2015. Tetsuo & Youth sounded like it was the album that Lupe was building up to his entire career. Lupe then announced he was dropping 3 more albums before his retirement (rappers don’t really retire). The titles of the albums have changed but the first one was 2017′s DROGAS Light. DROGAS Light did not make a single ounce of sense to me. It was Lupe’s first independent release after many years of struggling with Atlantic Records. It sounded more forced than Lasers did. However, DROGAS Light was not entirely bad. There are amazing tracks on there like Jump and Kill. Lupe reviewed his own album on DROGAS Light’s release day and he gave it a 7/10 and said that it was setting up a more lyrically dense album (this album I’m reviewing). DROGAS WAVE is incredible and much better than most Lupe albums. I have a lot of things to say and I will get the negative out the way first. This album is way too long. I thought Tetsuo & Youth was too long but this is 24 tracks long and most songs are long too. I would have been fine with him going the Madvillainy route and having a lot of tracks but they’re short. The violin on the Slave Ship interlude should’ve been like 30 seconds instead of almost 4 minutes (I understood its place). Also, I didn’t need the long ass speech on the track Quotations From Chairman Fred. I could have done without the middle part of this album even though there are 0 bad songs on this album. From my understanding, DROGAS WAVE is a concept album about a slave ship carrying slaves and the slaves are thrown overboard. Instead of drowning, the slaves become apart of the waves and they take down other ships. I think this is a really dope concept but he only keeps at this concept for like the first 7 tracks. Lupe kicks off the album by singing in spanish which confused the shit out of me. On the album’s cover is a manilla which is slave-trading currency. I remember him mentioning manilla on his song, Around My Way. Lupe starts rapping on the track Manilla about this currency and the song totally slaps. On the song, Gold vs. The Right Things To Do, Lupe raps in patois which he really didn’t have to do but it sounded kinda dope. I love the track and the hook and instrumental are absolutely beautiful. This specific track is mainly the closest one to the concept. WAV Files and Down are super dope. I love how they keep with the wave theme. The wave theme is sprinkled throughout the album as well. Nikki Jean is all over this album. She and Lupe work very well with each other and she sounds great on every track. Haile Selassie is an amazing song but it was released a while ago. On Alan Forever, Lupe draws an alternative life for Alan Kurdi, a 3-year old Syrian refugee who drowned in the Mediterranean. The song is very touching and made me emotional because of its subject but also how beautiful and uplifting the song sounds. Lupe does something similar with the track, Jonylah Forever. Lupe draws an alternative life for Jonylah Watkins, a 6-month-old baby from Chicago who was murdered. This track also was very heart-wrenching. The middle part of the album is probably the weakest and Kingdom is super dope. One of my favorite reggae musicians, Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley delivers like always. The last part of the album has Lupe being introspective instead of rapping about others or a specific story. On Imagine, Lupe reflects on his situation with Atlantic Records. On King Nas, Lupe raps about watching his nephews grow up. To end the album, Lupe dedicates a track to Chicago DJ Timbuck2. He’s also got sequels to some of his previous songs. Stack That Cheese with Nikki Jean is a sequel to Hip Hop Saved My Life. The album’s closer, Mural Jr. is a sequel to the lyrical masterpiece, Mural. Mural Jr. has an instrumental so gorgeous it will send chills down your spine. It stands out from other tracks on the album because Lupe is just rapping and not getting into a serious topic. Lupe’s lyricism on Mural and Mural Jr. is top tier. I’ve talked mostly about lyrics for this review because Lupe is a lyrical type of rapper. This is probably some of the best production that Lupe Fiasco has ever rapped over. Lupe’s songs make a person think and that’s what I love about him. Like Tetsuo & Youth, this album requires multiple listens to fully unpack and understand it. DROGAS WAVE is the best history lesson you’ll receive this year.