So here it is. Our final part of our Best of 2012 coverage concludes with our top 50 tracks of the year. I’ll avoid the clichés, but this has been a tough list to put together and a special thanks to everyone who produced great music throughout the year for making it tough. It’s been fun.
We’ve still got our guestlists for 2012, which will be coming up each day this week and then we’ll be returning to regular goodness. But for now, enjoy the end of the year with our Top 50 Tracks of 2012.
Dubstep! Lupe Fiasco’s career goes into even stranger territory on the mythical 2nd part of his American Terrorist trilogy of tracks. I can’t say I’m a massive fan, Pt. 1 fit nicely on an album that is essentially Lupe’s Illmaticin Food & Liquor. This track sums up 2012 Lupe incredibly well though, conflicted and slightly lacking in direction. But if nothing else, “American Terrorist Pt.2″ has highened my interested in the upcoming Food & Liquor 2:The Great American Rap Album because now every track we’ve heard is completely different.
I can’t say I liked this song from the beginning, but after watching the video I have a new appreciation for what Lupe did with this song and the video. Give this video a few looks to really digest the message, if you already haven’t listened to the song yet.
Wow. I think that just about sums up my feelings on the third single from Food & Liquor II, Lupe’s next album. The lyricism on this track is what most Lupe fan’s have been hungering for ever since the first F&L, The Cool, and his mixtapes since then. This track isn’t just something you can listen to once or twice, to properly digest what Lu is saying I would sit down and listen to this track 7-8 times in a row. Powerful, powerful track, although the production is kind of repetitive and can get a little boring.
Lupe is definitely back. After his is disappointing 3rd album – although not through any fault of his own – Lasers, Lupe has been prepping his return in Food & Liquor 2: The Great American Rap Album Pt.1. Now that the whole Pete Rock stuff has died down, he’s just released visuals for the return-to-form single “Around My Way”.
Ahhh (breathes a sigh of relief) back to the Lupe we all loved and missed. While there is some controversy over the beat, which in my opinion is totally unfounded, going past that though listen to the actual lyrics and the potent political prowess Lupe has shown before is once again visible.
While Lasers, Lupe’s previous full length album might have been a dud, the Friend of the People mix tape showed what Lupe is capable of at his best. In this video for Double Burger With Cheese, Lupe’s rhymes are dissected and illustrated line by line. This is the type of work Lupe does best.
I think it is safe to say that Lasers was not what we expected from Lupe. His previous albums showcased his ability to blend the serious with the fun. This is a follow up mixtape to Enemy of the State which came out last year. Enemy of the State and Friend of the People are both great mixtapes because Lupe is not bound by a label or anyone else. This is just his raw emotions and thinking so take a listen and download it if you like it.
03 Friend Of The People ft. Dosage
download here
We’re pleased to announce that copies of the first ever Lesson Six Newspaper is available for purchase from today from our Big Cartel. You’ll be able to get your hands on our first issue for £2 (or $3.3) plus shipping. Speaking of which, we are able to ship worldwide, although those outside the UK might have to pay a little more for international shipping.
Here’s an interesting video that was posted on Word is Bond earlier in the week. Here Lupe Fiasco and Bun B answer the question – should rappers be role models? Running a cliché-free hip-hop site means having this conversation with people alot and we’re always up for people opening up the debate. Although, on this specific video, I’ve got to disagree with the last point that Lupe makes. Schools are primarily told what they have to teach by governments while rappers have much more freedom. So by saying “Miseducation isn’t any different just because we make it rhyme” doesn’t really make too much sense, because nobody is telling you to miseducate people.
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At the end of last year Spin Magazine compiled a fairly comprehensive video of video game samples in hip-hop. It started to make a few of us at Lesson Six think how many were actually about video games rather than just sounding like them. The result, a list of our top six tracks about video [...]
Lesson is about progressive & cliché-free hip-hop with intelligent lyrics. Striving for something more than the mainstream perception of hip-hop. This means no misogyny, no glorification of drug-use, no violence and no played out flaunting of personal wealth.
