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hideo kojima, hip hop, kojima, lupe fiasco, metal gear solid, mgsV, mixtape, Music, New Music, pharaoh height, rap, review
After a couple of disappointing projects Lupe Fiasco made a stunning comeback this year with Tetsuo & Youth. Not content with releasing one of the best rap albums of the year (in a year with a lot of great releases), he’s back again, free from his contract with Atlantic Records and revitalised, bringing us a new mixtape/EP, Pharaoh Height.
Here’s a little secret about hip-hop. It’s the goddamn nerdiest genre in the world. And yeah, you’d perhaps not be surprised that Eminem is a huge comic book nerd, while Kanye being way into anime is hardly a surprise, even if you’ve never listened to their music. But then you go back to Wu-Tang Clan and RZA’s obsession with martial arts movies and appreciation for Dragonball Z, and you realise it’s always been that way.
Perhaps nobody is a bigger nerd than Lupe Fiasco. Hell, the guy made his big entrance into mainstream music namedropping Lupin III. And Pharaoh Height may be his nerdiest project yet. The mixtape opens with a sample of the Metal Gear Solid V trailer. As if he needed to prove himself, he then goes on to namedrop Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima later on the tape.
And while it would be easy to use these references to mask a lack of substance and appeal to the white “real rapz” crowd, this project is chock full of substance. Lupe is the best lyricist in the game, bar none and he continues impressing here. Hell, even the track titles (spelling out “In valleys of kings pyramid schemes”) have hidden meaning. This is no surprise, as Tetsuo & Youth was perhaps Lupe’s most lyrically dense project yet.
But if there’s one thing Pharaoh Height has that Tetsuo & Youth didn’t. It’s fun. Don’t get me wrong, T&Y was a fantastic album, but Lupe seemed so desperate to move away from his recent poppier sound that he was afraid of sounding like he was having fun. There’s nothing wrong with a more serious album, but I’m very glad to have this aspect of Lupe back. Listening to Tetsuo & Youth when it came out, I probably wouldn’t have guessed that Lupe would end a project less than a year later with a track like “Schemes.” The song reads like Lupe’s personal fanfiction and is perhaps one of his best works. He really sounds like he’s enjoying himself on this project, and I’ve sorely missed that from him.
With Tetsuo & Youth I welcomed the return of Lupe Fiasco. But with Pharaoh Height he reminded me just why he’s my favourite rapper. This mixtape is fun, goofy and nerdy, but never forgets to make a point behind all that. Not only do I love this project, I’m now extremely excited to see what post-Atlantic Lupe can bring to the table. He has some heavy expectations, particularly with The Cool 2, but listening to this, it just might be possible for him to pull it off.
Dumb Music Talk 