A couple years ago near the release of Samurai, Dan-O of FreeMusicEmpire had me on his State of the Game podcast to give a “Scouting Report” on Lupe Fiasco. In other words, we discussed the strengths and weaknesses of him as an artist, or what we do and do not appreciate about his work. Grand Mega Flowers was also there, so it was cool to be on a show with him for the first time. Some of the things I said on that episode are opinions I don’t necessarily hold anymore, but I certainly did at the time. Check that out if you haven’t heard it yet. Anyway, shortly after my appearance, I wanted to share even more of my feelings on Lupe’s discography as a whole, so I published what was essentially a write-up for his entire catalogue for my Patreon supporters. Since Lupe is all over social media now getting swarmed with clickbait, I figured I would use it as an opportunity to share this with you all. Below you will find what I originally wrote back in 2024, maybe with some slight edits. After that I’ll conclude with some modern thoughts and maybe talk about stuff that’s happened since Samurai. I hope you enjoy, and if so please consider subscribing to the aforementioned Patreon page. I’m broker than I ever been. Shit is real right now. It’s 2026. Trump’s in office. I- Never mind. Anyway, here it is…

General Thoughts on Lupe Fiasco’s Discography

On July 31st this year (2024), Dan-O of FreeMusicEmpire had me & Grand Mega Flowers from SECRET HOUSE AGAINST on as guests for Vol. 215 of his State of the Game podcast. It was a “Scouting Report” episode, which is a series on FME where they discuss the strengths, weaknesses, and overall artistry of a particular musician. The subject of this particular episode was Lupe Fiasco, who is my favorite rapper of all time.

To prepare for the conversation, I listened to the complete Lupe Fiasco discography, including mixtapes and extended plays. There are some loose singles that I have not heard, but as far as projects go, I’ve listened to all of them. I took notes on everything I heard. The Scouting Report was more about Lupe as an artist generally, so we didn’t discuss a lot of albums individually. Since I had these leftover notes, I figured I would put them to good use for my supporters on Patreon by writing about my overall thoughts on each project. This is not a full fledged marathon. I will not be reviewing these albums. I’m just giving my overall thoughts. You can kind of think of it as a mini-marathon. A marathon lite, if you will. Anyway, as always I will be going in chronological order, so we start off with the Fahrenheit 1/15 tapes. I enjoyed all of them even more now than I did when I initially heard them.

Fahrenheit 1/15, Pt. 1: The Truth Is Among Us (2006)

This is one of my favorite Lupe mixtapes. I think it’s exceptional. The first actual song is called Twilight Zone, and it’s a crazy verse over Nas’ Thief’s Theme, which was produced by Salaam Remi. It was kind of a full circle coincidence when I realized this because Salaam Remi of course worked closely with Amy Winehouse and produced a lot of her music. Another cool thing I noticed is that the cover for this tape is hidden on the cover of Food & Liquor as kind of an easter egg. Anyway, this is a really great mixtape, and every hardcore Lupe fan should hear it. My favorite track is called Failure; Drake of all people actually ended up using the instrumental for the title track on his Comeback Season mixtape. Part of me wonders if Lupe has a soft spot for Drake because of this, as well as Drake’s remix of Kick, Push, which appeared on his debut mixtape, Room for Improvement.

Fahrenheit 1/15, Pt. 2: Revenge of the Nerds (2006)

This is a lot of people’s favorite Lupe mixtape, but I think part 1 is marginally better. They’re obviously both really great though. There just aren’t nearly as many highlights on this one for me. I do really like Much More & Jedi Mind Tricks though. However, my favorite track was Switch (The Science Project). The way he kept switching back and forth between two flows was really cool. Again, I liked part one better, but this one’s still great.

Fahrenheit 1/15, Pt. 3: A Rhyming Ape (2006)

This is one of Lupe’s weaker releases, but it’s still pretty solid. From time to time, Lupe makes perplexing artistic decisions, and this is the first example of that. The whole gimmick here is that he’s rapping over songs from The Gorillaz. What’s frustrating is that this could’ve been really awesome. A lot of you guys may not know because I’ve never really written about them, but I actually loved the Gorillaz back in the day. I’m pretty sure Demon Days is actually the first CD I ever got for myself. This tape is kind of a mess though, and not nearly as well executed as it could or should have been. It’s just way too scant. I actually don’t really fuck with any of the tracks that much. Happy Industries is cool and A Bathing Harry is pretty dope, but other than that I’m cool on this one.

Lupe Fiasco’s Food & Liquor (2006)

This album is just as amazing as everyone says it is. It’s one of my favorite albums of all time. That can be said about a few of these projects. The main critique I have is that the album cover for the five year anniversary edition of this album is an atrocity.

The first time I heard this album, I really wasn’t blown away at all. I thought it was just another good rap album. I had to revisit this one multiple times to fully appreciate it. The production is incredible though, and Lupe’s performance is of course fantastic. I actually had never heard the bonus tracks until much later. I had the same experience with them as I did with the main album; I initially thought they were pretty good, but far from essential. Now I love them. My favorite song overall has changed many times over the years, but eventually I landed on Hurt Me Soul. That shit is fucking amazing. The whole project is, and I should get no pushback for saying it’s one of the best debut Rap albums of all time. It’s dope as fuck.

Lupe Fiasco’s The Cool (2007)

Much like with Food & Liquor, I was not blown away the first time I heard this album. I thought it was good, but that’s it. These days I think it’s amazing, and it’s actually kinda crazy that this came out the next year after Food & Liquor. My favorite track tends to change with each listen, but my top 3 are probably Hip Hop Saved My Life, Streets on Fire, and Dumb It Down. The last two things I’ll say are that Paris, Tokyo sounds very similar to the stuff on Samurai, and there’s a very clear Twista influence on The Die, which is cool. It’s an amazing album overall, although I do like Food & Liquor slightly more.

Enemy of the State: A Love Story (2009)

This is another tape that a lot of Lupe fans say is his best. I agree that it’s really awesome, but it’s not my favorite. It’s probably my second favorite. Lupe raps comfortably over these mainstream beats shockingly well. It would be cool to see him do something like this again, but I don’t think that’ll ever happen because this style of mixtape is on life support. The rapid-fire pacing makes for a really exhilarating listening experience though. There’s not a dull moment here. My favorite track is the Say Somethin’ freestyle.

Lasers (2011)

This is Lupe’s most infamous project, and for good reason. It’s kinda crazy that the preceding album featured Dumb It Down. This must have been one of the most disappointing albums ever. I’d only heard this one time prior to my binge of Lupe’s discography. It’s really bad. I thought maybe I would have warmed up to it with time, but nah. This shit is actually that bad. I Don’t Wanna Care Right Now is horrible, but to be fair a lot of shit sounded like that in 2011. It’s in line with what was popular—Pitbull, Flo Rida, B.o.B, etc. I will admit that I do have nostalgia for the singles—Words I Never Said, Out of My Head, and The Show Goes On—because this came out during my first year of middle school. I think Words I Never Said is pretty solid. I like the beat a lot, and I fuck with the sentiment. I just don’t really care for the hook from Skylar Grey. The Modest Mouse sample on The Show Goes On is goofy as fuck, but that song’s okay too. I think the second verse is pretty incredible to be honest, especially for a song that popular.

Five in the air for the teachers not scared
To tell those kids that's livin' in the ghetto
That the niggas holdin' back that the world is theirs
Yeah, yeah, the world is yours, I was once that little boy
Terrified of the world, now I'm on a world tour
I would give up everything, even start a world war
For these ghetto girls and boys I'm rappin' round the world for

Notice how he raps about childhood on this song. That’s something I’m gonna be coming back to later on in this post. Anyway, the only track that I really think is worth returning to is All Black Everything, but even that song isn’t amazing to me or anything. There are zero Soundtrakk beats on this album by the way. The album’s really wack. This isn’t Lupe’s worst album though. His worst album to me came out in 2010. IYKYK. I’ll explain later…

Friend of the People: I Fight Evil (2011)

This is the only solo Lupe project that I’d never heard prior to delving into his discography in these past 10 days. It’s not good. I literally facepalmed during the first song. This project has arguably the worst production choices out of any of Lupe’s solo rap releases. What makes it frustrating is that the rapping is very good. Double Burger with Cheese is a cool moment, and of course the classic Lupe song, SLR, is here. I also love Life, Death & Love from San Francisco a lot. Track 6 has the worst song title Lupe has ever used, which is “WWJD He’d Prolly LOL Like WTF!!!” My least favorite track is called Lightwork. This was me the first time I heard that song…

As far as my favorite track goes, it’s obviously SLR. That shit is amazing. The couple of major highlights here are too good for me to call the tape wack overall, but it’s very mediocre as a whole.

Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album, Pt. 1 (2012)

This was actually the first Lupe album that I heard all the way through. This shit sucks. I like it even less now than I did the last time I tried listening to it, which was probably a couple years ago. One word: boring. This album is so dull sonically. There’s only one Soundtrakk beat here, and it’s not even very good. There are a few gems hidden on this album, but for the most part this shit is unremarkable to a concerning extent. If all of Lupe’s music was like this, then I would agree that he picks bad beats. As far as Lupe himself goes, his flow is very flat for the most part. It honestly feels like a bad J. Cole album. It’s dry. The album also contains some of the preachiest lyricism Lupe ever spit in my opinion. It’s the most stereotypical “conscious rap album” in Lu’s discography to me. Despite the controversy surrounding Around My Way (Freedom Ain’t Free), I actually dig this song quite a bit. I love these lines…

Cash rules everything around these niggas
As classrooms everywhere around me wither
Hither you can be Mr. Burns or Mr. Smithers
The tyrant or the slave, but nowhere in the middle
Of the extremes of America’s dream
Freud fighting Neo, Freddy Krueger refereeing

There are a lot of corny hooks on the album. I feel like he was still slightly in Lasers mode when he made this. The album is also way too long, and it absolutely does not justify its own length. Lamborghini Angels is easily my favorite track on the project. Overall, it’s pretty bad.

Lost in the Atlantic (2014)

This is kind of an unusual one. It’s not really an official project. In 2014 he announced that he’d be releasing a mixtape called Lost in the Atlantic because Atlantic Records was blocking him from dropping the music he wanted to release. He never really did that in the form of an actual mixtape. He just ended up releasing the songs as singles. They’re fire. I love this shit. Lilies has one of my favorite instrumentals of all time, and the hook from Sirah is actually fire. Strictly from a sonic perspective, I think that’s a top 5 Lupe song. His flow on Mazinger is godly too. There were a few other songs he dropped at this time, and I honestly can’t remember all of them. Haile Selassie was one of them, which of course later ended up on DROGAS WAVE four years later. Same with Jonylah Forever. We also got a song called Pu$$y, which is infamous amongst Lupe’s fanbase. Personally I actually don’t think it’s that bad. In fact, I don’t think it’s a bad song at all. It’s not something I personally enjoy, but I definitely think Lupe has much worse material than that. There’s a song called Next to It featuring Ty$, which I remember getting a lot of radio play. That song’s fire. Some of my favorite songs Lupe ever recorded came from this period, so if you’re a fan definitely make sure you check this stuff out. Lilies is my favorite.

Tetsuo & Youth (2015)

This album is amazing, and damn near perfect to me. It’s another one of my favorite albums of all time, and to be completely honest I think it has the capacity to grow on me even more in the future. The first time I heard it I thought No Scratches was weak, but now it’s one of my favorites on the album. Every time I hear Mural, I think to myself, “This is the best song Lupe has ever made.” I don’t even feel that way generally though. Just when I’m listening to it. Somehow even the pop song, Blur My Hands, goes hard. Oh, I have an interesting anecdote to share. When I was in high school, my Sociology teacher gave us an assignment to choose a song with a powerful message and make a homemade music video for it. I chose the song Prisoner 1 & 2 by Lupe Fiasco, and I ended up getting an A+ on that assignment. I think my teacher was so blown away by the song that she just gave me an A because the music video I made wasn’t even that great. It was a corny slideshow of images that was kinda synced to the lyrics. I remember my teacher saying “I’m sorry you have to follow that” to the person who presented after me. Anyway, there are some truly beautiful sounds on this album, such as the saxophone solo from Terrace Martin. I ascended the first time I heard that shit. It’s such a beautiful record, and as I was listening to it a couple days ago, all I could think was “I bet Big Flowers would make a fire alternate cover for this project.” This is my 2nd favorite Lupe album, and the one that made me a super fan. I wanted an Ab-Soul & Lupe Fiasco collab album for a long time because all of their collaborations are fire. The most slept on one is called Thorns & Horns. That shit is amazing. Definitely check that out if you haven’t heard it yet. Anyway, this album is incredible, and a hell of a way to bounce back after Lasers & F&L2. In fact, I’d say this is probably the 2nd best comeback album I’ve ever heard behind Little Brother’s May the Lord Watch. It’s dope as fuck.

Pharaoh Height 2/30 (2015)

This is my favorite mixtape from Lupe. I remember thinking it was dope as hell back when I reviewed it in 2015, but I love it way more now. The opening track is called In, and he raps over the trailer to Metal Gear Solid V on it. It’s weird as fuck. It grew on me a lot though. The closing track is called Schemes, and it’s one of Lupe’s best performances on the mic ever in my opinion. It also helps that the production from DJ Busy on that track is incredible. That song is a masterclass in storytelling as well as flow. This is easily the best mixtape he ever made to me honestly. The beat selections—Robert Glasper, J Dilla, FlyLo, etc.—are amazing, and Lupe’s rapping is God tier. He might have peaked here to be honest. He rapped over the beat to The Weeknd’s King of the Fall, and it ends with one of my favorite quatrains ever.

Francis Ford Coppola’s spoken plots
Hyannis Port localists rollin' in open drops
Titanic corpse smokin' from openin' those with chops
Lycanic moonlit leader loc'in with loaded Glocks

That shit is so smooth, man. I love it. By the way, I posted a reel of me dancing to Schemes on IG, so be sure to check that out if you haven’t yet. Chances are if you care enough to join this Patreon page, you’ll be interested in that video. Overall, this tape is amazing.

DROGAS Light (2017)

This is really one of the most confusing releases from Lupe. I really don’t know why this exists. It’s not good at all. I mean, I like the opening and closing tracks, but everything sandwiched in between ranges from terrible to decent. The lead single, Pick Up the Phone, might be my least favorite song on the whole album. The rapping isn’t terrible, but it’s just bad musically. I saw Lupe refer to this album as “Lasers 2,” so I wonder if this is just a bunch of leftovers from his time at Atlantic. The album’s full of wack flows & hooks over mediocre beats. While not Lupe’s worst album in my opinion, I’d say it’s probably his least essential solo album. Nobody cares about this record.

DROGAS WAVE (2018)

This is my favorite Lupe album. It’s really a damn near perfect album to me. It took me a while to fully appreciate it, but I feel like it grows on me more and more every time I hear it. The list of my favorite albums of all time is constantly evolving, but I recently decided that this is top 3. Some day it might just be number one to be honest. The review I wrote in 2018 sucked. This shit is incredible. There’s not a single track I don’t like. My least favorite is the song Drogas, which was kind of a weird way to start the project, but I still fuck with it. King Nas is my favorite track.

HOUSE EP w/ Kaelin Ellis (2020)

My review for this EP also kinda sucks. This shit is amazing. Kaelin Ellis’ jazzy production is phenomenal. It’s kind of in the same style as the stuff Soundtrakk typically does, but it’s got its own distinct flavor, which I appreciate. I initially disliked the Virgil Abloh inclusion, but now I appreciate it. I have a lot more respect for him than I did at the time of this EP’s release. It was really cool of Lupe to reach out to Kaelin Ellis to craft this collection of great rap songs too. I love it. My favorite track is LF95.

DRILL MUSIC IN ZION (2022)

I think my review of this album holds up for the most part, although I do feel differently about certain tracks a little bit. The album contains my favorite performance from Ayesha Jaco ever, and I like how they revisited the intro’s beat on the final track. The second half is better in my opinion, but overall it’s another collection of fantastic songs. There are no skips here. I love it. GHOTI in particular is actually probably my most played song from the album. I love that beat and the way Lupe flowed over it. The album’s amazing.

Samurai (2024)

Go read my review! This album was apparently made in 2020, so it technically happened before Drill Music in Zion, which is interesting. I love this shit though. It’s definitely in my top 10 albums of the year so far.

Features, Group Projects, and General Final Thoughts

I think Touch the Sky is probably still my favorite Lupe feature, which is kinda crazy, and a little disappointing to be honest. I don’t think Lupe ever really collabed super well with any artists other than Gemini & Ab-Soul. One of his earliest features is on a Fort Minor song that also had Ghostface Killah called Spray Paint & Ink Pens. That’s definitely worth checking out. I liked that one a lot. Even Mike Shinoda’s verse was cool.

I almost forgot about this; there’s a BET cypher that features Papoose, Lupe Fiasco, and Styles P, and it’s fucking amazing. I think that might be the first BET cypher ever if I’m not mistaken, which is crazy. Papoose was cool, but it was really between Lupe & Styles P for who had the better verse. If you haven’t seen it, do yourself a favor and give it a watch. I personally loved seeing that.

Lupe was in a group with Pharrell Williams & Kanye West called Child Rebel Soldier. They only ever put out two songs, the first of which came out in 2007 and was called Us Placers. I actually like that one a lot. I think it’s really dope, although I kinda wish Kanye & Pharrell were absent lol. Sadly, the second single they put out during Kanye’s Good Fridays series, Don’t Stop, is pretty weak to me. Maybe I would’ve appreciated it more back when I was first getting into them, but these days I really could go the rest of my life without ever hearing Kanye or Pharrell rap again. I don’t even think the production was particularly impressive. Oh well. Aside from that, the closest thing to another CRS track was a remix of a song called Everyone Nose by N.E.R.D. featuring Lupe, Kanye, and Pusha T. I think the song is terrible to be honest, but it was cool to see Lupe & Push in the same video, even if they weren’t together.

Alright, you remember my comment about Lupe’s worst album dropping in 2010? He has this side project called Japanese Cartoon, which is a Dance Punk / Alternative Rock band. The album is called In the Jaws of the Lords of Death. It’s horrible to me. It’s actually one of the worst albums I’ve heard in my life. I say that confidently as someone who has never been into Punk music. It’s possible that Punk fans may appreciate it more, but I found it kind of painful to listen to. For whatever reason, Lupe is singing in this very goofy fabricated British accent throughout the whole record. It’s strange and confusing. I’d say the album’s only worth hearing if you’re a curious Lupe stan. It’s also only available on Soundcloud, and seems like it’s kinda been forgotten. It’s like the one thing Lupe fans refuse to acknowledge. I don’t know. I’m sure someone out there likes it, but I found it pretty embarrassing to listen to personally.

He’s in another group with this person named Sky Gellatly called SNDCLSH. It’s basically like an EDM project. They released one EP in 2015 called Don’t Drop the Flag, and it’s honestly not even bad. I say that as someone who has always hated EDM. It’s certainly not my type of music, but I think the EP is fine for what it is. I mean, Lupe’s singing isn’t great, but it kinda works. The project’s greatest offense in my opinion is that it’s just not all that interesting. It’s generic, but it’s fine.

The last thing I want to say before I wrap this up is that one thing I noticed and gained a new appreciation for is Lupe’s songs about and/or for children. Every now and then Lupe will make a song that kind of conveys the innocence of a child, such as He Say She Say, Dinosaurs, Alan Forever, and Jonylah Forever. I get the sense that Lupe really understands children and how they react to the world around them on an emotional level. He’s able to make child-friendly music without it being super lame, which is a really special skill in my opinion.

Anyway, I didn’t decide until about four years ago that Lupe was my favorite rapper ever. Things got a little erratic throughout most of the 2010s, but ever since 2018 it’s been smooth sailing as a Lupe fan. Most of his discography is fire, but 2011 & 2012 in particular were really rough. You would think the lull in his career was a lot longer than that based on the way people talk about him, but I guess that’s just a testament to how bad things got. As much as I hated the Japanese Cartoon stuff, I do think that artists deserve the freedom to make bad music, especially if they’ve already proven themselves the way Lupe has. I think it’s cool that Lupe has experimented with other genres like Dance Punk & EDM, even if I don’t really like that stuff. Anyway, let me know what your favorite Lupe project or song is, as well as your overall opinion of him as an artist. I’d love to know what you guys think.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention something. Someone I know recently told me on Twitter that he never understood the Lupe hype, so I put together a little playlist of some of my favorite songs by him including loose singles that never made it onto an album, so be sure to check that out as well. Alright, that’s all I have to say. Peace, and thanks for reading as always!

Okay, hi, this is 2026 me writing now. I realized that I actually didn’t talk about a lot of the non-album singles that I love and that ended up on that playlist I linked in the preceding paragraph, so I wanna take some time to do that now…

There’s the Lost in the Atlantic stuff that I covered already, but I also should shoutout the ALL PROCEEDS TO MY CHAIN series. I actually liked every single one of those songs. In fact, I think the Checkin’ single is mad underrated. It was probably jarring at first to hear Lupe make a song like that at the time, but he did it really well. I actually think that song is better than probably every song on DROGAS Light, and definitely every song on Lasers. His flow is super nice on that one.

Same goes for the Tape Tape songs. Both of those tracks are way better to me now than they were when they first dropped. When he’s just dropping a quick song in that style it goes over much better than I think most people think. I wonder if he’d make a whole album with that sound. I’d be down for that personally.

One more song I wanna mention quickly is Mission. I did not like that song until literally a couple weeks ago. It’s much, much better than I thought when it first dropped. It probably wasn’t the type of song I was trying to hear in high school, but these days I love it. The refrain from Chef Tone is actually pretty amazing to me, especially because of the guitar that comes in. The production is really clean. Lupe’s lyricism is absolutely beautiful on this song too, man. I don’t even have a close friend or relative that had a tumultuous battle with cancer, but I imagine if I did this would be even more gripping to me. This shit was giving me chills even as someone who hasn’t struggled with that. The intro perhaps didn’t need to be that long winded, but I get why they included that. Shortly after this song came out, they put out what was essentially a reprise, replacing Chef Tone with Jennifer Hudson, and adding a verse from Common. The Common verse is awesome to me, but I sadly think Chef Tone’s performance of the chorus was far superior to that of Jennifer Hudson. I’m sure a lot of people prefer the new version though.

Lupe put out another EP called Samurai DX last year, which featured three new versions of songs from the original album, as well as two brand new songs, one of which was self-produced if I’m not mistaken. For those interested in my thoughts on this EP, check out the list of my Top 20 EPs of 2025.

The last thing Lupe has released was the Live from Miami Beach project. As the title indicates, it’s a live album from a performance at the beginning of this year. I actually… have not listened yet. I know, I’m a fake fan. I’m sorry. I just have never really been the type of listener to enjoy a live album. I want to either listen to the song itself or actually be at the live show. I’m not tryna halfway enjoy a live performance. However, with that said I am planning on checking this one out. Lupe’s my favorite rapper, so if anybody can get me to listen to a live album, it’s him.

The only thing I have left to say is… WHERE IS SKULLS? I NEED SKULLS! DROP THE ALBUM! WE NEED SKULLS! THE CULTURE NEEDS SKULLS! DON’T SCRAP SKULLS! KEEP WORKING ON SKULLS UNTIL IT’S COMPLETED! THEN DROP SKULLS ASAP! Okay, that’s all. Thanks for reading! ✌️