Alright, I was staring at my music list for at least 10 minutes right now trying to decide what I should take here. I am going with the only hip hop album left on my list that someone else may want, all my other hip hop selections are pretty safe (in theory at least)- I am passing up 3 great rock albums to grab this now as it may be on someones radar
Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor- 2006
What can I say? When this album dropped I was psyched because I heard Lupe on some mixtapes and liked his stuff. After listening to it all the way through, it very quickly became a favorite of mine and got heavy rotation everywhere I went. His debut album earns this spot because his lyrics, beats and style are all fresh. Though I liked his second album, this one is tops for me.
The Instrumental is my favorite track off this album. If you like hip hop and have not heard this album, give it a try. I am obviously not the only one who noticed this effort, here is some information about the albums reception from wiki:
Food & Liquor was considered a critical masterpiece by many critics. It earned an 83/100 on
Metacritic, a website that calculates reviews and averages the score, an 83 represents "Universal Acclaim." It received perfect scores from
The Onion and
HipHopDX. HipHopDX remarked that the music was ahead of its time, "When you are this far ahead of your time you have to remember that it will take even longer for the average listener to catch up."
Prefix Magazine called it the best hip-hop album of 2006. The album was also nominated for three
Grammy Awards and won Best Urban/Alternative song at the 2008 Grammy awards for "Daydreamin'."