Lupe Fiasco – Tetsuo & Youth Full Album 2015 review January 20, 2015
Let’s start with the Title: Tetsuo & Youth. Anyone one from the 80’s and 90’s will recognize the name “Tetsuo”, the main antagonist from highly acclaimed Japanese Anime Akira. The film depicts a dystopian version of Tokyo in the year 2019, with cyberpunk tones. The plot focuses on teenage biker Tetsuo Shima and his psychic powers, and the leader of his biker gang, Shotaro Kaneda.Some of the common themes in particular that stands out in the movie are youth alienation, government corruption and inefficiency, and displeasure with authority and society as a whole.
Motifs common in the movie include youth alienation, government corruption and inefficiency, and a military grounded in old-fashioned Japanese honor, displeased with the rules and settlements of modern society. That is conveyed cinematically, through the visuals of post war Japan after its economic resurgence through Neo-Tokyo and its inhabitants. We see Kaneda and his friends through his role as a leader of the biker gang such motifs as nature of youth to rebel against authority, adolescent transformation, pursuit of self-awareness, and sense of loss.
In my own opinion, bit of background info was needed on “Akira” too fully understand Lupe Fiasco’s artistic vision on this album. There album was painted by the MC himself. Also if you listen and look at the album track list as I did listing to it; you realize the progress of the album ebbs then flows through the four seasons through four interludes, summer, fall, winter, and spring. As you progress through 16 tracks, the listener feels a sense of being transient through the changing of the seasons. Just as summer feels vibrant, optimistic and joyous, the proceeding tracks of “Mural, Blur My hands, and Dots & Lines sets the tone for that season musically. There’s been a lot of online buzz on the track “Murals”, were Lupe spits Bar after bar.
The next tracks that accompany the interlude of fall the listener can sense the transition to optimistic and joyous vibes, much like the end of summer brings certain emotions out of. Tracks like Prisoner 1 and 2, Body of Work, Little death and No Scratches (latter having the lovely but subtle voice of Nikki Jean) definitely in my opinion has many of the motifs visualized in “Akira”. Systematic failure of society, which Lupe lyrically connects to the prison industry complex and then there’s “Little Death” which as bars that tackle youth alienation, government corruption and inefficiency, and concept of authority and society as a whole. A snippet of Lupe’s third verse where he spits “The atelier slowly fills with baboons, That other monkey business, Where killers go free cause a junkie’s a funky witness”.
The tracks that follow the winter interlude sets a darker tone, tracks like “Chopper” (which has several features from like of Billy Blue, Buk of Psychodrama, Trouble, Trae Tha Truth, Fam Lay & Glasses ), “Deliver”, and “Madonna (And Other Mothers In the Hood)” storyboards experiences the Chriaq and hoods in general. The last two songs of “Adoration of the Magi” and “They.Resurrect.Over.New” conclude the album bringing in spring. The two last tracks have a different sound almost like how spring represents rebirth.
Overall, I believe artistically and musically this a great album, for those that can understand bars and finer points that Lupe Fiasco lyrically depicts.
By Sujan DeSiva
http://instagram.com/lupefiasco/
Track Listing
1. ‘Summer’
2. ‘Mural’
3. ‘Blur My Hands’ (Feat. Guy Sebastian)
4. ‘Dots & Lines’
5. ‘Fall’
6. ‘Prisoner 1 & 2′ (Feat. Ayesha Jaco)
7. ‘Body Of Work’ (Feat. Troi & Terrance Martin)
8. ‘Little Death’ (Feat. Nikki Jean)
9. ‘No Scratches’ (Feat. Nikki Jean)
10. ‘Winter’
11. ‘Chopper’ (Feat. Billy Blue, Buk Of Psychodrama, Trouble, Trae Tha Truth, Fam Lay & Glasses Malone)
12. ‘Deliver’
13. ‘Madonna (And Other Mothers In The Hood)’ [Feat. Nikki Jean]
14. ‘Adoration Of The Magi’ (Feat. Crystal Torres)
15. ‘They.Resurrect.Over.New’ (Feat. Ab-Soul & Troi)
16. ‘Spring’