The one and only Lupe Fiasco, whose album is now the most critically acclaimed album across all genres of music, rocked the Sykes Student Union stage last Thursday night. This Chicago native uses his diverse musical influences such as rock, hip-hop, R & B to deliver an extraordinary performance that shows that there is still hope for good music. While growing up Fiasco was exposed to all types of music. “My father was a real prolific African drummer and can play anything from the Dijembe’s to the bagpipes. My mom is a gourmet chef that has traveled the world. We were always around different cultures,” said Fiasco in an interview. The exposure has led Fiasco to taking music into his own hands, and creating a mixture of musical genres to create a unique sound that anyone can enjoy.
This truly showed as Fiasco’s music was able to unite West Chester University students of different musical interests together in one room to enjoy what every fan deserves- good music.
As a lyricist, Fiasco uses thought-provoking rhymes to educate his listeners on issues that people in our society deal with such as discrimination, relationships and adversity. His performance shows how important and personal his lyrics are to him. While on stage he would recite some of his most meaningful verses after the music was off so his audience could experience and understand the meaning behind his words.
What separates Fiasco from other performers is his body language and stage presence. “You could really tell he loves what he does, he was really into it,” said second-year student Esther Butler.
Fiasco would close his eyes and just dance back and forth across the stage, enjoying himself, his audience and truly feeling his music. He made sure he stayed connected to his audience by choosing audience members to go on stage and pointing at members of the audience as if he were performing for them personally.
His new album entitled Food and Liquor came from his hometown of Chicago, which has a food and liquor store on every corner.
” The ‘Food’ is the good part and the ‘Liquor’ is the bad part. I try to balance out both parts of me,” said Fiasco in a comment about the title of his album. Fiasco has taken hip-hop to a different level and takes advantage of his freedom as an artist. His success comes from his artistic courage of breaking barriers and showing how versatile music can be.