Yes, this is what we call a double non-review, and I think it’s a bit appropriate because I listened to both albums back to back on a couple of occasions and noticed some glaring similarities.  Don’t fret though, loyal reader, because I don’t plan on just going down the simple route and bashing LASERS and elevating Shaolin like the standard (and sadly ignorant) hip hop purist is quick to doing now.  No, that’s not me; that’s not the DiZ way.  This is my opinion alone, based only on my opinion, laced with what I think and only what I think.  That’s why I’m not reviewing both albums at once.  What you may appreciate, however, is how it’ll be divided into segments with funky titles.  I’m sure that you will find them titillating and saucy.  With that, let’s get the ball bouncing.

“You’re Pitiful”

Let’s call a spade a spade:  Atlantic Records doesn’t know what the hell to do with critically acclaimed rap groups.  When I heard about the concessions that Lupe Fiasco (@LupeFiasco) would have to give in to just to release LASERS I knew that the culprit (a vast majority of the culprit) would be the dingus conglomerate at Atlantic Records.

I’m being overly mean.  The issue with all major label deals is that the pursuit of commercial success is paramount and will always overshadow the critical greatness an album might have, unless you’re a legend that is.  Lupe Fiasco is not a legend, and having a Grammy for a single and multiple Grammy nominations for both albums does not, in terms of major label talk, mean that you are an asset so much as a liability.  Long and short of it: if Lupe Fiasco’s The Cool went platinum, it would have had no bearing on anything if Lupe Fiasco’s Food and Liquor never got far past gold status.  That’s the way things work, but Atlantic has a strange track record especially.

Who hear remembers a nice little collective from North Carolina?  They were originally a trio; two rappers and a producer.  One of the rappers always offered lyrical no-frills perspectives on life and love while the other was always a straight, hard jab who only showed dramatic improvement with each passing verse.  The producer consistently incorporates soul samples and is considered to be a student of the late great J. Dilla and Pete Rock.  Oh, and he raps now too *shiver*.  Give up?  Well you shouldn’t have.

I’m talking about Little Brother (@phontigallo; @RapperBigPooh; @9thWonderMusic) of course, the critically acclaimed, highly underrated and pathetically unsung heroes of underground hip hop from Durham, North Carolina.  After releasing The Listening, a flawless album according to many professional critics and fans (and haters) alike, the trio signed a deal with Atlantic Records and released The Minstrel Show, a biting and satirical look at black culture and an exercise in dope beats and dope rhymes; what more do y’all want?

No seriously, Atlantic Records, I’m asking: what more do y’all want?  Why can’t you just leave well enough alone for once?  James Blunt would still have an actual career if you let Weird Al do his mess.  The album [The Minstrel Show] was poorly promoted, only one video was released (two singles though), and Little Brother’s album was so hard to find in stores a lot of people wondered if it was just a clever myth.  But no, it wasn’t, and after a long long LONG time I found it.  And I love it.  Scary thing is that I can still see stickers for it on some poles at my old campus.  Creepy.

Critical acclaim does not equal commercial success, this I understand, but at what point do record executives, excuse me, MAJOR LABEL record executives realize that this may be the very reason that a rapper does NOT do well in his or her transition from underground to mainstream?  Wish I could answer that, but I’m going to leave Little Brother alone because they’re too easy a target and this is about Lupe Fiasco.

To Lupe Fiasco (@LupeFiasco): what did you really expect?  Major labels are after money, and one gold album does not equal money.  Classic albums they may be, money wasn’t coming in big time.  That means that something about the sound is going to be changed to make the music more commercial and radio friendly.  That means people that you may or may not like, specifically others from the label, will be put on tracks with you a la Akon on India.Arie’s I Am Not My Hair.  She ain’t want that nigga on that track!  And I’m willing to bet money that you didn’t want Trey Songz on yours. 

Interestingly enough, Trey Songz could be considered another case like Little Brother or Lupe Fiasco, just instead of arguing about the changes he went along with them.  That’s why so many of us call him a sell out.  I liked Just Gotta Make It.  It set him apart.  Now he’s, as Riley Freeman would call him, some “R&B, sexy, flexy ass nigga”.  Seriously, how many of us actually listen to him at this point so much as just watch him take his shirt off and agree with stuff?

But I digress.  This isn’t about Trey Songz (@TreySongz).  This is all just build up for why I feel how I feel about Lasers.  I can really sum it up with one sentence, but how much of a review would that be?  I’ll say it but I’ll explain later: it’s not a Lupe Fiasco album.

“Somethin’ That Means Somethin’”

Ever since I heard about a Justin Bieber remix featuring… no, that’s not a good way to start this segment.  Ah, better.  Raekwon is the current key flag bearer for the original Wu-Tang Clan.  Much like the Sorcerer Supreme of Marvel Comics fame, the role passes around.  At one point it was a role shared by the whole, and then it went primarily to Method Man, and then ODB (RIP), and then Ghostface, and now Raekwon.  There’s something about the Wu, isn’t there?

As the current key flag bearer, Raekwon has arguably the most difficult era to carry the flag through.  Avatar Method was around when… I mean, Method Man was carrying the torch when the Wu was at the forefront.  Ol’ Dirty Bastard (or whatever the fuck he was calling himself at the time) was so wild that his only competition was Busta Rhymes.  Not just that, but he solidified his status of king of the hill when he apparently (the video is a bit fuzzy) kissed the lovely Erykah Badu and stormed the Grammy stage to explain how he bought an outfit that “costed a lot of money” and how “Wu Tang is for the children”.  I miss you, Big Baby Jesus.

Ghostface Killah was (arguably) the first to make a transition from the Wu sound into the realm of mainstream music, and it shows in recent releases such as Fishscale and Ghostdini but now we come to Raekwon.  Hmm, Raekwon the chef, the infamous Mafioso wordslinger primarily responsible (you know a solo Wu album is code for an unofficial group Wu album… and maybe Cappadonna will be on it too) for the practically orgasmic Only Built for Cuban Linx, the current flag bearer?  But how?

We start off with the announcement that shocked the hip hop world: Only Build for Cuban Linx 2!  And after a long wait, it actually came out!  Dr. Dre, are you listening?  IT ACTUALLY CAME OUT!  And to make things even better: it was GREAT!  Search this blog and go back a while, you will find my OB4CL 2 review.  Was it as good as the original?  No, the gap between the two was so marginal it’s hard to believe the album is ten years after the original.

That was part one: the “rebirth” of Raekwon thrust him back into the forefront.  Part two was the Pusha T-like alliance that Raekwon established with hip hop Da Vinci Kanye West.  Sidenote: don’t you guys think it’s funny that Kanye West has put Pusha T on so many tracks since he signed him?  I love Pusha and Malice, love the Clipse, they’re hometown heroes (VA stand up!) but damn… too much Pusha.  Raekwon has not been utilized so greatly, but his appearance on the Good Friday line up (on one of the better songs in my opinion) showed us that he was indeed in the driver seat. 

In relation to the Kanye alliance (that could be an interesting piece in the future in and of itself), Raekwon was put on a remix to Justin Bieber’s song Runaway Love.  We’re not going to talk about that song, mostly because I don’t remember it all too well.  That song, however, is probably instrumental in introducing one of our favorite crime bosses to million of prepubescent white girls around the world that experience minor orgasms every time Ivory Usher (give it time, you’ll see…) does a piss poor late night show interview. 

Sidenote #2: why are Canadians taking over the American music scene?  Hmm…

And it really is a moot point to even mention Raekwon’s masterful verse on Kanye’s Gorgeous track off of the critically lauded My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.  Case in point, even more so than Ghostface now, Raekwon is the Wu messenger.  I say good work: RZA always needs at least one of the original to keep the name alive.  I mean, not like any of the forty thousand Wu affiliates can do it.  Yeah, that sounds like me taking a shot, but no, I’m serious when I say Wu Tang has affiliates worldwide.  I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a Russian crime family that called RZA their leader. 

I say all this to explain why Raekwon is so big right now.  I didn’t mention the MTV Hottest Rapper thing because there hasn’t been any validation to that nonsense since it first came along.  Raekwon was number 10 in 2009 and we all said, “About time!”  Then 50 Cent was number 8, not having dropped a single album that year.  So like I said, nonsense. 

Actually, I found it strange that Shaolin vs. Wu-Tang would be released right now, considering it was originally supposed to be an OFFICIAL Wu album, but when you’re still riding on the coattails of one of the most critically acclaimed sequels in hip hop history why not ride the wave as high as you can?  Question is how well can a man ride a tidal wave that eclipses skyscrapers?  Answer: surprisingly well.

“Dumb It Down”

I took a long break from Twitter for some personal reasons, but I’m on and off now.  Conversing with a friend of mine, a purist and true hip hop head like myself (@MrG3nius), I discovered that according to his Twitter feed links, Lupe Fiasco was not very happy with Lasers.  In fact, he hated it.  I didn’t go on Twitter to find out, but saw some interviews and articles that described his unhappy demeanor regarding the long delayed LP. 

That was just the tip of the iceberg, however.  He went through hell and high water just to get the deal settled to even release the damn thing.  Personal issues always plague an artist when he or she is releasing an album, sometimes minor and sometimes disastrous.  I’m convinced that whatever Kurt Cobain was working on was probably a testament to his suicide, as well as label politics and fear of his music becoming a part of a commercial machine.  I don’t know; my knowledge of Nirvana isn’t as high as it should be.

Lupe Fiasco was quick to say that he would never submit to the will of the record companies and mainstream temptations.  He said this with Lupe Fiasco’s Food and Liquor.  So when his next offering, Lupe Fiasco’s The Cool was said to be more commercial, I was a little disappointed. Then I heard the street single Dumb It Down.  And then I heard the album.  Not only was it good, but it was great, arguably better than his first.  Translation: the words of the street single were perfectly accurate, notably the last lines:

“Bishop G!  They told me I should come down cousin!

But I flatly refused.  I don’t dumb, down, nuthin’!”

I paid attention to these words because it meant that Lupe Fiasco was telling us, the fans, that he would always come correct and honest with his stuff.  Always.  No matter the circumstances.  No matter what kind of crap the label gave him.  No matter… ooh…

“Wu Chant”

Did RZA piss the Wu off?  I’d assume so, because while he IS essentially the de facto leader of the Wu, his soldiers and the like are the people that have to spread his message.  What’s the point of a charismatic chess playing martial arts leader when the charismatic chess playing martial arts underlings aren’t listening?

I say all this because there’s something strange about anything Wu that doesn’t feature vintage Wu production.  We’re not talking about MF DOOM here (though I swear he must be some bastard spawn of the Wu bowel movement).  In all honesty, Wu soldiers sound great over Wu beats.

And when they don’t Wu rhyme over Wu production they still make some Wu genius work.  Okay, I’m done with the intentional Wu jokes.  Wu…

While it was necessary to define it, Only Built for Cuban Linx 2 having production from so many outside sources served as both its greatest asset and liability.  On one hand, you had a new sound (I think this was best exemplified with the song New Wu) and on the other, a glaring absence of the old sound (save for the continuation of North Star (Jewels) which, production wise, I think is pure sex).  And after 8 Diagrams, well… maybe things wouldn’t be so bad if the original 9 were still 9. 

RZA’s style had, has, and will always have a feel to it, a flawless, epic feel that invokes the martial arts films and the actual philosophy of the Wu.  C.R.E.A.M. was great for it’s production and the ease of the performers over it.  Wu Tang Forever was great for… a lot of reasons, but primarily the two I just mentioned. 

Maybe it’s the power of the Wu flag bearer.  Raekwon (and Ghostface; it’s a friendly power struggle) flow effortlessly over any beat they’re put on, but they both have standards they set with themselves and their early albums, a glorious lyricism that hasn’t waned over the years.  Even if the musical backdrop has.  Ah, interesting.

I’m going to get into the actual non-reviews now (yeah, this has all been build up) because there’s a correlation between the two LPs.  They both symbolize something, from two different, but lyrically inclined perspectives of unconscious genius.  Ladies and gentlemen, LASERS and Shaolin Vs. Wu-Tang.

“And The Winner Is…”

Lupe Fiasco: LASERS – 2.5 out of 5

Raekwon (the Chef): Shaolin vs. Wu-Tang – 3.5 out of 5

This is a non-review, remember?