"The Instrumental" -- Lupe Fiasco

Artist: Lupe Fiasco
Song: The Instrumental
Album: Food & Liquor

"He just sits, and listen"s to the people in the boxes
Everything he hears he absorbs and adopts it
Anything not comin out the box he blocks it
See he loves to box and hope they never stop it
Anything the box tell him to do, he does it
Anything it tell him to get, he shops and he cops it
He protects the box, locks it in a box
when he goes to sleep, but he never sleeps
Cause he stays up to watch it, scared to look away
Cause at that moment, it might get stolen
And that's the last of the boxes
So he chained hisself to the box, took a lock and then he locked it
Swallowed the combination and then forgot, it
As the doctors jot it all down, with they pens and pencils
The same ones that took away his voice
And just left this instrumental, like that"

There are three artists that you will see more than once on this blog...in fact multiple times. Jay-Z, Kanye West, and Lupe Fiasco. Lupe Fiasco singlehandedly brought "nerdy" into hip hop with his raps about robots and kick, pushing. Lupe is easily one of the best emcees out in the game right now and that has not changed since his inception into the rap world on Kanye West's "Touch the Sky" in 2005. Plus, he got away with pretty much repeating the same verse in this track! That's tough to do.

This particular verse is so dope simple because of the semi-symbolic nature of the verse. If you don't think too hard about the lyrics, you might not pick up the fact that he's speaking about a staple of the American household: the TV. Its influence on children and adults of all ages is not a figment of someone's imagination. It's a fact that much of what takes place in life has some connection to the television programs that people see today--whether it's a show, a reality show, a movie, or a music video. Lupe is so symbolic in his music (i.e. Can you explain the concept behind the cool?) and that's what makes him one of the illest of all time. BTW, sidenote....Lupe's show is the greatest show on earth...Not the "Glow in the Dark" show, but just Lupe himself live.

Enjoy your Wednesday...