Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor

Overview

• Credits

• Promotion

Lupe Fiasco's Food & LiquorStudio album by Lupe Fiasco
Released	September 19, 2006 (2006-09-19)
Genre	Hip hop
Length	72:06
Label	1st & 15th Atlantic
Producer(s)	Chilly (exec.) Darrale Jones (exec.) Jay-Z (exec.) Lupe Fiasco (exec.) Brandon Howard Craig Kallman Kanye West Mike Shinoda Needlz Prolyfic Soundtrakk The Neptunes
Lupe Fiasco chronology
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Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor (also referred to as Food & Liquor or LFFL) is the debut studio album by American rapper Lupe Fiasco, released on September 19, 2006, by 1st & 15th Entertainment and Atlantic Records. It was modeled after Nas' It Was Written, cited as Fiasco's favorite hip-hop album, and had Jay-Z serve as an executive producer. The album features guest appearances from Ayesha Jaco, Sarah Green, Gemini, Jonah Matranga, Jill Scott, Jay-Z, and Matthew Santos. A majority of the production work was handled by in-house producers, including Soundtrakk, Prolyfic, and Needlz. Themes present on the album include self-discovery, hypocrisy, and terrorism.

Food & Liquor met with critical acclaim and commercial success, debuting at number eight on the Billboard 200 and having first-week sales of 81,000 copies in the United States. It earned Fiasco his first Grammy nomination for Best Rap Album, along with "Kick, Push" being nominated for Best Rap Solo Performance and Best Rap Song in 2007. In the following year, "Daydreamin'" won in the category Best Urban/Alternative Performance at the 50th Grammy Awards. The album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in 2021.

As part of AOL Sessions, he performed live several tracks from the album that aired on November 7, 2006. He performed the record in its entirety at the Red Bull Music Festival and during his own headline concert tour, the 2021 Food & Liquor Tour.

Dedication

This album is dedicated to my grandmother, Bertha Lee Evans. Rest in peace.

Peace and much love to ya!

Descriptions

Don't be fooled by the goofy retro futurism of the album cover, which shoots for a Bambaataa aping electro cool but winds up looking more like a Gap ad gone horribly awry, Lupe Fiasco is neither a po-faced classicist nor a Beans inspired '80s revisionist. Instead, Lupe Fiasco's Food and Liquor provides an album's worth of grandiose, soul steeped beats and skillfully elliptical lyrical virtuosity. Those looking for more of the breathless, Escobar inspired flow that won Fiasco a key spot on Kanye's storming "Touch the Sky" will not be disappointed. And though Fiasco occasionally reverts to awkward platitudes, for the most part he remains as lyrically inventive as he is technically gifted. Fiasco is equally capable of delivering incisive political observations ("American Terrorist") and scabrous commentary on the state of the Hip-Hop nation, but Lupe is at his best when spitting boy's eye view coming of age narratives that blend the expansive ambitions of adolescence with the gritty texture of everyday life. ^{– Apple Music}

Having stepped into the spotlight on Kanye West's "Touch the Sky," Lupe Fiasco fully crystallizes his fresh, soulful brand of sociopolitical hip-hop. Food & Liquor showcases the rising Chi-Town star's masterful blend of cutting lyrics and unconventional muses. Take the brash, brassy bluster of "Kick, Push," which follows a young man's relationship with his skateboard, while "The Instrumental" examines the specter of TV addiction. Elsewhere, the unapologetic "American Terrorist" sees Fiasco discussing the misconceptions of Islam in America. ^{– Apple Music}

Background

Prior to Food & Liquor's official release for June 27, 2006, the album was leaked in its "unmixed demo form" earlier that year in April, when Fiasco was in a Philadelphia studio waiting to record with Jill Scott. He addressed online:

Hey shit happens. An unmixed version of Food & Liquor got leaked yesterday so I assume it's on Limewire and Bittorrent and all that shit. It's stuff like this that makes you wanna just be like fuck it. A lotta time and money and bullshit went into creating that album. Over the years I've had my people die, get locked up, my company get shut down, weak ass 'intelligent Black men' in my own crew turn against me and just when things are starting to look good [this happens]."

Fiasco noted to Pitchfork of the bootleg version, "People are saying I did it on purpose or that the company did it. I didn't do it; if I did, I would've gotten the names of the songs right. I would've named the producers. If the company did it, the company's getting sued. I hope they didn't do it." He added, "And there's songs on [the leak] that I leaked years ago, almost, that weren't even going to make the album. The kids got about six solid songs that are going to be on the album. We didn't even have the track listing yet for what we were going to put out." He told Contactmusic.com in concern to a possible drop in sales, "There were only six tracks leaked. We're not sure if the tracks have been bootlegged underground yet, the actually physical distribution on the streets as oppose to digital copies being downloaded would be our main concern. We definitely took a hit though but we really won't know until the album comes out." To Format Mag, he named the incident to be both his "best and worst moment" of 2006.

In October 2021, the album became certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). He said, "Man listen shout to all the fans that stayed down like an elephant chest. And all my enemies that tried to harm the name and caught an L or an F, F&L is full of raps smothered in soul, and now we got another plaque all covered in GOLD!!!"

Promotion and release

Fiasco was signed to Arista Records in 2002, where he began recording Food & Liquor. Towards the end, "wrapping up the album, actually doing final track-listing versions," CEO L.A. Reid was fired; subsequently, artists on the roster were dropped or moved onto subsidiary labels. Eventually, Fiasco signed to Atlantic Records with the help of Jay-Z in 2004, where he released the three 2006 singles "Kick, Push," "I Gotcha," and "Daydreamin'," the latter featuring Jill Scott. The song "And He Gets the Girl" was released as the B-side single of "I Gotcha" on select physical copies. In May 2006, Fiasco dropped the mixtape Touch the Sky as a way to hold fans over because of the leak. Hosted by DJ E.Nyce, it compiled previous released material and several interludes that promoted his fashion ventures or personal shout-outs.

The album was digitally re-released on September 13, 2011, to mark its fifth anniversary; this version included four bonus tracks. In celebration of a decade, Fiasco uploaded the audio recording "Ten Yurrs Layda" to SoundCloud, where he discussed the behind-the-scenes of the album artwork and songs. In celebration of fifteen years, he performed a virtual concert on April 15, 2021, exclusively for LFT holders. It was held over the ticketed livestreaming platform, FutureStream. In addition, purchasers would have access to an online meet and greet after the concert, and "exclusive access to limited edition physical merchandise and premium digital content."

Singles

Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor was supported by three singles, each accompanied with a music video. The album's first single, "Kick, Push," debuted at number 78 on the US Billboard Hot 100. Its music video played heavy rotation on MTV and BET, and would go on to spawn remixes by other artists such as Drake, Young Buck, and Bassnectar. Pharrell was featured on the official remix. Since the song's release, Fiasco was briefly branded as a skateboarder, where publications requested to photograph him holding a skateboard. "Kick, Push" is credited to have helped Black representation in the skateboarding community, though in spite of its cultural contribution in merging both the hip hop and skateboarding worlds, Fiasco never planned on releasing it as a single. His manager, Chilly, convinced him to release it.

The second single, "I Gotcha," was released on August 8, 2006, with production handled by The Neptunes. It failed to chart on the Billboard Hot 100, though peaked at number 86 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and number 140 on the UK Singles Chart. The music video featured cameo appearances from Pharrell, Nathan Cabrera, and Fiasco's sister.

The third single, "Daydreamin'," was released on September 11, 2006. Featuring guest vocals from American singer-songwriter Jill Scott on the hook, it contains a sample of "Daydream in Blue" by I Monster. The song's inspiration stemmed from an anecdote Fiasco's father once told him, when driving through Chicago: "'You see all these buildings? You can take all these buildings and if you put 'em together they'll turn into a robot.'" The music video shows Fiasco befriending a robot, Seymour, which Fiasco named in "And He Gets the Girl" ('Come, Seymour, we have things to do!').

Title		Date	Note
	"Kick, Push"	April 18, 2006	Single
	"I Gotcha"	August 8, 2006
	"And He Gets the Girl"		B-side single (select releases)
	"Daydreamin'"	September 11, 2006	Single

Title and artwork

1/4

Fiasco told AllHipHop of the album's title, "I just tried to create a balance of good and bad, and that's where Food and Liquor comes from." It also gives acknowledgment to the Chicago area, where corner shops are colloquially known as 'food and liquor' stores. He explained to SoundSlam.com, "I didn't want the whole album to be this whole thing about good and bad. And it speaks to subtle issues, like hypocrisy, and what goes on in the world on a social level, and then to a further extent on a political level, and trying to find some solution to it on the album." This duality was expounded upon by Ayesha Jaco, who wrote and performed the opening track:

It's a place where you go for nourishment on the food side of things, but then there's unhealthy food there. There's also the liquor component. So you go for nourishment, but at the same time, there are the realities, and some cases temptations, of things that have to potential to be bad like liquor, cigarettes, etc. […] There are a lot of memories from that span of our lives. So him bringing to life a project centered around that, he wanted to tap me to help tell that story so that it's really drawn from the perspective of our childhood memories.

Chuck Anderson was 20 years old when he designed the cover art.

Inspired by Domu: A Child's Dream, which in turn inspired the Black Knight Vol. 3, No. 1 hip hop variant cover by Gyimah Gariba.

The cover artwork was done by his friend, Chuck Anderson of No Pattern. It was based on Japanese anime director Katsuhiro Otomo's Domu: A Child's Dream, where Old Cho hovers above the ground and is surrounded by collected stolen objects. Fiasco first saw the comic in a store and, years later, on a skateboard deck; the image persisted in mind when it was time to come up with the album artwork. Anderson's work similarly depicts Fiasco floating, encircled by various personalized items. It was created with Fiasco lying on a green mat, and the objects suspended by a clear wire. Each item represents what he carries on him daily, including a Banksy postcard, Nintendo DS, sketchbook, Quran, pocket ninja, and a robot. Fiasco believed it was shot in Chinatown, Chicago. In an interview, Anderson recollected the memory of being approached by the rapper, "[W]hen Lupe came to me, it was really kind of an open-ended style. But he knew he wanted glowing lights, colored kind of stuff." He added, "[H]e wanted it to be more subversive and more subtle. The inside of the album is so different. I didn't work on anything on the inside of the album—the photography of the students with guns and books. That's what was so interesting about the album. The outside and the inside were two different things. They almost didn't look like part of the same project. […] It was interesting that there is no food or no liquor on the cover. He wanted to do something that wasn't so literal." The artwork also inspired the hip hop cover variant for Marvel's Black Knight Vol. 3, No. 1, illustrated by Gyimah Gariba.

In an audio recording uploaded to SoundCloud, Fiasco reviewed the meaning behind his personal effects. He has Cartier glasses that rest on top of his head. His clothes consist of a Maharishi jacket, Singaporean-brand LMAC shirt with the face of Devon Aoki, Levi's jeans, and custom-made shoes in Singapore that were originally white Chuck Taylors. He holds a boombox in his right hand that he grabbed from his friend for the shoot, and wears a custom ring that was later stolen from him in a Dallas airport bathroom. In clockwise order, there is a worn copy of the Quran, gifted from his father. Further down is a mini-mag called Philosophy from the Japanese streetwear brand WTAPS, and a Wee Ninja plush toy gifted from his friend Shawn Smith of Shawnimals. His phone was a touchscreen with a keyboard, the very one he began writing Reflections of a Window Washer on. There is a drawing of Lupe's alter ego, Carrera Lu, who is a ninja wielding a sword and standing in front of a Porsche. There are two toys: a blue camouflage toy that represents his friend who was always doing head stands, and the other from LMAC (the LMAC Gehenom Zombie), which was the first toy they made. The Nintendo cartridge (turned backwards so they wouldn't need to get permission to use the image) may have been Contra. Moving to the bottom left, it shows a Levi's wallet. Next is his father's dog tags and a Japanese brand notebook. A Gameboy Advance, Banksy postcard, and copy of his The Truth Is Among Us mixtape are seen. At the top is a drawing from his Revenge of the Nerds mixtape, featuring the main character riding in a robot, which also alludes to "Daydreamin'."

Regarding the inner booklet image, it was taken at the end of the day. Once they completed the album cover shoot, Fiasco wanted photos of him with the sword. Anderson explained, "So I took pictures of him pointing the sword at the camera. When I was coming up with different ideas of what might go there, I just pulled that photo and took a lot of the style elements from the cover and put them around him." The Sydney Morning Herald observed of its photography in the linear notes, "[it] feature[s] a photoessay of covert drug deals, drive-bys and braggadocio poses. In a cheeky twist, Fiasco has swapped the guns for books and the liquor for milk and cookies. It's a savvy parody of a cliché that he is consciously distancing himself from."

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Album of the Year	84/100
Metacritic	83/100
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Entertainment Weekly	8.3/10
MSN Music (Consumer Guide)	9.1/10
NME	7/10
Pitchfork	7.9/10
PopMatters	8/10
Rolling Stone
The A.V. Club	10/10
The New York Times	7/10
Slant

Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor achieved universal acclaim, where aggregator Metacritic assigned 83 out of 100 based on 20 critic reviews, making it his highest-ranking album to date. XXL retrospectively wrote, "[T]he album was one of the more anticipated albums of the year for rap diehards and the product did not disappoint […] a modern day classic that continues to inspire until this day." Travis "Yoh" Phillips from DJBooth noted of the record's significance at the time, where people believed him to be the "hip-hop savior" and continued, "If hip-hop was going through its darkest tunnel, Food & Liquor was heralded as the light at the end." While Phillips believed it wasn't "culture-shifting," it helped influence the desire for lyricism by future artists in the game.

Andy Kellman of AllMusic wrote favorably, "Wisely enough, Fiasco doesn't turn the skating thing into a gimmick and excels at spinning varying narratives over a mostly strong set of productions from 1st & 15th affiliates." He concluded that it "just might be the steadiest and most compelling rap album of 2006." Canadian webzine Cokemachineglow declared it had no bad verses. James Poletti of Dot Music noted of the rapper's standout as a cerebral lyricist and added of "its appeal to the 'independent' crowd as well as the horns-blazing, chest-beating big money crowd." In Robert Christgau's MSN Consumer Guide, they stated, "Though I wish the beats were less corny-orchestral, Fiasco marks his own turf in a three-song sequence that would have led the second side back in the day." In lukewarm reviews, Garry Mulloholland of The Observer opined that it "lacks originality," and Pitchfork believed that he "misses classic status is his sonic approach."

PopMatters's Neal Hayes named Fiasco's rapping and production to be "rock solid," adding that it "might not become a rap classic, but it is easily one of the best rap albums of 2006." Prefixmag editor Seth Berkman in similar assessment called it "the best hip-hop album of 2006," while Slant Magazine named it to be "one of the year's fresher efforts and future classics." The A.V. Club wrote of how Fiasco, in his premier tracks, "masterfully melds his peerless storytelling gifts with his idiosyncratic passion for skateboarding, fantasy, and incisive sociopolitical commentary." They finished, "Revelatory albums like this make rap, an often stale and convention-bound genre, suddenly seem rife with boundless, untapped possibilities. By boldly expanding the parameters of mainstream hip-hop, Fiasco's threatening to make rap a welcoming place for geeks and iconoclasts as well as pimps and thugs." Rolling Stone's Evan Serpick gave praise of the rapper exceeding already highly-placed expectations, adding, "Without dipping his toes into violent imagery, wanton obscenity or other hip-hop clichés, Fiasco reflects on the personal and the political, and reminds fans of everything hip-hop can be."

Music magazine Scene Point Blank applauded, "Lupe never comes across as anything less than excited and relentless. He continuously ricochets off of strings and horns, never relaxing his flow or simply relying on a hook to sell a song." Colin Fleming of The Village Voice also positively penned, "if you ever longed to seek solace in a gentler, string-drenched rap world, consider this disc your primer." RapReviews remarked, "at 25 he's only just getting started in the rap game and people are already expecting him to be the savior of hip-hop music. […] I've been impressed by some major label debut albums before, but quite honestly I think Lupe Fiasco takes the cake here." IGN wrote, "Fiasco's album presents inventive verbiage draped in more pop-oriented beatology." They complimented the rapper's lyricism and cadence, though suggested that he still seems to remain overshadowed by fellow Chicago rappers West and Common. HipHopDX gave a perfect score of five, commending Fiasco's storytelling, where it's "80% narrative. What Lupe is able to do is use his abstract imagination and tell remarkable stories with his use very vivid and descriptive language." In a review ten years later, they remarked, "The hood is rarely represented in equal parts lyricism and realism from those who lived it and much like the urban establishments it was named after, Lupe's debut still holds a special place in the heart of the community." The Michigan Daily commented upon the "spectacular voyage through urban Chicago neighborhoods, drug-infested street corners and the intricate mind of its narrator," and admired the production work. Mike Duffy of The Skinny summed it up as "a long, clever parenthesis of innovative production."

Accolades

Awards

Year	Award	Category	Result	Ref.
2006	BET Hip Hop Awards	Hip-Hop CD of the Year	Nominated
	HipHopDX Awards	Album of the Year	Won
2007	Grammy Awards	Best Rap Album	Nominated

Year-end lists

Publisher	Listicle	Year	Result	Ref.
Cokemachineglow	"Top 50 Albums of 2006"	2006	17
Pitchfork	"Top 50 Albums of 2006"		32
PopMatters	"Best Albums of 2006"		50
Rolling Stone	"Best Albums of 2006"		16
Spin	"40 Best Albums of 2006"		20
The A.V. Club	"Best Albums of 2006"		16

Listicles

Publisher	Listicle	Year	Result	Ref.
Complex	"The 100 Best Albums of The Complex Decade"	2012	62
Consequence of Sound	"The Top 100 Albums of the 2000s"	2009	90

Certifications

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
United Kingdom (BPI)	Silver	60,000‡
United States (RIAA)	Gold	500,000‡
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

Track listing

Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor – Standard edition
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
1.	"Intro" (featuring Ayesha Jaco)	Ayesha Jaco Wasalu Jaco	Chris & Drop	3:06
2.	"Real" (featuring Sarah Green)	Harvey Mason Kenny Mason Rudolph Lopez W. Jaco	Soundtrakk	4:02
3.	"Just Might Be OK" (featuring Gemini)	David Ewing, Jr. Paul Humphrey W. Jaco	Prolyfic	4:24
4.	"Kick, Push"	Lopez W. Jaco	Soundtrakk	4:13
5.	"I Gotcha"	Pharrell Williams W. Jaco	The Neptunes	3:58
6.	"The Instrumental" (featuring Jonah Matranga)	Chris Robyn John Gutenberger Jonah Matranga Mike Shinoda Shaun Lopez W. Jaco	Shinoda	3:26
7.	"He Say She Say" (featuring Gemini and Sarah Green)	Burt Bacharach Hal Bowen Lopez W. Jaco	Soundtrakk	4:12
8.	"Sunshine"	Lopez W. Jaco	Soundtrakk	3:55
9.	"Daydreamin'" (featuring Jill Scott)	Craig Kallman Dave Mackay Raymond Vincent Sylveer Van Holman W. Jaco	Craig Kallman I Monster [a]	3:55
10.	"The Cool"	Dexter Wansel Kanye West W. Jaco	West	3:46
11.	"Hurt Me Soul"	Khari Cain Mary Sawyer Tony Camillo W. Jaco	Needlz	4:22
12.	"Pressure" (featuring Jay-Z)	Bill Schnee Ewing, Jr. Mike Melvoin Shawn Carter W. Jaco	Prolyfic	4:47
13.	"American Terrorist" (featuring Matthew Santos)	Armando Corea Ewing, Jr. W. Jaco	Prolyfic	4:40
14.	"The Emperor's Soundtrack"	Michael Schenker Lopez W. Jaco	Soundtrakk	2:56
15.	"Kick, Push II"	Brandon Howard W. Jaco	Howard	4:11
16.	"Outro"	W. Jaco	Chris & Drop	12:13
Total length:				72:06

Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor – iTunes Deluxe edition bonus track
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
17.	"Theme Music to a Drive-By"	Casey James LeRoy Bell Thom Bell W. Jaco	Prolyfic	3:04
Total length:				75:10

Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor – Limited edition CD bonus tracks
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
17.	"Tilted"	Cain W. Jaco	Needlz	3:33
18.	"Carrera Lu"	Ewing, Jr. Don Whitehead Maurice White Michael Beal Verdine White Wade Flemons W. Jaco	Prolyfic	3:11
19.	"What It Do"	Howard Sidney Miller W. Jaco	Howard	4:07
Total length:				82:57

Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor – 5th Anniversary edition digital bonus tracks
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
17.	"Theme Music to a Drive-By"	James L. Bell T. Bell W. Jaco	Prolyfic	3:04
18.	"Tilted"	Cain W. Jaco	Needlz	3:32
19.	"Carrera Lu"	Ewing, Jr. Whitehead M. White Beal V. White Flemons W. Jaco	Prolyfic	3:10
20.	"What It Do"	Howard Miller W. Jaco	Howard	4:07
Total length:				85:59

Notes

• ^{^[a]} signifies an additional producer.

Sample credits

• "Real" contains a sample of "How Does It Feel" by Harvey Mason.
• "Just Might Be OK" contains a sample of "Humphrey's Overture," written by Paul Humphrey.
• "Kick, Push" contains a sample of "Magtaksil Man Ikaw (Bolero Medley)" by Celeste Legaspi.
• "The Instrumental" contains a sample of "Nestle" by Far.
• "He Say She Say" contains a sample of "The Last One to Be Loved" by Burt Bacharach and "Mesopotamia" by The B-52's.
• "Sunshine" contains a sample of "Friend to Friend" by Diana Ross.
• "Daydreamin'" contains a sample of "Daydream" by I Monster.
• "The Cool" contains a sample of "Life on Mars" by Dexter Wansel and Funky Drummer" by James Brown.
• "Hurt Me Soul" contains a sample of "Stay with Me" by Cecil Holmes.
• "Pressure" contains a sample of "Pressure Cooker" by Thelma Houston.
• "American Terrorist" contains a sample of "The Romantic Warrior" by Return to Forever.
• "The Emperor's Soundtrack" contains a sample of "Between the Walls" by UFO.
• "Theme Music to a Drive-By" contains a sample of "(Do It, Do It) No One Does It Better" by The Spinners.
• "Carrera Lu" contains a sample of "Bad Tune" by Earth, Wind & Fire.

Charts

Weekly charts Chart (2006) Peak position Dutch Albums (Album Top 100) 74 French Albums (SNEP) 172 UK Albums (OCC) 31 US Billboard 200 8 US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (Billboard) 2 US Top Rap Albums (Billboard) 1

Year-end charts Chart (2006) Position US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (Billboard) 88