"Strange Fruition" is a song by American rapper Lupe Fiasco featuring additional vocals from American saxophonist Casey Benjamin. It was released as the second track from the former's fourth studio album, Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album Pt. 1 (2012). Production was handled by Darrale Jones and Soundtrakk, and samples the 2010 song "Where Do I Begin?" by Barry Manilow.
The title is a play on Abel Meeropol's "Strange Fruit" (a song recorded by Billie Holiday), which protests racism in America, and in particular, the lynching of Black Americans.[1]
Background[]
On November 23, 2010, Fiasco presented the second verse in acapella to the students of Marquette University as an exclusive. The verses are structured in the format of a Shakespearean sonnet, and was originally planned to be the outro for the album.
In relation to the opening lyrics, Fiasco told MTV's RapFix Live, "My moms and my pops told us when we were little kids, 'You don't say the pledge of allegiance.' More from a religious kind of thing, halfway. You pledge your allegiance to God and that's it. Being Muslim and things like that, you don't pledge allegiance to no flag." He added, "My father was a Black Panther, my mama was super intellectual, left-wing, the whole kind of situation. So it's that layer on it too. Not yet, you don't pledge allegiance yet, we're still working on this place."[2]
Critical reception[]
Nathan Slavik of DJBooth called it an "excellent opening track."[3] Billboard remarked, "is an interesting, if not confusing, play on "Strange Fruit" [...] The message here seems to be that everything is terrible and it's wholly the government's fault."[4] Spin classified it as part of the "admittedly effective analogies," while 'XXL noted of its themes of "police corruption and single parent homes."[5][6]
Pitchfork opined that Fiasco's "most affecting moments remain his rare flashes of humility;" HipHopDX observed the rapper's shift towards using first-person narrative, and continued about its first verse, "delivered with a controlled aggression as if a Tupac-inspired Cornel Westside emerged through a cloud of self-inflicted controversy strapped with an AK-47 and government, materialism, corporate sponsored Hip Hop scribbled on his metaphorical hit list."[7][8]
Personnel[]
- Albert Francis – writer
- Brian Gardner – mastering engineer
- Carl Sigman – writer
- Casey Benjamin – additional vocals
- Charles "Chilly" Patton – executive producer
- Darrale Jones – producer
- Greg "G-Ball" Magers – engineer
- Joe Peluso – recording engineer
- Rudolph "Soundtrakk" Lopez – producer
- Simon "Simon Sayz" Morel – engineer
- Wasalu "Lupe Fiasco" Jaco – vocals, writer, executive producer
Lyrics[]
[Verse 1: Lupe Fiasco]
Now I can't pledge allegiance to your flag
'Cause I can't find no reconciliation with your past
When there was nothing equal for my people in your math
You forced us in the ghetto, and then, you took our dads
The belly of the beast, these streets are demons' abs
I'm telling you that setup in them sit-ups is so sad
The system is a slab, corruption is the swinger
Sitting high, riding dirty, drag racing into danger
And it's so clean, pine trees smelling good
With work off in the trunk and n***as in the hood
So I can't shed blood on any battlefield of yours
I pray the ugly truth comes and shatters your décor
And as it all falls down in tatters on the floor
I shed tears, I don't know what really matters anymore
'Cause I don't know what really matters anymore
[Hook: Casey Benjamin]
Man, it ain't mean
The strangest thing you've ever seen
Oh, would you look at how they swing?
Would you look at how they swing?
They ain't dead, though
No, I didn't die y'all
I cut myself down
And I admire my fall, into grace
[Verse 2: Lupe Fiasco]
Now, as I wander through the city going mad
I see the fruits of planting evidence instead of grass
A swindled generation with no patience, full of swag
Man, they so impatient with the stations that they have
As long as they look good when they be doing bad
Then the separation from the truth is getting vast, fast
Be a slave at first or free at last
Double-edged choices make a n***a wanna pass
Double-headed voices from the eagle on the staff
The pyramid where eyes will split the spirited in half
Divided over money
Delighted by the dummying down of the importance of crowns we'll never have
That's why my sounds and sermons are so full of wrath
Baptize your mind, let your brain take a bath
Swim inside the river, get delivered from the craft
Of the witches in this business that be living off your sad
Hating on your happiness, you hit 'em off with laughs
Smile 'til they surrender, then you kill 'em off with glad
Hello, Evil—I'm back!
[Hook: Casey Benjamin]
Man, it ain't mean
The strangest thing you've ever seen
Oh, would you look at how they swing
Would you look at how they swing?
They ain't dead though
No, I didn't die y'all
I cut myself down
And I admire my fall, into grace
References[]
- ↑ "Lupe Fiasco, 'Food & Liquor II': Track-by-Track Review". Billboard. September 25, 2012.
- ↑ Markman, Rob (September 26, 2012). "Why Lupe Fiasco 'Can't Pledge Allegiance' to U.S. Flag". MTV.
- ↑ Slavik, Nathan (September 26, 2012). "Album Review: Lupe Fiasco 'Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album, Pt. 1'". DJBooth.
- ↑ "Lupe Fiasco, 'Food & Liquor II': Track-by-Track Review". Billboard. September 25, 2012. Archived from the original on October 5, 2017.
- ↑ Reeves, Mosi (October 3, 2012). "Lupe Fiasco, 'Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album, Pt. 1'". Spin.
- ↑ Fleischer, Adam (September 25, 2012). "Lupe Fiasco, Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album, Pt. 1". XXL.
- ↑ Greene, Jayson (September 27, 2012). "Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album Pt. 1 by Lupe Fiasco". Pitchfork.
- ↑ Hunte, Justin (September 24, 2012). "Lupe Fiasco - Food & Liquor 2: The Great American Rap Album Pt. 1". HipHopDX.