New Music: Lupe Fiasco “Fire”
October 8, 2009 @ 12:28 AM EDT
News
According to Mr. Rhymestyle, this is supposedly Lupe’s response to MTV’s Hottest MC’s list. After several listens, I’m still lost in translation.
not asking for a dumb down but just asking for some music from ol lupe i don’t need to decode with 1000 listens to actually understand what its about which is usually a very simple concept over complicated
Jimi Hendrix beat is fire. Need a decoder ring, sure, but he’s still spittin. Lupe > Gucci Mane.
Love lupe.. but im with bdot on this.. confused as fuck. What does it have to do with the hottest mc list?
LUPE IS DOPE ! SOMEONE WHO HAS BEEN CLEARLY OVERLOOKED. CAME TO CAL STATE NORTHRIDGE THIS SATURDAY (CONCERT) HE KILLED IT……..
There isn’t even subliminals that its aimed at the emcee list. Lupe has never been one to make response tracks to that and he’s obviously still on his mumbo jumbo rants. I love lupe but i seriously question him when he says that “your flow looks like his bedroom when he was four.” Like come on, theres a difference between substance and just plain rattling off words…
AGREE WITH KEVIN!
cosign Kevin,
when i listened i was like WTF, shit is wack, sorry am just tired of rappers putting words together that dont make sense thinkin they are lyrical, DUDE U NEED TO MAKE SENSE TOO.
“your flow looks like his bedroom when he was four.”
^^^
Ever seen a child’s bedroom floor?…it’s messy
I assume He saying ” you got a messy/sloppy flow”
you goin over niggas heads lu
Cool but a rapper named Matt Hemmz from Daygo already ripped this beat…and better
http://www.zshare.net/audio/66653177eee075a2/
LOL @ KEVIN You missed the line. It may not have anything to do with the list.. but the lyrics are still lu.. he will never say bs just to make you think hes smart. Guess Lu does go over peoples heads..
BTW that accent is kinda annoying when hes rapping… when he does japanese cartoon stuff its ight.. but not in a rap.
co sign kevin yeh no shit thats what his saying that u have a childish flow but just because he described it in a way u have to ply it apart like that doesnt mean its clever or witty at all
damn niggas are REALLY DUMB these days. its not tha hard to get the content.. he isnt really targetin ne body.. so idk no bout all that. but hes saying as usual that shit is watered down these days. and the flow bedroom line. makes perfect sense. if u lived it.
Lupe’s Comment:
Not a diss of the list…knew I wasnt gonna make it ha!…but I’m using the fact that I wasn’t on it as an excuse to just start wrecking shit on a frequent basis so by the time the next one comes out i’ll be number 1,2,3,4 and 5…
OKay… i feel what everyone is saying but for me, listening to Lupe is like a whole different experience. It’s cool to spend an hour unraveling one song to try and catch everything. The man is ALWAYS saying something the makes sense on an intricate level. His level of lyricism has been unmatched ever since he first stepped on the scene.
To me, he’s the most genius MC to ever pick up a pen and a mic.
I dont get this song yet, but it’s like advancing to higher classes, it gets harder as time goes!
“I wish you well like what Wishing Wells wish themselves” haha loved that!
Lupe isn’t for everyone just like Nas isn’t for everyone, Rakim wasn’t for everyone, The Wu wasn’t for everyone. As someone who came up from that school (I’m 26) I am always fascinated by pure lyricism over club bangers. I fuck with shit that makes me think, I fuck with shit that I’ll discover something new within everytime I listen to it. Lupe is one of those dudes and I trully pray that he doesn’t dumb it down or try to cater to those who want to just get it all on the first listen. He’s built up a nice following of fans who’ve been paying attention since Food & Liquor and this is what we want to hear from him. Most people are impatient and want to be spoon fed their rhymes but I prefer it this way. Its the difference between watching the Da Vinci Code and watching say a Rocky flick. It’s not that one makes sense and the other doesn’t, but some will get the Da Vinci Code instantly while some may have to watch it several more times, some may have to read the book first, some won’t bother to analyze it, and some won’t bother to watch or read it at all. My point is that Lupe is a very intelligent man and writer so to dismiss him or this song as jibberish isn’t fair just cuz you’ve been spoiled by what’s normally out there. So if you’re reading this Lu, just remember that til this day some people have no idea what Nas spits on his records so you’re on the right track!! I’ve heard this song twice and what I’ve determined is that this shit is knocking so breaking down what his message is on this is my next task so it’ll be on repeat all day, most of the shit out there I won’t even rewind once. Peace to Lupe on this one and this may be off topic by IF ANYONE OUT THERE HASN’T BOUGHT GHOSTFACE’S NEW ALBUM YOU OUGHT TO BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELF. PAY HOMAGE AND GO COP THAT SHIT!!!
People are asking for music from Lupe that doesn’t require analysis? He already gave us that…it’s called Lupe Fiasco’s The Cool. Aside from a few tracks, the lyrics were very straight forward. This song is the closest thing to the old mixtape Lupe in a long time, and as a Lupe fan I’m glad he’s revisiting old territory.
lupe is def hotter than gucci, fuck mtv, that list is not about hip-hop it’s about airplay!!
this song sucks.. straight up
Lu still playin the cosmetologist role and goin over niggas heads I see lol
He’s not dissing the list!!! He’s trying to get on next years list by doing more material
this song is like 6 months old I heard it forever ago before there was even talk of the list
The one thing that Baffles me about people is their not understanding of things.
1. Lupe is beyond DOPE. I’d rather have Real lyrics over club bangers in my hip-hop.
2. The MOST IMPORTANT THING PEOPLE ARE FORGETTING IS THAT THIS MTV LIST IS NOT ABOUT WHO’S THE BETTER MC..OF COURSE NOT. All the list is, is who was hot in a flash point of that specific year. Of course Lupe is 1000000 better than Gucci and 8/10 better than the rest. Lupe didn’t release nothing this year so he’s not gonna be there.
LupeTheGenius says “I wish you well like what Wishing Wells wish themselves”
which is incorrect, shows that as intelligent as YOU think you are for getting the “genius” of Lupe (roll eyes) you still can’t even hear his actual lyrics!
He said: “I wish you well like a wishing well wish ya with itself.” or “I wish you well like a wishing well wish [would] wish itself.”
and neither of these lines even make any sense.
Lupe is so definitely not the greatest.. his ish is elementary not because he takes 5x the time to say something Biggie would have done in a smarter, simpler way.. but because you can’t even FOLLOW his flow or what he’s tryign to SAY. That’s the point. The song is about one thing and he’s talking about porn, bedroom floors, wishing wells.. all while not actually saying anything at all.
If ONE person can explain concisely what this song is about, I will admit he’s over my head. Until then i fyou can’t even GET the lyrics correct, it’s hard to believe you even understand him yourself.
I’m not a fan of Lupe.. but not because he’s over-complex.. because after all is said and done he’s not relatable, doesn’t have any lines I can use myself.. you think I could go put that wishing well line somewhere and someone would get me? but I can go say a Jay-Z line, Big line etc and ppl get it even if they don’t get rap.
great comments though..
LUPE DUMB IT DOWN FOR THESE DUMB BITCHES^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
YOU GUYS LOVE TAKING A SIMPLE SONG FROM DUDE AND TALKING SHIT
KANYE,…..How much they hate it? very!
Kiss girls like Katy Perry,
I am never sprung but I Springer(UUUU LOL) Jerry,
Don’t try this at home,
Results may vary,
King like T.I But in the Chi, Larry,
WACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! STUPID KINDA LOOKS LIKE A CHILD BEDROOM ???
@ iCandy
Out of allllllllllll the rappers, U say lupe is elementary?? Off top,this track doesn’t have an concept,hes just displaying how his style is umm………FIRE!(title of song). Its sort of like a freestyle. Alright Lu has said on record that hes TRYING to go over your head so if U dont understand something or “follow his flow” dont put down as what hes saying as gibber jabbish. Its been times where I’ve had to seriously sit back & think about shit that him,3stacks and nas have said to truely get it. Hell Ghostface has MADE UP words before but with his musical catalog does that make him elementary? Shit wayne said “hes fly like a butterfly doing the tootsie roll” but lu is elementary? Also he has tons of relatable songs,even back when he was spittin gangsta. Go look up sum of his stuff. U dont have to be a fan but as a fan of hip hop how could u not respect it? Dude is DOPE point blank and I didnt get the wishing well line either lol but that doesn’t take away the fact that dude gets it in.
I was 13 or 14 when I heard a song by Nas (my favorite MC ever), it was “Watch Dem Niggas” off of “It Was Written”, in it he said some shit that sounded so dope to me but i didn’t “get it” instantly. He said:
“My Movado says 7, the God hour, that’s if you follow traditions started by the school not far from the Apollo / my “fuck tomorrow” motto through the eyes of Pablo Escobar the Desparado word to Cus D’Amato”
My point is that you don’t have to get everything the first time you hear it because we don’t all know everything! At 13 I had no clue what the former part of that Nas line meant and even as an adult if someone has no knowledge of the teachings of the 5% Nation or the Nation of Gods and Earths you’d most likely dismiss that as jibberish. But years later I realized that in the supreme mathematics says the the 7th letter of the alphabet is G (God), hence the God hour. Hell I didn’t even know what a Movado was but now that’s obvious. Clarence 13X was the founder of these teachings that so many MCs followed like Rakim, Busta, ATCQ, Wu-Tang, etc. practiced Islam but ventured off to start his own thing in Harlem, near the Apollo Theatre to be exact. Mecca (the school) still stands today where the Gods still gather at.
Furthermore, if you weren’t following Nas since Illmatic you wouldn’t know what he meant by his “fuck tomorrow” motto. Check him on “Life’s a Bitch” with AZ when he says:
“I switched my motto, instead of saying “fuck tomorrow” that buck that bought a bottle could’ve struck the lotto”
He was basically revisiting his old motto through the eyes of…………you get the picture.
Lupe is a student of Nas like Nas was a student of Rakim. None of them fuck with nursery rhymes and they always take you on a journey with their pens no matter what was trend for the moment. To quote the great A Tribe Called Quest: Check The Rhyme. And it you don’t get if at first or the 10th time stop tryna play the artist like his painting is fucked up, just admit that YOU don’t get it (yet). Now I must admit, i haven’t deciphered some parts of Lupe’s “Fire” yet but when i finally get that “A HA” moment, i appreciate the work more because of how the artist chose to deliver it.
Peace Y’all
that nigga said, and i quote:
“i’m hotter than red with a head full of lye
better run and get spike, tell’em i’m on fire”
…so for all y’all niggas that never saw Malcolm X or read the Autobio….catch up. it’s funny, your favorite rapper more than likely loves lu. give respect where it’s due. dude represents for the culture and for the people. check the catalog, save your dissent for the poison pushers.
@Nathaniel, couldn’t have said it better. That line is CRAZY!!!!!!!
All the reasons people are complaining/hating on this song are the reasons why he is one of my favourite emcees. It makes sense if you listen, and if you dont want something that takes 1000 times to get, then leave it alone. Its the type of music were you catch new ish even years after you’ve first heard the joint. It definately is not for most people, he knows that…. he made a song about it but he picked his poison and is sticking with it.
“Im hotter that Red with a head full of Lye”, Nice Malcolm x reference. This nigga Lupe layers his shit like none other. This is illy, if you dont get it, too bad. *kanye shrug*
Okay for all of yall who have not gotten this entire song…ima ATTEMPT TO BREAK IT DOWN (which is so hard with lupe)
“I was bout as uncool as a nieces mothers biggest brother”
-Lupe is just getting your brain cells started with this line, saying how uncool the hip hop community thinks his style is
“but now its all butter/
now i’m bout as uncool as some cover to a pool from a puddle”
-Lupe is basically sayin its okay because he realizes that he is above the water-down content of hip hop, but his music can’t cover the watered-down music hence him saying a puddle cover trying to cover a pool is uncool
“like a monsoon but subtler”
-The vast amount of mainstream is watered-down so much that it is like a monsoon, but people don’t realize it, hence it being sublter”
“slowly pull up my pants or sag it to a flooder
now u need a submarine the way im cuffin my jeans”
-He’s avoiding the watered down music; The music is so watered down that you would need a submarine just to manuever, and he was just pulling his pants up, but now he’s forced to cuff his jeans to deal with the water (watered down content)
“like i’m arresting my dress code
the dress clothes and the dress toes
so lets roll”
-Just a great use of wordplay by lupe. From the previous line, “the way im cuffing my jeans” like he’s arresting his jeans, but really pulling them up from the water.
“niggas might peep and think geek
but you need that when you knee deep goin on waist high”
-If you take a look at lupe and his some of his lyrics (robots, japanese manga, street fighter, etc) you might think he is a geek, but he is really just more intelligent if you REALLY get deep in his lyrics. He is saying you need to have some knowledge; which is basically saying you need to keep your head above water….the watered down stuff of course.
“get up to your neck just like a great tie
i finally got the windsor, like on my eighth try”
-The water is out of control and its reaching the necks of people. No idea what the windsor line is about.
“your shirts still soakin wet, your slacks ain’t dry
and i have yet to even fall from the sky”
-People are too affected by the watered-down crap and he hasn’t even dropped Lasers yet…Which you could catch if you Listen to Shining Down, which he released..the lyrics in the chorus mention something like “Just look up in the sky”
“i’m hotter than red with a head full of lye
better run and get spike, tell him i’m on fire”
-Someone already explained this; It is most likely a reference to Malcolm X
I think just decoding the first verse should prove his talent and that this song isn’t just nonsense…Lupe is just way ahead of his time….
Also, this is a response to the hottest mc list, but its not a diss. He just used the fact that he’s not on it to make some creative stuff and keep people’s mind buzzing about Lupe….
Fnf up…
First time trying to decode something like this so go easy…..and let me know if you want me to decode the rest…I’ll try.
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