So peep Lupe's "L.A.S.E.R.S. Manifesto" via the video or check the website HERE.
I'm definitely a Lupe fan and his evolution as an artist is both unique and typical at the same time. What makes it typical is that artist A (you can fill in many different MCs here; Jay-Z, Nas, 2Pac) often starts out as a real grimey, from the hood, regular dude who the other grimey, from the hood, regular dudes (or wannabees) can relate to. This applies whether you are talking about doing dirt, sexual escapades or whatever else you think shows how real you are. This is something that typically is found on artist A's first album.
Over time, artist A's success as an artist means they don't need to spend as much time struggling just to eat and changes in their lifestyle lead to more free time and exposure to things they might not have had the opportunity or time to explore. As their career progresses, artist A learns more about the challenges that people, outside the social group they are used to, face on a day to day basis. Artist A starts to learn more about these issues and challenges and starts addressing them in their music. Artist A has grown not only as an artist, but as a person.
Now take artist B. Artist B doesn't really change that much over the course of their career. Sometimes this actually benefits them since people always know what they are going to get from this person, sometimes it hurts them because each album sounds the same as everything else they have put out.
Lupe is definitely not an artist B, at least in my opinion. So how is his evolution unique? Lupe is different because he started from a different level than say, for example, Nas (who happens to be one of my favorite MCs of all time). Nas' first album was pretty typical in terms of his topics, but his flow and storytelling abilities set him apart. Over time, Nas seemed as conflicted as 2Pac in terms of whether he wanted to be a prince, player, prophet or a thug. Nas was a philosopher as well as a sex god (see "Oochie Wally") and waffled back and forth until recently, as he seems to have focused more on things like politics and social issues.
Lupe, on the other hand, started from largely the same perspective and focus as he's always had. He has always talked about the same subject matter and simply expanded his artistic side. L.A.S.E.R.S. seems to aim even higher and it will be interesting to see what he delivers and how it is received.
This leads to the issue on my mind: Does focusing on things like politics, social issues, racism, etc. really benefit an artist? Can you enjoy both critical acclaim and commercial success? Do you have to talk about these types of issues to get critical acclaim? Is there something wrong with going for commercial success?
I guess it's really up to the hip hop community and/or consumers to answer these questions.
