I am a big fan of old school rap with a political consciousness and verbal dexterity, and that's what Lupe is all about. Here is what Wikipedia has to say about Lupe and his music.
Lupe is very engaged with politics but he has a humour and honesty about it as you can see in the YouTube clip of a radio interview he did on the left, which I found at this cool hip-hop music blog.
Lupe's songs and his music have their roots in this tradition and are at the same time fresh and new (and he has a great music artist's website).
He does a song about what sounds to me like stage fright and the poetic turns of phrase he employs just put a smile on your face.
My girlfriend is also a big fan of his music.
Barbara (who is a singer) says, “They are cool. I like their music and how they are sort of,.. they are very now and their on top of the issues.
They are very grown up, but in a good way, but not naturally like, ... I like that wherever you are, you just put on the CD and it makes your environment a bit cooler.
It gives you a bit more the feeling of knowledge and a lack of pretence. They don't have this whole gangster thing going on and I love that about them.” Learn more about Barbara on her MySpace page.
I love that about them too.
I like the cover of Food and Liquor. It is so not gangster. It's just the singing star surrounded by all the nerdy little gadgets he likes.
There isn't a gun or any drugs or any other of the usual gangster rap equipment to be seen.
I really like the cold play collaboration he's done as well.
The interaction between cool US rap star and complaining English rock stars with high voices is just precious.
He isn't afraid of giving an insight into the glamout, but also the disadvantages of the high profile recording artist star lifestyle.
It seems to put pressure on relationships and be a source of doubt and uncertainty for the hip-hop artist.
He is a very thoughtful and interesting artist with a gift for wrapping up the thought provoking ideas in his music within smooth cool groovy music tracks.
I think of it as nerdy, high-gloss, old school, stuff.
It's nerdy because he mentions things like giant robots, but I agree with Babsi about it being grown up with some very thoughtful lyrics about grown up relationships.
I've listened to two of his CDs and both are great. He has a slow easy rapping style that really suits the complex concepts and storytelling that he often employs in his raps. It is hip-hop but it's something else as well. I highly recommend you check it out even if you aren't usually into hip-hop.