Alright everyone. Since I hit 2k followers this will be a thread breaking down some concept/storytelling songs from Chicago's finest, Lupe Fiasco. The goat of the Midwest, Lupe has one of the most creative pens ever, especially as a storyteller.

Appreciate all the love btw

On Mean And Vicious, Lupe makes the verses battle eachother.

'Truthfully I have trouble with second verses
Cause the first one be so intimidatin', it be bullyin'
Pickin on it, instigatin', pointin' out all the second one's limitations'

Personification EMBODIED.

On 'Fast Money' off his Revenge Of The Nerds mixtape, Lu introduces the character 'The Game' who is a physical representation of The Streets and on this song and Lupe raps from 'his' perspective. This shows his incredible use of personification and first person

On The Cool (The Song) Lupe narrates the story of a hustler who is brought back to life, metaphorically because he can't find heaven. This song would become the basis for his sophomore album 'The Cool' , where Lupe made a prequel about the hustlers entire life

On The Cool' album Lupe tells the life story of the hustler named Michael Young History (My Cool Young History). He would also bring back the character 'The Game' who acts as a sort of godfather to Michael's community, promising short term riches and bitches.

'The Streets' is a female character on The Cool'. As a character, she is basically a gold digger (she has dollar signs for eyes), once the money stops flowing she leaves you for dead. She and The Game act as two dual opposing forces against Michael (The Cool) and his community.

Across the loose concept album, Lupe tells the story of The Cool and his struggles with The Strests and The Game and by the end, Michael is killed which leads into the prequel song 'The Cool' off Food And Liquor where Michael comes back to life.

The whole concept of The Cool saga is one of the best in Hip Hop ever. It's a masterclass in symbolism, metaphor's and personification. It really is taking pushing lyrical concepts to the absolute extreme.

On Daydreamin Lupe raps about a a project building that is actually a robot. The whole song is full of double entendres and killer wordplay and I always find something new in this song and I've been listening to it for about 10 years lol. Masterful.

Tetsuo And Youth is separated by seasons and can be played forwards and backwards To sum it all up, Spring is the celebrations of birth in a baby shower, Winter is the struggles of life, Fall is learning to make peace with life, and Summer is acceptance into heaven.

Side Note: The album loosely follows a reincarnated Michael Young History and if you play it in reverse, he finally finds peace and makes it to the gates of heaven. In this sense, you are travelling back in time when Tetsuo And Youth is played normally.

On Deliver from Tetsuo And Youth, Lupe personifies the peace of the human race as a fucking pizza man. Again this song is packed with multiple interpretations and shows his incredible conceptuality as a storyteller.

On Prisoner 1 and 2, the best storytelling song of the 2010s imo Lupe merges two songs into one, the first half is about prisoners and their incarceration/racial profiling (being a parallel to Lupe being imprisoned by Atlantic Records).

On the second half off the song on Lupe raps from the prisoners' perspective and shows that 'Prisoner 2' is in fact the prison guard both metaphorically/mentally and literally as they stay in the prison, just like the prisoners.

The first verse in the second half of the song has a prisoner want to rise up against the prison guards pointing out all the things wrong with the system. The second verse has the other prisoner want to please the prison guard (who represents a modern day slave owner)

Lupe says that Drogas Wave is: 'about a group of slaves on a slave ship on their way to Africa to the West Indies and they are thrown off the boat. But they didn’t die. They stayed alive and they lived under the sea. And they dedicated their lives to sinking slave ships'

On Schemes from His Pharoah Height mixtape, Lu tells ofcharacter and his journey in completing his “Schemes” in order to become a “King”. Some of the criminal activities include: kidnapping, torture, corruption, drug dealing and even murder. This has multiple settings on it