Lupe Fiasco - Lasers

Artist: Lupe Fiasco

Album: Lasers

Release Date: March 4, 2011

Genre: Rap/Hip-Hop

As I’m sure you’ve seen by now, my blog is definitely lacking in hip-hop and rap.  Trust me – in my practice I have spent many, many hours searching for appropriate songs for therapy in these genres, and usually came up empty handed.  Often, the language or general content was just too much (and I do know that language requirements differ by facility).

Over the summer I heard “The Show Goes On” playing on the radio and had these thoughts about it:

“Hey, that’s the melody from Modest Mouse’s Float On!  Rip-off!”

“I hear some bleeps.  This song cannot possibly appropriate for therapy.”

And that was the end of it for me.

But thanks to my good friends at Amazon (just kidding!  I do not know and am not friends with anyone there!  I just really like Amazon.  They are not paying me anything to say this), I found Lupe’s entire album for a REALLY good price.  And then I read about the album and Lupe’s music, and found just how positive and inspiring it is.  And I really listened to the words in “The Show Goes On” and I’m going to make an honest and embarrassing confession: it made me cry.

So, obviously you would have to make a decision on the songs in this album based on how your facility feels about language.  My review is going to be on the edited version.

[I’ll be following the same (but modified) format as the Bright Eyes album

A. Is the general tone of the song positive or negative?

B. Are there obvious triggering words/themes in the song? 

C. Mention of violence/drugs/sexual content?  Language not acceptable at some facilities?

D. Religions or politics in song?

E. Are there any positive/possible therapeutic themes in the song?]

No guarantees that I’ll understand this album very well!  This is my best attempt to review:

1. Letting Go

A. negative

B. See violence references

C. mild drug reference – “I don’t get high/life keep me at a decent height”, violence references – “alibi the shooting spree”, “But when I put down my gun/I turn around and pick up one/This Uzi weighs a ton/But I think I’m done”, “Give me room to entry wound” *notes – As far as I’ve researched, Lupe is very anti-violence/anti-war, so I wouldn’t take these line to be promoting violence; Wikipedia tells me an Uzi is a type of gun, no language

D. no

E. being able to let go of people, groups, ideas, items, etc. which have had destructive influences in someone’s life, emotional expression: “Things are gettin’ out of control/Feels like I’m runnin’ out of soul”

2. Words I Never Said (feat. Skylar Grey)

A. negative

B. mentions bullets when talking about the war on terror (could be triggering to victims of violence), mentions pills (could be triggering to those who are suicidal)

C. Language – 3 words, all bleeped out in clean version

D. Song contains a lot of political commentary: expresses stance against the war on terror, “Your child’s future was the first to go with budget cuts”, talks about frustration with much of the news being about celebrities “And that ain’t Jersey Shore/Homie that’s the news/These same people supposed to be telling us the truth”, talks about who in the news he feels is racist, talks about not liking Obama either, raps against banks and loans – homes being taken by banks; Also has religious commentary – I have read about him being a devout Muslim, and he raps against Jihad and murdering in the name of Islam,

E. Can have discussions about regret, discussions about standing up for beliefs and how to do that appropriately, chorus is “It’s so loud inside my head/With words that I should have said/As I drown in my regrets/I can’t take back the words I never said”; may be difficult to discuss due to all of the political and religious commentary.  The chorus and 3^rd verse do not contain specific political commentary.

3. Till I Get There

A. positive

B. none obvious

C. These lines may not be acceptable: “Now homegirl not trying to be a ho, even though she on a pole”, “damn” also in clean version, only word in song

D. none

E. There are lots of possibilities for therapy in this song, especially in the chorus!  Here’s the chorus “I'mma keep it cool, and I'mma do me/ It is what it is and that's how it's gon' be/ Until I get there/ Until I get there/ And yeah I got flaws, I know I'm not perfect/ But all ups and downs, will soon be worth it/ When I get there/When I get there”.  And there’s more lines that would be good for discussion in the lst verse. 

4. I Don’t Wanna Care Right Now (feat. Mdma)

A. neutral/positive

B. “get a hearse, go”

C. 2 words – both bleeped out in clean version, one line that I suppose I don’t understand entirely, but could be considered sexual content: “get it all up in that ho”

D. none obvious

E. I can’t see any specific therapeutic themes, and I would not use this in therapy, but here’s a positive line: “Any means any means and you can do anything anything”

5. Out of My Head (feat. Trey Songz)

A. positive

B. none obvious

C. drug reference that’s positive: “High off life, don't need a pill in there (nah)”

D. none

E. Love song that is positive and appropriate!  I probably wouldn’t use it in therapy, but I do appreciate the song.

6. The Show Goes On

A. positive

B. mentions guns, but in a non-violence way – “I hope your son don’t have a gun”

C. 4 words – all bleeped out in clean version

D. none

E. I would definitely use the clean version of this song in therapy!  It is very positive and very inspirational!  I’m sure you’ve heard it on the radio, but I’m going to write some of my favorite lines in here anyway: “Go on and put your hands up, when times are hard you stand up”, “Yeah yeah, the World is yours, I was once that little boy/ Terrified of the world/ Now I’m on a world tour/ I will give up everything, even start a world war/ For these ghettos girls and boys I’m rapping round’ the world for” (okay, maybe starting a world war isn’t something we’d like to encourage, but the positive words are still there…), “So no matter what you been through/ No matter what you into/ No matter what you see when you look outside your window/ Brown grass or green grass/ Picket fence or barbed wire/ Never ever put them down/ You just lift your arms higher/ Raise em till’ your arms tired/ Let em’ know you’re there/ That you struggling and survivin’ that you gonna persevere”

7. Beautiful Lasers (2 Ways) [Feat. Mdma]

A. negative

B. definitely has references to suicide, thoughts of wanting to attempt suicide, mentions gun/potential suicide method

C. 4 words in song – 2 bleeped.  S*** not bleeped but hard to hear, says “everything around here sucks”, and I understand that some consider this a borderline curse word.  I never have.

D. none

E. I would most likely not use this song, especially due to the suicide references.

8. Coming Up [feat. Mdma]

A. positive

B. nothing obvious.

C. I’m honestly not sure what to think about this line, so I’m just going to put it on here anyway: “That's cool as long as they don't trap crack”.  That’s the only line!

D. There’s a reference to God and a reference to King David.  Nothing in depth.

E. This has some very positive messages for young girls (song opens with “This one goes out to the baby girls/ In a rush growing up in this crazy world”), with lyrics such as “You can't let it get you down, gotta carry on/ We only lose things because it make us strong”.  The next verse starts “This for everybody feeling good”, so entire song is not just addressed to girls, but I would say most of it is.  Much of the song also shows a desire to protect the person he’s singing to, with lines such as “You ain't never gotta worry about nothing/ Just as long as I'm around”.  I have to say, though, in the end I probably wouldn’t use this song in therapy because although Lupe is providing support to the person he is singing to (which is great), there’s not a lot of emphasis on self-reliance.  Also, if a client feels they have no one to rely on, this could be a very difficulty song for them to listen to.

9. State Run Radio [feat. Matt Mahaffey]

A. negative/neutral (more political)

B. none obvious

C. none

D. I bet you could all guess this from the title – but this song is very political. 

E.  I probably would not use this song in therapy due to the politics.

10. Break the Chain [feat. Eric Turner & Sway]

A. neutral/positive

B. mention of razors in lyrics could be triggering for some

C. 1 word bleeped out in clean version

D. hard to say

E. I might use this song.  Especially to talk about what it means to “break the chain”.  I’ll provide some lyrics from the song: “Freedom, we can use some of that especially where we from/ Where we grew up like a green thumb/ It's like a criminal is the only thing you can become/ Look at what I became”.

11. All Black Everything

A. positive

B. nothing specific

C. I don’t see anything

D. Song addresses racism, relationships with other countries, different political and historical figures

E. This could be a tricky song to use in therapy, but I think it’s great at speaking to the potential everyone has at making the world a better place and erasing racism in this world.  It also addresses how we cannot change our past, but can change our future.

12. Never Forget You [feat. John Legend]

A. neutral

B. see line below

C. one line (I wanted to make sure it was in context) – “This is just like a first-class ticket/ Back, to the first written rap/ The crumbled-up paper and the pen with no cap/ The hand-me-down clothes and the unturned hat/ The hookers on the corner and the kids sellin’ crack/ The needles in the yard where we used to play catch” clearly does not promote drugs or prostitution – it’s just mentioned in the song

D. none

E. I wouldn’t use this song in therapy.

So, this review has taken me 2 days to write.  I am nervous about putting it up because I haven’t reviewed any rap before and definitely had to look up some words at urbandictionary.com.  So, I am probably misreading and missing quite a lot.  But I took my best shot!  I hope it’s helpful in one way or another!

Would I recommend this album for therapy?  Yes!