Lupe Fiasco - LASERS

(originally published by The Student)

In the 4 years between Lupe Fiasco's previous album, The Cool and now, he's had a few difficulties. Despite winning armfuls of awards, Atlantic Records refused to let him release another record, and fans had to resort to a public rally and petitions to ensure this third album came into being.

So it's no surprise that LASERS sounds like a protest. Fiasco explained to the Metro last week that the idea was to “get people to activate”, and in songs like State Run Radio it's clear this activation won't hide behind rhetoric. This call-to-arms song is one of the highlights of the album, and a clear backlash at his record company and the ideals of censorship.

The record has taken on various forms since 2007's predecessor, from farewell album to a compilation of great American rap, but what has emerged is an incredibly outspoken, almost riotous 12-track where each song has been touched by a protester's spirit. Words I Never Said speaks with the voice of someone who has finally ripped a silencing hand from their mouth, and now lashes out at everything- introducing them all in the voice of Skylar Grey as “words that I should've said”, Fiasco attacks everything from celebrity culture to Obama's reaction (or lack thereof) to Israel, and all to heavy, echoing drums and not a hint of understatement.

With all this in mind, then, it's almost disappointing that Fiasco's first single from the album was The Show Goes On. This typical I'm Still Here song would sound like JLS if it didn't sample Modest Mouse and feature lyrics like “these ghetto girls and boys I rap around the world for”. With the sound of a stock arrogant, radio-friendly rap, it could be a misleading introduction to an album which has its own 14-point manifesto online.

Comments

Populaire - film review

In the 50s, having a job as a secretary may have been considered modern, or even empowering, but mostly, as Rose Pamphyle (Déborah Francois) says in her job interview, it's the chance to work for an important man. Seen in this light, the rise and fall of a Speed-Typing champion is just as much to do with a woman's personal victory as it is to do with her boss' encouragement and coaching, as well as the freedom he allows her to have. In the film, and in life, the Speed-Typing Championship probably stemmed from a cigar-fuelled "I bet my secretary types faster than yours" argument, and the exclusively female competitors inhabit a space somewhere between real sportsman(woman?)ship and simply being allowed to play. The rocky ground of post-war sexual power-play is tested with bright colours and the happy clack-clack of a typewriter, and leads us somewhere a little more patronising than first-time director Regis Roinsard may have been hoping for. ...

Edinburgh Sustainability Awards

(originally published by The Student ) THE UNIVERSITY is set to launch its first Sustainability Awards to help reduce its environmental impact. A ceremony later in the year will see awards given to the teams which complete the most environmentally friendly challenges in an online workbook provided by the Edinburgh University Students' Association (EUSA). Last year the University of Edinburgh was accredited Gold in the NUS' Environmental Impact Awards, and was the overall UK winner. This, the two-year-old Green Impact Scheme, compared Universities from across the country in terms of sustainability and global awareness. EUSA's newest venture is a similar scheme within the University itself, encouraging teams to think of new ways to reduce our effect on the world outside of Edinburgh. Teams can be made up of staff and students in every part of the University, and will be accredited with Bronze, Silver or Go...

The "9ème art" of the Graphic Novel

Images from the Cité du Livre website Festival de Bande Dessinée, Cité du Livre, Aix-en-Provence For some reason I've never been here before. For some reason it's taken this bibliophile seven months to figure out that there is a place in Aix-en-Provence devoted to literature, a place whose name in Google Translate produces variations on the theme of Book City, Book Estate and Book Ghetto. The books, they are huge. We have discussed before how I feel about books. Books which I recently blabbered about in a vlog are here reproduced in thirty-foot-high concrete form and act as a simple external wall to the Book Ghetto. They are huge. I felt a few tears when I first saw them. Hidden unjustly away behind the gare routière , the Cité du Livre played host this month to a graphic novel festival whose speakers ranged from authors to graffiti artists, and whose slightly shabby walls were transformed into booths full of first drafts, coloured panels and authors' not...

Jenni Ajderian

Search This Blog