TIME STAMPS: 0:56 - Summer 1:17 - Mural 9:10 - Blur My Hands 11:11 - Dots & Lines 14:00 - Fall 14:13 - Prisoner 1 & 2 17:17 - Body of Work 19:30 - Little Death 21:13 - No Scratches 23:26 - Winter 24:19 - Chopper 26:21 - Deliver 27:34 - Madonna (And Other Mothers in the Hood) 28:26 - Adoration of the Magi 30:29 - They.Resurrect.Over.New 31:30 - Spring
Please lets get a Ka - Honor Killed The Samurai reaction going boys, anyone that agree just like this post and then comment the name of the album yourself, we are clearly in a lower number because Ka's fanbase is just that narrow but he's the only lyricist i'd put close to Lupe in term of raw pen, and I think he's way more emotional. I think Jon discovering Ka as the same time as the 200 000 subs of this channel would benefit everyone immensely, I don't know if I heard a verse that's written as perfectly as the second verse of Ours, that shit is flawless.
@@leem48 Glad you agree, please drop a standalone comment recommending this album if you want to see the reaction being done, we need to be multiple people just spamming Ka until it's done LOL
naaah F&L is one of the best hip hop albums of all time. Tetsuo is good but it has weird pacing and outside of like 4 songs the album is meh. Mural is obviously a classic though and is one of the best hip hop songs of all time and Dots and Lines is really good as well.
So glad you reacted to this album. This is my favorite album of all time and I sometimes take for granted how much substance is in each song. This reaction helped me remember to appreciate Lupe’s greatness a little more, even though I listen to this album a lot
“Mural” is legit, to me, one of the best rap songs in the last 10 or so years. I’m always catching a new bar and you get the feeling of watching a picture getting painted at Lupe rhymes.
I literally just caught these bars Top cat chat let's begin another [Yawn] Just to fall asleep, listening to bak Those 2 lines coincide. Basically saying let's begin a another song ppl gon think its trash/boring/corny... that's why they gon yawn. But they listening to bak... a song that's tryna wake us up is something we sleep on
@@redpillproductions7187 Also a Top cat chat meaning this is only some shit people interested in lyricism will catch. Yawn is obviously a double with Yarn (following the cat scheme).
@@vanishingact8822 I agree it’s hard to find every meaning in the bars. But I’m saying in the context of the album, that song is the easiest to understand it’s purpose. Playing it backwards, it is the moment when he is free from contractual obligations and can fully make his art how he wants. And forwards it fits with the summer mood
Lupe is a menace. He'll drop a bar like, 'Nerd gang make Mandelbrot sets when we handshake', and next thing I know I'm 3 hours into a rabbit hole about advanced mathematics that I don't even fuckin understand. Dudes one of a kind.
Jus know, DROGAS WAVE is Lupe's first album free from his hostage situation at Atlantic records, so it's his best work (IMO) since The Cool. Do us Patreon members a solid homie
Tetsuo is kinda free, he's shitting on Atlantic all throughout the album, he was still on the label but they just gave up and let him do what he wanted, which is why this album sounds so good
I have to say this reaction is great solely off your relisten to Mural (that's all I've heard so far lol). Idk why anyone suggested that to you guys on Rock Reacts bc neither of you had any hope of appreciating how dense that track is. A couple years later and you're there. You love to see it!
Fair warning. Lupe brought his Little Brother (Ab-Soul). Just as intricate, will blow your mind. Control System, These Days, Do What Thou Wilt is easily the Magnum opus. You gotta review him as well.
While I think that's part of it, I don't think it's just ghatm he draws connections to how black people are taken advantage of in capitalism in general, of course music is a big example. And he connects it to "gold" and greed corrupting people.
@@wgo523 Me personally, I got Go straight Don't Sine/Sin cause on a graph sine is a wavy line aka he's telling you to stay pure and morally correct and always do the right thing.
JD you need to peep some of Ka's work. Newest album Descendants of Cain is some of the best writing I've seen in hip hop. His Honor killed the samurai LP was amazing as well!
The adoration of the Magi choruses are describing album covers... Why you ready to die you just a baby (B.I.G Ready to Die) quit chasing money nevermind you just a baby (Nirvana Nevermind) Keep your head up in the sky you just a baby (Nas illmatic) Why them tears up under your eyes you just a baby (lil Wayne Carter 3) Keep your head up the sky you just a baby (Drake Nothing was the same) I know that's not in order but 🤷♂️ don't know what the other 2 are in reference to though
Trae the Truth you heard on Chopper is a southern legend, he was in the group ABN with Z-Ro who is probably one of Freddie Gibbs's biggest inspiration rapping wise period
But did you see what he did .. he said reign as in being in charge. He was telling you what he meant but giving you different meanings and the same time. But also emphasizing the beauty of rap and language, that the same thing can have different meanings depending on how you hear.
This is one of the albums that is beautiful from front to back. It's one of my favourites, and I love the cover art. Countless HITS on here. And if you listen to it back to front, it tells the story of Lupe and his record label i think? And the use of the "pallete" cleansers of each season is amazing, each song of its season matches the mood. Glad you did this one!!! Edit: and i think Lupe painted the album cover himself?
Hey Jon ! Glad you loved Tetsuo and Youth, I guess Drogas Wave will be next because it's the 4th Lupe masterpiece but it's VERY intricate. I actually made a write-up about it decyphering the overarching concept of it and I was thinking if you would want reading into it before or while reacting to the album, obviously it's up to interpretation as Lupe is very artsy and abstract but I think I got it pretty right, this album kinda got criticizes for "dropping a concept a third of the way through the album" and I thought it was very misguided and a lot of people didn't understand what the concept actually was.
I feel the same way -- what did you make of the concept? Without reading into it, I thought it was about the translantic slave trade in the first half, and the second half is obv about drugs, hence DROGAS WAVE. So the waves of slaves mixed with the waves of drugs that entered America give us today's state of the underprivileged. Also themes of resurrection
@@bruyeretv The whole album is about ressurection in the sense of saving yourself through hardships and being "reborn" as a new you, from the long chains arc to the two forever tracks that are about real kids that die and save themselves by being reborn and doing professions that make them end up saving a kid that was in the same situation that them when they die to Imagine which is Lupe talking about how Atlantic mistreated the fuck out of him and how done he was with it, it's a continuous thing
The fact that mural is lupe freestyling over a couple days should completely dismantle folks brains. This is all off the top of Lupe brain. Don’t make no damn. PHD Lu
The hook on Adoration Of The Magi is a reference to album covers, Ready to Die, tears under eyes refers to Lil Wayne's album covers, quit chasin money refers to Nirvana's Nevermind
A lot of my friends ask me why I don’t listen to a lot of the mainstream hip hop today and I just say “Idk, it just doesn’t interest me.” After watching this reaction it made me realize that it’s probably because I listened to this album, along with Lupe’s other work, on repeat starting when I was 11. This is such a big part of my love for hip hop, the people around me just don’t get that. But to be fair, neither the fuck do I apparently because I’m still learning shit from this reaction and this comment section years and years down the line. Lupe the GOAT forever.
Honestly, you really have become my favorite THING on youtube. Deeper than just reactions. I thoroughly enjoy the feeling of watching someones mind be broken like mine was when I first heard some of these songs with this level of depth. Its something I never knew I needed.
Props to you for giving this a go cause it's hard even for Lupe fans on first listen. It's an amazing album that gets better the more you listen to it as well.
I keep rewatching these reactions both cut and uncut... I absolutely can not wait for you to experience the universe that is Drogas Wave! It is a masterpiece!!
Your reactions to elite lyricist is perfection. It's like our minds do not want us to believe we heard what we just heard. If a reaction video is short for lyricist it's no way that a person is truly following what the artist is saying.
The best compliment I can give Mural is it's the most lyrical song ever written & Lupe is the greatest lyricist to ever put pen to paper... I'm so happy to see you reacting to this album because it's nothing short of a masterpiece.
There's a youtube Channel called Times NuRoman, who does excellent visual breakdowns of Lupe songs, the breakdown he did for adoration of the Magi is fucking WILD.
They have lyrical breakdowns of mural and adoration of the magi on TH-cam . Shows images of what he’s talking about as he’s rapping. Definitely need to check those out Jon. Much love for the reaction ❤️
oh, I already know JD 'bout to be blown the f*ck away EDIT: DROGAS WAVE NEXT!! or Light first! Light is more of just a tour album so that they can bounce at the shows and shit but it still has deep stuff on it also, there are lyric breakdown videos where they play the song and put pictures/clips of what the lines mean
He dropped Drogas Light as a throaway because he had one last album to drop before dropping out of his label and he didn't want Atlantic to feel a single penny from Drogas Wave
@@moralambiguo3708 yeah its sick. I love Freddie gibbs and madlib is a cheat Code at this point. He has some of the Best beats and albums of all time under his belt
There is an analysis essay of this album (or part of it) on Genius. But no matter how much you read it’s not something you can really wrap your head around
Lupe even said in an interview "chopper is too damn long" apparently lupe asked these guys for features but forgot to tell them to only write 16 bars, so they each sent in a full 32 bar feature verse.
Great reaction! Don't know if you caught it but deliver has a whole secondary meaning if you interpret the hook as "piece of man" instead of pizza man. lupe has levels
funnily enough, Chopper is the song i come back to most on Tetsuo and Youth, odd you didnt like any verses of that one. But overall the album is a masterclass of rap in my opinion
Y'all should hear what Royce Da 5'9 said about Mural. Just imagine that the best lyricists in the game right now think this song is intimidating to them, what do you think a hip hop head is going to think? This song is soooooo beyond genius that people are calling the people who can break it down for them geniuses.
@@mehdi-les-termes I agree. But Royce is nicer than the majority on earth right now. It's just that Lupe is an Alien. Nobody touching him this side of this century.
@@mehdi-les-termes it's hard for me to see anyone on his level. For me it wasnt Mural that established it 100%. It was Adoration of a Magi and when I saw the Davinci painting and finally understood the bible verse (from the first curse...). You also have the MYH saga and Drogas wave. I guess its because concepts are a part of lyricism to me and as a whole, I cant see anyone even close to Lupes level let alone on his level.
The last stretch is filled with religious references. Adoration of the Magi leads into They Resurrect Over New, like how Jesus resurrected. Madonna is a reference to Jesus' mother the Virgin Mary. Now what track comes before Madonna? Deliver. The resurrection theme also ties into the last line of Mural "defeats samsara achieves nirvana and brilliance" reference buddhist resurrection and the wheel of resurrection, like how this album is a loop forwards and backwards. THIS all relates to the Youth theme and the resurrection can be interpreted a bunch of ways. I think it could refer to the resurrection of Lupe's career/music quality after his beef with his Atlantic Records, OR it could refer to him being born again after growing up in the street life. This album has so many threads I'm still discovering and pulling at years later. Each song has references to ideas in other songs on the album and even other Lupe albums.
I think every Lupe album is better when you digest the best parts of it. There is always(outside of his first two) parts of the album that were unnecessary or just didn’t seem to fit. Was waiting for this and wasn’t disappointed. Just get on that Drogas Wave when you have time. Don’t wait too long or we’ll get you 😝
Jon, obviously you picked up on the video game references throughout. Thought you might be interested in *one* reading of the album when played backwards is that it's structured like a video game - i.e. TRON is the first track, insert coin and away you go ("Proceed to the next level"). Then each section of the album is a 'world', each song is an individual level (but similarly themed to each other) and the long tracks are the boss levels. When played in reverse like this, Mural acts as the final boss level where Lupe has to use all of the powers he's picked up and learned over the course of the album (and career) in an epic battle to "Defeat samsara, achieve nirvana and brilliance". "Summer" acts as the closing credits to the game.
"Life is not a dictionary, it's a thesaurus" One of the next ones EVER EVER!!!!! There is no meaning and definition to life, just a bunch of similar things over and over
Jon, if you are enjoying Lupe then you should definitely check out Sa-Roc, The Sharecropper's Daughter. She is a Goddess-tier lyricist. You can work backwards from there. You're welcome.
See a vane like a chicken on a barn. Weathervane, weathervanes are usually shaped like chickens. Bro had me exhaling at his bars at the very beginning of his album😂
I've said it a million times.... Lupe is the greatest that ever did it. And when it comes to writing, he should only be mentioned with the great authors in world history.
co-sign everyone; Drogas Wave next
WAV Files is a top 10 personal fav song
@@Lu_Cidtrip Down is for me, Wav being my 2nd fav from the tape
@@Lu_Cidtrip don’t forget Manilla, beautiful song
4 realllllllllll
Kingdom is another banger
TIME STAMPS:
0:56 - Summer
1:17 - Mural
9:10 - Blur My Hands
11:11 - Dots & Lines
14:00 - Fall
14:13 - Prisoner 1 & 2
17:17 - Body of Work
19:30 - Little Death
21:13 - No Scratches
23:26 - Winter
24:19 - Chopper
26:21 - Deliver
27:34 - Madonna (And Other Mothers in the Hood)
28:26 - Adoration of the Magi
30:29 - They.Resurrect.Over.New
31:30 - Spring
Please lets get a Ka - Honor Killed The Samurai reaction going boys, anyone that agree just like this post and then comment the name of the album yourself, we are clearly in a lower number because Ka's fanbase is just that narrow but he's the only lyricist i'd put close to Lupe in term of raw pen, and I think he's way more emotional. I think Jon discovering Ka as the same time as the 200 000 subs of this channel would benefit everyone immensely, I don't know if I heard a verse that's written as perfectly as the second verse of Ours, that shit is flawless.
second this, Ka is insane
@@leem48 Glad you agree, please drop a standalone comment recommending this album if you want to see the reaction being done, we need to be multiple people just spamming Ka until it's done LOL
Yessss he needs to man, Ka is way more than just a rapper, he's a poet and a fucking genius poet at that
Orpheus vs The sirens might be the place to start, that's how i got my friend into KA
Descendants of Cain, too
To me, this is Lupe's magnum opus. The aesthetic, the concept, production, lyrics, symbolism, etc.... all amazing.
Agreed
Royce 59 called Mural the rappers kryptonite
This is album should be on display in the Louvre. Love this album
naaah F&L is one of the best hip hop albums of all time. Tetsuo is good but it has weird pacing and outside of like 4 songs the album is meh. Mural is obviously a classic though and is one of the best hip hop songs of all time and Dots and Lines is really good as well.
@@sk33t_38 he started the statement with "to me"
As soon as the beat drops and Lupe says "We all Chemicals, Vitamins and Minerals..." I get the chills...
Adoration of the Magi is so god damn underrated. What a masterpiece
My absolute FAVORITE Lupe song
That hook is amazing
Adoration of the Magi blew my mind every listen!
Facts!!
Yup, probably my favorite Lupe song of all time
So glad you reacted to this album. This is my favorite album of all time and I sometimes take for granted how much substance is in each song. This reaction helped me remember to appreciate Lupe’s greatness a little more, even though I listen to this album a lot
“Mural” is legit, to me, one of the best rap songs in the last 10 or so years. I’m always catching a new bar and you get the feeling of watching a picture getting painted at Lupe rhymes.
I literally just caught these bars
Top cat chat let's begin another [Yawn]
Just to fall asleep, listening to bak
Those 2 lines coincide.
Basically saying let's begin a another song ppl gon think its trash/boring/corny... that's why they gon yawn. But they listening to bak... a song that's tryna wake us up is something we sleep on
@@redpillproductions7187 Also a Top cat chat meaning this is only some shit people interested in lyricism will catch. Yawn is obviously a double with Yarn (following the cat scheme).
@@guts1258 yarn also means a long story
It's been 6 years and i'm still unpacking all the wordplay in Mural.
The crazy thing is, Mural is the easiest song to understand conceptually
@@codyladsonDefinitely not the easiest one.
@@codyladson the concept, sure. He's painting an insane mural with his words.
The lyrics and wordplay??? Nah. 9 years. Still finding stuff.
@@vanishingact8822 I agree it’s hard to find every meaning in the bars. But I’m saying in the context of the album, that song is the easiest to understand it’s purpose. Playing it backwards, it is the moment when he is free from contractual obligations and can fully make his art how he wants. And forwards it fits with the summer mood
Lupe is a menace. He'll drop a bar like, 'Nerd gang make Mandelbrot sets when we handshake', and next thing I know I'm 3 hours into a rabbit hole about advanced mathematics that I don't even fuckin understand. Dudes one of a kind.
It's hard to be a lupe fan - go to Harvard to be a Lupe stan
So many times I’ve had to pull out google and figure out what a line means lol so worth it!!
This is the most accurate shit I seen in a min lmao.
5 years after song chilling in house randomly getting the line " WTF was he on bro"
Jus know, DROGAS WAVE is Lupe's first album free from his hostage situation at Atlantic records, so it's his best work (IMO) since The Cool. Do us Patreon members a solid homie
Tetsuo is kinda free, he's shitting on Atlantic all throughout the album, he was still on the label but they just gave up and let him do what he wanted, which is why this album sounds so good
@@mehdi-les-termes Yeah you can hear that through Tetsuo and Drogas Light
Yes, please react to Drogas Wave
tetsuo and youth is better...sonically and lyrically
imo
@@barcodescanner3214 I feel like both Tetsuo and Youth and Dogas Wave is closer sonically, lyrically and creatively.
I have to say this reaction is great solely off your relisten to Mural (that's all I've heard so far lol). Idk why anyone suggested that to you guys on Rock Reacts bc neither of you had any hope of appreciating how dense that track is. A couple years later and you're there. You love to see it!
Thanks for watching all this time!
@@JonDenton it's been my pleasure!
Fair warning. Lupe brought his Little Brother (Ab-Soul). Just as intricate, will blow your mind. Control System, These Days, Do What Thou Wilt is easily the Magnum opus. You gotta review him as well.
I thought Control System was his magnum opus
The hook for Prisoner 1 🔥🔥
“LOVE is
Looking
Over
Various
Errors
and HATE is
Habitually
Accelerating
Terror
Everywhere, but the mirror
Could also be everywhere but the mural because the track mural is just perfection
Dots and lines is an Atlantic diss, the hook is basically is "don't sign / sine" he's trashing the shit out of his label
Wordplay on "sign on the dotted line" as well
While I think that's part of it, I don't think it's just ghatm he draws connections to how black people are taken advantage of in capitalism in general, of course music is a big example. And he connects it to "gold" and greed corrupting people.
@@wgo523 Me personally, I got Go straight Don't Sine/Sin cause on a graph sine is a wavy line aka he's telling you to stay pure and morally correct and always do the right thing.
this is one of the greatest albums i've ever heard.
We need a Honor Killed The Samurai- Ka reaction!
Yesyesyesyesyes the fuckin goat
JD you need to peep some of Ka's work. Newest album Descendants of Cain is some of the best writing I've seen in hip hop. His Honor killed the samurai LP was amazing as well!
orpheus vs the sirens is so so good too
Lol, everyone felt that way about Chopper. I think Lupe has an interview explaining why it's there.
still probably my favorite Lupe album overall, followed closely by Drogas Wave
The adoration of the Magi choruses are describing album covers...
Why you ready to die you just a baby (B.I.G Ready to Die) quit chasing money nevermind you just a baby (Nirvana Nevermind)
Keep your head up in the sky you just a baby (Nas illmatic)
Why them tears up under your eyes you just a baby (lil Wayne Carter 3)
Keep your head up the sky you just a baby (Drake Nothing was the same)
I know that's not in order but 🤷♂️ don't know what the other 2 are in reference to though
I'm so impressed this was voted for a reaction, from the weekend vids to now this you are really getting into some of my favorite albums of all time
Trae the Truth you heard on Chopper is a southern legend, he was in the group ABN with Z-Ro who is probably one of Freddie Gibbs's biggest inspiration rapping wise period
But did you see what he did .. he said reign as in being in charge. He was telling you what he meant but giving you different meanings and the same time.
But also emphasizing the beauty of rap and language, that the same thing can have different meanings depending on how you hear.
Honestly, Tetsuo & Youth is one of the best hip/hop albums of the 2010s.
It's my number 1
Definitely. Crazy part is it was the 2nd best album that year 😭😭
@@sampeskoff4815 I'd say testuo and youth is better, but TPAB is in my top 3-4 albums of all time. They're absurdly close
This is one of the albums that is beautiful from front to back. It's one of my favourites, and I love the cover art. Countless HITS on here. And if you listen to it back to front, it tells the story of Lupe and his record label i think? And the use of the "pallete" cleansers of each season is amazing, each song of its season matches the mood. Glad you did this one!!!
Edit: and i think Lupe painted the album cover himself?
He did
Apparently the image is his interpretation of a man being eaten by a tiger. I remember Lupe stating that in an interview waaay back in 2014 or so.
@@nyrisj Damn, I don't see it but that's some cool knowledge :)
@@nyrisj it can be interpreted as "man-eating tiger" or "A man eating a tiger". Typical Lupe lol
Thethirdernest has the most in-depth breakdowns of Lupe songs. I didn't love the lyrics of "Deliver" until I heard the breakdown.
But Lupe is the 🐐
Hey Jon ! Glad you loved Tetsuo and Youth, I guess Drogas Wave will be next because it's the 4th Lupe masterpiece but it's VERY intricate. I actually made a write-up about it decyphering the overarching concept of it and I was thinking if you would want reading into it before or while reacting to the album, obviously it's up to interpretation as Lupe is very artsy and abstract but I think I got it pretty right, this album kinda got criticizes for "dropping a concept a third of the way through the album" and I thought it was very misguided and a lot of people didn't understand what the concept actually was.
I feel the same way -- what did you make of the concept? Without reading into it, I thought it was about the translantic slave trade in the first half, and the second half is obv about drugs, hence DROGAS WAVE. So the waves of slaves mixed with the waves of drugs that entered America give us today's state of the underprivileged. Also themes of resurrection
@@bruyeretv The whole album is about ressurection in the sense of saving yourself through hardships and being "reborn" as a new you, from the long chains arc to the two forever tracks that are about real kids that die and save themselves by being reborn and doing professions that make them end up saving a kid that was in the same situation that them when they die to Imagine which is Lupe talking about how Atlantic mistreated the fuck out of him and how done he was with it, it's a continuous thing
@@mehdi-les-termes Yeah mainstream reviewers really thought the first WAVES part of the album really just stopped there..
Um drogas light comes before waves
@@apolo539 it was made to be a throaway for lupe to be independant
The fact that mural is lupe freestyling over a couple days should completely dismantle folks brains. This is all off the top of Lupe brain. Don’t make no damn. PHD Lu
The hook on Adoration Of The Magi is a reference to album covers, Ready to Die, tears under eyes refers to Lil Wayne's album covers, quit chasin money refers to Nirvana's Nevermind
Head up in the sky- drake nothing was the same
Playing in the street- nas illmatic
@@moneymon4778 yup
A lot of my friends ask me why I don’t listen to a lot of the mainstream hip hop today and I just say “Idk, it just doesn’t interest me.” After watching this reaction it made me realize that it’s probably because I listened to this album, along with Lupe’s other work, on repeat starting when I was 11. This is such a big part of my love for hip hop, the people around me just don’t get that. But to be fair, neither the fuck do I apparently because I’m still learning shit from this reaction and this comment section years and years down the line. Lupe the GOAT forever.
Drogas wave next!
That is his absolute masterpiece in my opinion
I put this above Drogas Wave slightly
Drogas wave is absolutely amazing. So underrated i think. Remember when it came out it was all i listened to
i thought the exact same thing!!
Get his patreon and vote so it can win the next poll!
@@madeyeatreides4055 fax
Prisoner 1 and 2.... Too, too much! 🔥
Honestly, you really have become my favorite THING on youtube. Deeper than just reactions. I thoroughly enjoy the feeling of watching someones mind be broken like mine was when I first heard some of these songs with this level of depth. Its something I never knew I needed.
Yeah Jon is really out hear making everyones day better and he has for years now
@@Waluigi-vr4qz Ive been here since day 0, I know all about it. Lot of people dont even know the song that started the shades !
I personally like listening to T&Y in reverse. You are absolutely going to love Drogas Wave. It's beautiful.
Ka's "descendants of Cain" or "Honor killed the samurai"
orpheus vs the sirens too
"Descendants of Cain" is something else
Production on TRON is GOATED
I really think you would like KA, dudes lyrics are so poetic. Should check out Honor killed the Samurai or Descendants of Cain
1. Adoration of the Magi
2. Mural
3. Prisoner 1 & 2
9.5/10
Lupes best body of work.
osei
Body of Work will grow on you trust me, actually after the first listen most of these songs will. This is his best album IMO.
Props to you for giving this a go cause it's hard even for Lupe fans on first listen. It's an amazing album that gets better the more you listen to it as well.
I keep rewatching these reactions both cut and uncut... I absolutely can not wait for you to experience the universe that is Drogas Wave! It is a masterpiece!!
I still love Chopper; would listen to it multiple times daily back when it first came out, still revisit it every now and then.
Your reactions to elite lyricist is perfection. It's like our minds do not want us to believe we heard what we just heard. If a reaction video is short for lyricist it's no way that a person is truly following what the artist is saying.
This album has some of my favorite hip hop songs of all time. Mural, Dots and Lines, Prisoner 1 & 2, just wow. Incredible project.
Check out TimesNuRoman, a youtuber that dissects a lot of Lupe's Songs, including Mural
No lie, really helped me decode Lupe's lyrics
I was looking for his comment before I posted my own. Best Lupe breakdowns on the internet!
Jon needs to see this!!
Jon please do Honor Killed The Samurai- Ka, some of the best hard hitting lyricism out there you just gotta do it he's very underrated
Wasalu Muhammad Jaco (Lupe Fiasco) is a genius
The best compliment I can give Mural is it's the most lyrical song ever written & Lupe is the greatest lyricist to ever put pen to paper... I'm so happy to see you reacting to this album because it's nothing short of a masterpiece.
There's a youtube Channel called Times NuRoman, who does excellent visual breakdowns of Lupe songs, the breakdown he did for adoration of the Magi is fucking WILD.
JD, you need to do Ka on your channel next, you will love him !
Oh my god.
Drogas Wave coming?
Get his patreon and vote so it can win the next poll! It lost last time
Btw if anyone is interested, Lyricology 101 did an amazing breakdown of mural
This man won’t be ready for WAV Files...can’t wait! Been here since Rock Reacts and by far my fav reaction channel.
He has a poll on patreon rn, go vote for Drogas Wave!
They have lyrical breakdowns of mural and adoration of the magi on TH-cam . Shows images of what he’s talking about as he’s rapping. Definitely need to check those out Jon. Much love for the reaction ❤️
Times nuroman
oh, I already know JD 'bout to be blown the f*ck away
EDIT: DROGAS WAVE NEXT!! or Light first! Light is more of just a tour album so that they can bounce at the shows and shit but it still has deep stuff on it
also, there are lyric breakdown videos where they play the song and put pictures/clips of what the lines mean
He dropped Drogas Light as a throaway because he had one last album to drop before dropping out of his label and he didn't want Atlantic to feel a single penny from Drogas Wave
@@mehdi-les-termes ohhh I didn't know that
thanks for the info!
Hahaha Dude.. your reaction for Mural . Enjoyable indeed
Drogas wave is the true masterpiece that we are waiting for!! But this album is amazing as well
Get his patreon and vote so Wave can win the next poll!
@@madeyeatreides4055 I already have lol
I like every comment related to Drogas Wave lol
I like tetsuo better
@@LucasMartins-en9er Can't blame anyone who does. It's a masterpiece in its own right.
Ka - Honor killed the samurai please!
Damn I’m excited to watch this, this is top 5 hip hop albums of the 2010s definitely
Whats your other 4 albums? Just curious for what to listen to next.
@@Waluigi-vr4qz listened to pinata?
@@moralambiguo3708 yeah its sick. I love Freddie gibbs and madlib is a cheat Code at this point. He has some of the Best beats and albums of all time under his belt
@@Waluigi-vr4qz wow I don’t kno really but I kno for a fact that this is atleast top 5 but probably tbab and maybe gkmc or mbdtf
@@Waluigi-vr4qz a good one you should check out is undun by the roots, a lot of people would put that album over this
There is an analysis essay of this album (or part of it) on Genius. But no matter how much you read it’s not something you can really wrap your head around
Lupe started this song of with a written rap but then just ended up freestyiling the whole thing by da way
The moment you realize that the chorus in adoration of the magi is referencing all of those influential records was mindblowing
I was waiting for this album. Lupe is so underrated.
A bit late but should check out some of TimesNuRoman's breakdowns here in yt
New follower here , loving these reactions
Lupe even said in an interview "chopper is too damn long" apparently lupe asked these guys for features but forgot to tell them to only write 16 bars, so they each sent in a full 32 bar feature verse.
Facts
I thought he had too many guys on it as well had it been 4 guys with 32s it wouldnt be that bad
Its going to take years of listening and studying to catch everything in this album
Jon Denton, I had no clue you played bloodborne that is my favorite game, you just became 10 times cooler
Drogas wave next please sir! It’s his best work for me, I have it on vinyl and it is beautiful
He has a poll on patreon rn, go vote for Drogas Wave!
Great reaction! Don't know if you caught it but deliver has a whole secondary meaning if you interpret the hook as "piece of man" instead of pizza man. lupe has levels
funnily enough, Chopper is the song i come back to most on Tetsuo and Youth, odd you didnt like any verses of that one. But overall the album is a masterclass of rap in my opinion
Love me a good Posse cut so i actually enjoy "Chopper" haha
Aye props to Jon for admitting when a song is going completely over his head to thousands
Y'all should hear what Royce Da 5'9 said about Mural. Just imagine that the best lyricists in the game right now think this song is intimidating to them, what do you think a hip hop head is going to think? This song is soooooo beyond genius that people are calling the people who can break it down for them geniuses.
Royce got nothing on Lupe as a lyricist to be honest, he wished he was that good
@@mehdi-les-termes I agree. But Royce is nicer than the majority on earth right now. It's just that Lupe is an Alien. Nobody touching him this side of this century.
@@ImInYourBrains Ka is the only one i'd put in the same tier as him lyrically
@@mehdi-les-termes it's hard for me to see anyone on his level. For me it wasnt Mural that established it 100%. It was Adoration of a Magi and when I saw the Davinci painting and finally understood the bible verse (from the first curse...). You also have the MYH saga and Drogas wave. I guess its because concepts are a part of lyricism to me and as a whole, I cant see anyone even close to Lupes level let alone on his level.
@@ImInYourBrains You heard Ka?
Bringing the BloodBorne/VaatiVidya references to a Lupe Fiasco reaction - you love to see it.
There are break down videos on TH-cam for most of the songs that help alot.
The last stretch is filled with religious references. Adoration of the Magi leads into They Resurrect Over New, like how Jesus resurrected. Madonna is a reference to Jesus' mother the Virgin Mary. Now what track comes before Madonna? Deliver. The resurrection theme also ties into the last line of Mural "defeats samsara achieves nirvana and brilliance" reference buddhist resurrection and the wheel of resurrection, like how this album is a loop forwards and backwards. THIS all relates to the Youth theme and the resurrection can be interpreted a bunch of ways. I think it could refer to the resurrection of Lupe's career/music quality after his beef with his Atlantic Records, OR it could refer to him being born again after growing up in the street life. This album has so many threads I'm still discovering and pulling at years later. Each song has references to ideas in other songs on the album and even other Lupe albums.
Lupe also painted the artwork for the album
I think every Lupe album is better when you digest the best parts of it. There is always(outside of his first two) parts of the album that were unnecessary or just didn’t seem to fit. Was waiting for this and wasn’t disappointed. Just get on that Drogas Wave when you have time. Don’t wait too long or we’ll get you 😝
Legend. Excited for this one!
Oh wow. I didnt see this. Hes about to be MINDBLOWN
This album had A LOT of layers to it. Great replay value
Jon, obviously you picked up on the video game references throughout. Thought you might be interested in *one* reading of the album when played backwards is that it's structured like a video game - i.e. TRON is the first track, insert coin and away you go ("Proceed to the next level"). Then each section of the album is a 'world', each song is an individual level (but similarly themed to each other) and the long tracks are the boss levels. When played in reverse like this, Mural acts as the final boss level where Lupe has to use all of the powers he's picked up and learned over the course of the album (and career) in an epic battle to "Defeat samsara, achieve nirvana and brilliance". "Summer" acts as the closing credits to the game.
Guys get his patreon and vote so Drogas Wave can win the next poll!
We need a Ka reaction!!
There's a lot of fan made videos breaking down a lot of the visuals to simplify a lot of it
Classic🔥🔥🔥
prisoners 1 beat is from Fort Minor - Believe Me. Rising Tied is an amazing album
This album is so sense
I Love Chopper. All the guys on there are super hood and add a grimyness to it that the song is about. It almost makes it 3 dimensional.
This album is really deep n dope as fuck...Alien Brain Lyricism...Great review...
Just got here and really hope he's never heard 'Mural' before today. One of my all-time favorite tracks.
Ahh, there was a Rock Reacts one I see.
"Life is not a dictionary, it's a thesaurus"
One of the next ones EVER
EVER!!!!!
There is no meaning and definition to life, just a bunch of similar things over and over
Since that album has been on a whole different level lyrically, clearly one of the best in the art of writing together with DOOM
Jon, if you are enjoying Lupe then you should definitely check out Sa-Roc, The Sharecropper's Daughter. She is a Goddess-tier lyricist. You can work backwards from there. You're welcome.
Mural and TRON
One of my fav albums of all time
Masterpiece.
Mural is the greatest hip hop song ever, and if not canonically, it is in the way you said.
It's just inconceivable
One of my favorite albums in any genre ever.
See a vane like a chicken on a barn. Weathervane, weathervanes are usually shaped like chickens. Bro had me exhaling at his bars at the very beginning of his album😂
I've said it a million times.... Lupe is the greatest that ever did it. And when it comes to writing, he should only be mentioned with the great authors in world history.