A decade ago, with the impressive albums Food & Liquor and The Cool, Lupe Fiasco was shaping up to be the lyrical link between storytelling Slick Rick and socially conscious early Kanye. Last year, Lupe could be found on Twitter feebly defending his freestyle attacking “dirty Jewish execs”. It’s been a long, slow drift from the centre of the conversation, but this soggy, incoherent sixth album confirms his irrelevance. Technically he still has the skills, but he has very little to say and no interesting way to say it. The best tracks come from producers Floss & Flame and Soundtrakk, but the album sinks under a surfeit of muddled, undercooked hip-pop. Lupe’s ability seems sadly exhausted by his ambition.
