Lupe Fiasco's "Kick, Push"

Hip hop does boisterous, bombastic, and braggadocious extremely well. What is also does well, though with much less recognition, is reminiscence. Nowhere do we do we hear this more beautifully than on Lupe Fiasco's "Kick, Push", off his classic freshman album, Food & Liquor.

First, the beat. The longing, melancholic horns crescendo to an extended chord. The mysterious guitar and strings are lush, deepening the mood. The drums are simple, without ostentations.

And then there's Lupe. Rather than celebrating his status as a rapidly rising rapper, he focuses on the opposite - his experiences growing up as a misfit. The simple chorus of the song - "kick, push, kick, push, coast" - emphasizes Lupe's outsider status; he literally sings about getting away from others. Lupe vividly comes back to this theme throughout the song:

Branded, since the first kickflip he landed
Labeled a misfit, a bandit
Ka-kunk ka-kunk ka-kunk, his neighbors couldn't stand it
So he was banished to the park
Started in the morning, wouldn't stop 'til after dark
Yeah, when they said "It's getting late in here
So I'm sorry young man, there's no skatin' here"

Branded, banished, misfit, bandit - this is how Lupe truly sees himself, and this sincerity shines throughout "Kick, Push" as well as the rest of Food & Liquor. This feeling of being an outsider, and his honesty about it, is a big part of what made Lupe such a tantalizing rapper early in his career. In some ways, perhaps Lupe's self-perception explains the wandering, at times tumultuous arc of his career. After Food & Liquor, Lupe was undoubtedly a star. But when you think of yourself as a loner, that can be a hard thing to accept.