Thanks in part to the acute creative inspiration brought on by COVID-19 shutdowns and an inspiringly goal-oriented tweet, Lupe Fiasco fans have a new five-song EP to devour on Friday.
"Everything is manmade, and what's more dangerous than that?" Virgil Abloh says at the end of EP opener "HOMME MADE," which—like the entirety of the project—floats through the listener's brain atop production from Kaelin Ellis.
As studied Lupe fans already know, the producer tweeted about Lupe back in May, ultimately leading to the Grammy winner freestyling over one of his beats before sharing the results mere hours later. From there, the two continued their back-and-forth on Twitter before the complementary collaborations started building into what would later be polished into the HOUSE EP.
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A post shared by Lupe Fiasco (@lupefiasco) on Jul 23, 2020 at 7:03pm PDT
The striking cover art is a painting by Peter Gellatly of the famous Glass House. Gellatly, the father of Lupe’s friend Sky, recently died due to the coronavirus and is commemorated in the EP's liner notes.
"Music colored my father's life, and so did it mine … The grace of God brought music into my family," Sky Gellatly says in the liner notes, embedded below. "The love of music from all walks of life kept it there."
1. "RE: New Lupe EP - HOUSE // swipe" In response to Reply # 0
Yesterday my wife and I were running some errands, I put Spotify on shuffle. She knows Friday is new release day and that a good chunk of my weekend free time is listening to new stuff. She asked what I'd listened to so far and I said I hadn't been in much of a listening mood, had only gotten to the new Lupe.
"How is it?"
"It's good. The first song is about dinosaurs."
"Like, about DINOSAURS, or about dinosaurs indirectly, or as a metaphor?"
"Haven't listened close enough yet but he was definitely naming dinosaurs... And he roared. Like a dinosaur."
She laughed and I told her she should put it on.
She laughed through the whole song, and the rest of the ep.
Not in a mean way. She just found a lot of his lines funny.
And so I listened closer... And Lupe's fucking hilarious.
Why did I not notice how funny dude is before? I mean, I've laughed to a lot of his shit - but once you start listening for it, it's everywhere. I've been trying to think of a stand-up comedian to liken him to but have come up short. Someone with a sense of the awkward and surreal though - like an Eddie Izzard.
This has been your semi-regular reminder that it's good to listen to music with others. They hear it in ways you don't. And that can benefit you in ways immeasurable.
Was thinking the same thing when I heard Dinosaurs. As in.... Of course Lupe did a song about Dinosaurs, makes perfect sense. And let's be honest.... shit knocks too.
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