Dumb It Down

"Dumb It Down" (originally titled "Space Traveling") is a song by Lupe Fiasco featuring GemStones and Graham Burris, released through 1st & 15th Entertainment and Atlantic Records on December 4, 2007."Dumb It Down - Single by Lupe Fiasco". Apple Music. December 4, 2007. It is the second single and fourteenth track off his 2007 album Lupe Fiasco's The Cool. The accompanying music video was directed by Gil Green, uploaded to YouTube on September 27, 2007.
== Background ==
Fiasco explained to Entertainment Weekly, "My peoples that frequent clubs and go in the streets and things of that nature, they'll be like, 'Yo man, this is what they're saying in the hood: 'I'm not really feeling Lupe.' Those are real conversations that I get the gist of. And then the second hook is more Big Brother-influenced, which is that unspoken—and in some cases spoken behind closed doors—mentality and agenda of a lot of different [record] companies. To actually be like, 'Let's push some bulls— today.' That song touches on one of the base themes for The Cool: I went to go see Cornel West speak, and he said, ”If you really want to affect social change in the world, you have to make those things which are cool and destructive, uncool. You have to make it hip to be square.' "Dumb it Down" was showing that. Like, the verses are super-duper complex, but the hook itself is telling the verses, like, 'Damn, yo, dumb it down! This is why we're saying you need to dumb it down. Nobody just got that verse you just said, and that's why you're really not going to sell too many records.' It's showing that: 'They're starting to think that smart is cool, Lu / Dumb it down / They're starting to get up out the hood, Lu / Dumb it down.' It's like, 'We need to keep them there so we can constantly sell them things.'"Vozick-Levinson, Simon (November 16, 2007). "Lupe Fiasco deciphers his upcoming concept CD". Entertainment Weekly.
Fiasco revealed in 2017 that the song was initially "meant to be a stream of consciousness bar fest," and his A&R disliked the hook. He continued, "So we changed the hook to "Dumb It Down" to balance out how deep the verses were. It was a huge impact on rap at the time. No regrets.""Lupe Fiasco (@LupeFiasco)". Twitter. October 27, 2017. Soundtrakk was also featured on the chorus of the demo version.
== Lyrics ==
== References ==
Category:2007 songs
Category:Collaboration songs
Category:Explicit songs
Category:Lupe Fiasco songs
Category:Lupe Fiasco's The Cool
Category:Singles
Category:Songs
Category:Songs with music videos