The Champ Is Here (Freestyle)

## Song by Lupe Fiasco

"**The Champ Is Here (Freestyle)**" is the fourth track from American rapper Lupe Fiasco's mixtape, *Fahrenheit 1/15 Part I: The Truth Is Among Us* (2004). He boasts about his flow and skillset, throwing in some cultural references and scientific equations.

## Critical reception

*The Fader* retrospectively wrote, "The high water mark for that careening style is "Champ Is Here," which finds every crevice in the Jadakiss beat. […] By the third verse, he's extending lines past the ends of bars to squeeze in punches—see the way he strings you through and they itchin' to come up out the magazine like the posters that unfold."

## Cultural references

* Chevrolets are an American automobile division of General Motors.
* *Aqua Teen Hunger Force* is an American adult animated television series. It focuses on three anthropomorphic fast food items: Master Shake, Frylock, and Meatwad.
* Cartiers are designer sunglasses.
* Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) was a American federal assistance program for healthcare and nutrition of low-income families that had to meet certain criteria to become eligible.
* The Cook County Department of Corrections (CCDOC) is one of the largest single site county pre-detention facilities in the United States.
* Labatt Blue is Canadian beer by Labatt Brewing Company, founded in 1847.
* *Tiger Beat* was an American teen fan magazine marketed towards girls.
* MC-squared is the mass-energy equivalence, where the mass and speed of light squared equals energy (E = mc²).
* André 3000 is an American rapper from Atlanta, Georgia. He is ½ of the hip hop duo, Outkast.

## Lyrics

**Lyrics**
[Hook: Lupe Fiasco]

*This is Chicago*

(The champ is here)

Uh, yeah

(The champ is here)

Champ is here

Chilly mane!

(The champ is here)

(The champ is here)

[Verse 1: Lupe Fiasco]

Uh, flow can't be seen

Uh, like it took one in the face

I'm heavy n\*\*\*a, tow can't be seen

Like I'm repossessing a Chevy, n\*\*\*a

Don't hang with those n\*\*\*as those can't be safe

Even in they panic rooms

I will soon be forest to the floor of this

Stethoscope to the door of it

Listenin for the break

And I don't care how long gettin' the combination takes

I be concentrating on the crack, get it straight

I was so high up the food chain that which I mentioned before

I ain't know how to make

I master shake like *Aqua Teen Hunger Force*

Already number one in the hood, G

It's like my third deal off Could Be

Get it focused, one of the coldest you gonna run across

Like it was stolen from a under boss

Spent for stack and sold to another boy

He might never get it back

So whoever got it getting whacked if they ever get caught

Now that's what I call reaction to a chain snatchin'

Game got 'bout as much compassion as The Passion

So it gotta make a comeback, just like a champion

[Hook: Lupe Fiasco]

Yeah, Lupe Fiasco

(The champ is here)

For y'all n\*\*\*as that don't really understand or

(The champ is here)

Was present unaware

(The champ is here)

Westside, Chit-town, Madison, n\*\*\*ga

(The champ is here)

[Verse 2: Lupe Fiasco]

I run it back to that last piece of action

My necklace was took-en by detective

I don't stress it I just gather up my essence

As real as the view through my Cartier correctives, yeah

But now back to the punchin'

Back to flo' like crunchin'

Got a 6 pack on the low now I'm sunk in

Look like I'm driving from the back seat

With a bird shotgun like I'm hunting

You see what happened?

I made a call, and she got fly

I was pumping, hit her up

Then I sent my dog to go and pick her up

Camouflaged fitted cut to the left velours, how I did it up

And to the whole Westside, I tip it up

And over to the single baby mama with no job that gotta WIC it up

To all my n\*\*\*as in the CCDOC waiting on they quick collect to come

So they can live it up

And to my n\*\*\*as that liquor they livers up and distribute cut in the belly

Sit it up

[Hook: Lupe Fiasco]

(The champ is here)

Lean up, n\*\*\*ga

(The champ is here)

Bitch lean up into the speaker (Up)

(The champ is here)

So you can really get it clear and understand

So I don't have to say this again

(The champ is here)

[Verse 3: Lupe Fiasco]

In the abdomen is Madison from which I came

But this my gang

FNF crew, first and fifteen

Bear arms like Labatt Blue

Oh yes its bullets in the toasters as many as the clips that the gun hold

And they itchin' to come up out the magazine like the posters that unfold

So my heat like *Tiger Beat*

I got the shotgun and the driver's seat

So if Lupe's a coupe, my man is a sedan

If there's more than two of us, then you up against a van

If I'm leavin, then you leavin'

If your n\*\*\*as wanna come, y'all can ride with me

It's just gonna be a lot of squeezin'

Ya understand?

That I don't need Caroline calculator to divide defeat

Just lean a little closer

The flows are his as roses is

So override your pride and decide retreat

It's suicide to meet

Like a broke stock broker and a sidewalk

Y'all n\*\*\*as ain't fly as me

That's why I defy physics and y'all n\*\*\*as collidin', peace

I'm up here with the Leers

Y'all down down there with the airs

Emperors in the mirror, you're playing with a pair

N\*\*\*a I is we

Twice the MC like MC-squared

Trust, I make it relate

I got the poker-face and I'm hiding a flush

Still riding the beat

With a air that still smells like roses from André 3000

My housing surroundings is what made me, me

And that's two times the G

You see how I doubled that the third time, n\*\*\*a please

A little science

Drop a little science on these n\*\*\*as

[Hook: Lupe Fiasco]

(The champ is here)

(The champ is here)

(FNF up)

Ya know, Lupe

(The champ is here)

(FNF)

Is just starting, n\*\*\*a

(The champ is here)

(The champ is here)

Madison, Huggy Bear

(The champ is here)

Gemini, yo!

## References

1. ↑ Thompson, Paul (2018). "The Brilliant Ambiguity of Lupe Fiasco's 'The Truth Is Among Us'". *The Fader*.