Strange Fruition

## Song by Lupe Fiasco featuring Casey Benjamin

"**Strange Fruition**" is a song by American rapper Lupe Fiasco featuring additional vocals from American saxophonist Casey Benjamin. It was released as the second track from the former's fourth studio album, *Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album Pt. 1* (2012). Production was handled by Darrale Jones and Soundtrakk, and samples the 2010 song "Where Do I Begin?" by Barry Manilow.

The title is a play on Abel Meeropol's "Strange Fruit" (a song recorded by Billie Holiday), which protests racism in America, and in particular, the lynching of Black Americans.

## Background

On November 23, 2010, Fiasco presented the second verse in acapella to the students of Marquette University as an exclusive. The verses are structured in the format of a Shakespearean sonnet, and was originally planned to be the outro for the album.

In relation to the opening lyrics, Fiasco told MTV's *RapFix Live*, "My moms and my pops told us when we were little kids, 'You don't say the pledge of allegiance.' More from a religious kind of thing, halfway. You pledge your allegiance to God and that's it. Being Muslim and things like that, you don't pledge allegiance to no flag." He added, "My father was a Black Panther, my mama was super intellectual, left-wing, the whole kind of situation. So it's that layer on it too. Not yet, you don't pledge allegiance yet, we're still working on this place."

## Critical reception

Nathan Slavik of *DJBooth* called it an "excellent opening track." *Billboard* remarked, "is an interesting, if not confusing, play on "Strange Fruit" [...] The message here seems to be that everything is terrible and it's wholly the government's fault." *Spin* classified it as part of the "admittedly effective analogies," while '*XXL* noted of its themes of "police corruption and single parent homes."

*Pitchfork* opined that Fiasco's "most affecting moments remain his rare flashes of humility;" *HipHopDX* observed the rapper's shift towards using first-person narrative, and continued about its first verse, "delivered with a controlled aggression as if a Tupac-inspired Cornel Westside emerged through a cloud of self-inflicted controversy strapped with an AK-47 and government, materialism, corporate sponsored Hip Hop scribbled on his metaphorical hit list."

## Personnel

* Albert Francis – writer
* Brian Gardner – mastering engineer
* Carl Sigman – writer
* Casey Benjamin – additional vocals
* Charles "Chilly" Patton – executive producer
* Darrale Jones – producer
* Greg "G-Ball" Magers – engineer
* Joe Peluso – recording engineer
* Rudolph "Soundtrakk" Lopez – producer
* Simon "Simon Sayz" Morel – engineer
* Wasalu "Lupe Fiasco" Jaco – vocals, writer, executive producer

## Lyrics

**Lyrics**
[Verse 1: Lupe Fiasco]

Now I can't pledge allegiance to your flag

'Cause I can't find no reconciliation with your past

When there was nothing equal for my people in your math

You forced us in the ghetto, and then, you took our dads

The belly of the beast, these streets are demons' abs

I'm telling you that setup in them sit-ups is so sad

The system is a slab, corruption is the swinger

Sitting high, riding dirty, drag racing into danger

And it's so clean, pine trees smelling good

With work off in the trunk and n\*\*\*as in the hood

So I can't shed blood on any battlefield of yours

I pray the ugly truth comes and shatters your décor

And as it all falls down in tatters on the floor

I shed tears, I don't know what really matters anymore

'Cause I don't know what really matters anymore

[Hook: Casey Benjamin]

Man, it ain't mean

The strangest thing you've ever seen

Oh, would you look at how they swing?

Would you look at how they swing?

They ain't dead, though

No, I didn't die y'all

I cut myself down

And I admire my fall, into grace

[Verse 2: Lupe Fiasco]

Now, as I wander through the city going mad

I see the fruits of planting evidence instead of grass

A swindled generation with no patience, full of swag

Man, they so impatient with the stations that they have

As long as they look good when they be doing bad

Then the separation from the truth is getting vast, fast

Be a slave at first or free at last

Double-edged choices make a n\*\*\*a wanna pass

Double-headed voices from the eagle on the staff

The pyramid where eyes will split the spirited in half

Divided over money

Delighted by the dummying down of the importance of crowns we'll never have

That's why my sounds and sermons are so full of wrath

Baptize your mind, let your brain take a bath

Swim inside the river, get delivered from the craft

Of the witches in this business that be living off your sad

Hating on your happiness, you hit 'em off with laughs

Smile 'til they surrender, then you kill 'em off with glad

Hello, Evil—I'm back!

[Hook: Casey Benjamin]

Man, it ain't mean

The strangest thing you've ever seen

Oh, would you look at how they swing

Would you look at how they swing?

They ain't dead though

No, I didn't die y'all

I cut myself down

And I admire my fall, into grace

## References

1. ↑ "Lupe Fiasco, 'Food & Liquor II': Track-by-Track Review". *Billboard*. September 25, 2012.
2. ↑ Markman, Rob (September 26, 2012). "Why Lupe Fiasco 'Can't Pledge Allegiance' to U.S. Flag". *MTV*.
3. ↑ Slavik, Nathan (September 26, 2012). "Album Review: Lupe Fiasco 'Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album, Pt. 1'". *DJBooth*.
4. ↑ "Lupe Fiasco, 'Food & Liquor II': Track-by-Track Review". *Billboard*. September 25, 2012. Archived from the original on October 5, 2017.
5. ↑ Reeves, Mosi (October 3, 2012). "Lupe Fiasco, 'Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album, Pt. 1'". *Spin*.
6. ↑ Fleischer, Adam (September 25, 2012). "Lupe Fiasco, Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album, Pt. 1". *XXL*.
7. ↑ Greene, Jayson (September 27, 2012). "*Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album Pt. 1* by Lupe Fiasco". *Pitchfork*.
8. ↑ Hunte, Justin (September 24, 2012). "Lupe Fiasco - Food & Liquor 2: The Great American Rap Album Pt. 1". *HipHopDX*.