Tetsuo & Youth

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## Studio album by Lupe Fiasco

### **Studio**

* The Echo Bar (Los Angeles)
* Simon Sayz (Glendale)
* Wonderland

### **Label**

* 1st & 15
* Atlantic

### **Producer(s)**

* Blood Diamonds
* DJ Dahi
* JackLNDN
* Keyz
* Lupe Fiasco
* Marcus Stephens
* MoeZart
* Quality Kid
* S1
* Simonsayz
* VohnBeatz
* Wiz Buchanan

## **Singles from *Tetsuo & Youth***

1. "Deliver"
Released: November 10, 2014

***Tetsuo & Youth*** (abbreviated as ***T&Y***) is the fifth studio album by Lupe Fiasco, released on January 20, 2015, by 1st & 15th Entertainment and Atlantic Records. It debuted at number 14 on the US *Billboard* 200. It was preceded by the single "Deliver" on November 10, 2014. Fiasco embarked on a 33-date promotional tour ahead of the album's release, called the Tetsuo & Youth Preview Tour, which performed songs from the record and previous projects.

It was observed of listening to the album's track list in reverse order. Several hints to this include "Blur My Hands" ('So you starting at the end, that's the part where you begin),' "They.Resurrect.Over.New." ('We're going up, we're going up),' and the final track "Spring," where the word means "upward." Notable themes on the record are reincarnation, resurrection, and Christianity.

Fiasco revealed to *Rolling Stone* in October 2013, "For some people it's gonna be a shock, because there are no politics on the record. Consciously, there are no politics on the record. If you want to hear my political spiel or some psuedo-intellectual Lupe, go listen to [2012's] *Food & Liquor II*. From here on out, I'm just making music." He continued to a different source a month later in November, "It ain't gonna be a party album... I did like the first interview for the album I think it was either with *Rolling Stone* or *Billboard* and just told them like, you know, on purpose there's no politics on the record. I feel like people—I've said what I had to say and people replied how they had to reply. So, now it's just music. [...] You get tired of trying to like get people to see things from a different way or a different perspective. And it's kinda like the lack of response what was more like 'Oh well, forget it. Let's just go get money then.'"

## Synopsis

Lupe Fiasco is an underground rapper with a mainstream career, and vice versa. From his label dust-ups to his shifting musical ambitions, he's an iconoclast who happens to be a hitmaker. He revels in this duality on Tetsuo & Youth. Dig the second track, "Mural," which is nine minutes of dizzying raps with no guests and no hook. "Chopper" is similarly maximalist, featuring seven rappers and stretching nearly 10 minutes. Everything from banjo samples to '80s metal guitars to classic boom-bap beats dot the productions. The smorgasbord of textures complements Lupe's seemingly endless verses, adding up to a quixotic album that's also one of his best.

## Background

With the delay in its album release, the hacker group Anonymous (@TheAnonMessage) took to Twitter on October 15, 2014, to threaten Atlantic, and within less than 24 hours, the record label revealed the project's date. In response, Fiasco subliminally tweeted out "V" for vendetta. While it is uncertain if Anonymous influenced this, the group released the following statement:

> 24 hours ago we released a short Twitter ultimatum. We called upon record label Atlantic Records, responsible for releasing conscious rap artist Lupe Fiasco's long awaited Album. We demanded a statement from the label within 24 hours to release a date or we would unleash the complete and utter fury of our collective on their company and executives. 21 hours later they released a short Tweet citing the album and it's release date.
>
> At this time it can be concluded that we have proved our point. We wish music that is educating the masses to keep being released. We will fight for that. Lupe Fiasco, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, Common and others are the moving force behind conscious rap. This is music we will fight for.
>
> Operation Atlantic, Operation Free Lupe; disengaged.
>
>

In an interview with *Vibe*, Fiasco responded that he stopped caring about "linearity" with *Tetsuo & Youth*. He explained, "because we were right back to a point where Atlantic was not gonna put the album out unless you had these types of singles. 'You got to have a 'Show Goes On.' You gotta have an 'Old School Love.'" I'm like 'all right, it's gonna ruin the album because it doesn't fit.' But then it became, 'oh wow they're not gonna promote this album anyway.' That was one of the guarantees Lyor Cohen gave me when I didn't sign my 360 deal. [...] So I am just gonna make the album that I want to make, that people can't understand, because linearity is not gonna work. If I do all these records I'm going to sacrifice my creative intentions. I'm 34, I don't know how many years more I can do this, being the guinea pig for your pop-crossover rap whatever and get no publishing from it. So nah, I'm just going to make this record. Then it became abandon that linearity, they are not going to put the album out, in walks Anonymous and threatens to hack the label. And it gets lauded as one of the best albums of that year. Didn't sell a bunch of records, didn't press up any vinyls, didn't promote it as promised, but it still established like 'holy sh\*t, this is one of the best albums that came out that year.' "Mural" is still looked at as one of the epitomes of just blacking out with bars. But it's completely nonlinear. And then it was like it's okay, I'm comfortable doing that. Now I am completely comfortable as an artist putting out whatever the f\*\*k I want to put out. Whoever gets it, they get it. Whoever don't, don't."

## Cover art and title

The cover artwork is one of his paintings, "Uomo Mangiato Tigre" (Man Eating Tige), which was also featured in his art exhibitions at the Soho House and Beta. It includes a signature mori skull symbol.

For the title of the record, Fiasco mentioned he did not name it after the series *Akira*, though Tetsuo [Shima] "sounds cool" and continued, "You can hate him for what he's done, but it's not just him being an asshole. How that relates to me as a person—you can take that however you want, but it was more like, let me get to the emotion of that misguided anger and make this sound like a song."

## Critical reception

*Tetsuo & Youth* met with generally favorable reviews from critics, achieving an average score of 80, based on 12 reviews at Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100. The album was rated a 6.9 out of 10 on the aggregator AnyDecentMusic?.

*Complex* praised its sound and lyricism, where there were no "throwaway tracks," with RapReviews.com adding of "cinematic moments" that will "likely to be better appreciated by future generations." *XXL*'s Kellan Miller wrote, "has arguably released his most thematically layered and engaging album to date," while Jayson Greene of *Pitchfork* said, "*Tetsuo & Youth* is the most generous gulp he's managed in years." Christopher R. Weingarten of Rolling Stone said, "Lupe Fiasco's fifth album is a swirl of double meanings, extended metaphors about yoga and math, and increasingly labyrinthine ways to say "I'm dope.""

## Track listing

**Notes**

* "Dots & Lines" features background vocals by Nikki Jean
* "Prisoner 1 & 2" contains additional vocals by Nikki Jean
* "Body of Work" features additional vocals by Marisol
* "Deliver" features additional vocals by PJ and Ty Dolla Sign

**Sample credits**

* "Mural" contains elements of "Chanson d'Un Jour d'Hiver", performed by Alain Mion and Cortex.
* "No Scratches" contains a sample of "You Remind Me of Something", performed by R. Kelly.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lee, Christina (October 25, 2013). "Lupe Fiasco Is Avoiding Politics on 'Tetsuo & Youth'". *Rolling Stone*.
2. ↑ Lilah, Rose (November 11, 2013). "Lupe Fiasco Speaks On Sound Of "Tetsuo & Youth," Calls It "Ratchet"". *HotNewHipHop*.
3. ↑ Kyles, Yohance (October 16, 2014). "Anonymous Claims They Forced Atlantic Records To Give Lupe Fiasco's Album A Release Date". *AllHipHop*.
4. ↑ Ketchum III, William (February 22, 2019). "Lupe Fiasco on New World Water and Changing the World with His Bars Before Leaving Rap Behind". *Vibe*.
5. ↑ "Tetsuo & Youth by Lupe Fiasco reviews". AnyDecentMusic?.
6. ↑ Diaz, Angel (January 20, 2015). "Lupe Fiasco Is Back to Rapping His Ass Off on “Tetsuo & Youth”". *Complex*.
7. ↑ Juon, Steve (January 21, 2015). ""RapReviews.com Feature for January 20, 2015 – Lupe Fiasco's "Tetsuo & Youth"". RapReviews.com.
8. ↑ Miller, Kellan (January 22, 2015). "Lupe Fiasco's 'Tetsuo & Youth' Is a Return to Form". *XXL*.
9. ↑ Greene, Jayson (January 22, 2015). "Lupe Fiasco: Tetsuo & Youth". *Pitchfork*.
10. ↑ Weingarten, Christopher (February 12, 2015). "Tetsuo & Youth". *Rolling Stone*. Archived from the original on February 14, 2015.
11. ↑ Werthman, Christine et al. (December 1, 2015). "The Best Albums of 2015". *Complex*.
12. ↑ "The Top 25 Albums of 2015". *HipHopDX*.
13. ↑ "The 80 Best Albums of 2015". *PopMatters*. December 7, 2015. Archived from the original on December 10, 2015.
14. ↑ Aku, Timmhotep et al. (December 23, 2015). "40 Best Rap Albums of 2015". *Rolling Stone*. Archived from the original on December 26, 2015.
15. ↑ "20 of the Best Albums of 2015". *XXL*. December 24, 2015.