You know, I didn’t really like the first single they released from this LP. But this got more than a few positive reviews and so, I thought it might be worth actually listening to from start to finish. And the thing is, I thought I had already.

But the album I heard when I listened the most recent time resembles nothing like that thing I must’ve thought I heard.

Bottom line? This thing is good. But not for the reasons you’d think. Lupe isn’t that great a lyricist. He sounds like something out of the “conscious hip-hop movement” before all those guys signed with Def Jam. (I’m kidding about that last part.)

Seriously though, the only thing that makes thing work as well as it does is on the strength of the production. And not in a “man, I wish Jay could get on that beat. He’d murder it” sort of way, but in a “wow, Soundtrack really IS a genius.” Because he’s so scatterbrained and over the heads of the MTV hip-hop crowd that if you’re not at home watching Ghost In The Shell and playing Ultimate Frisbee on weekends, it’s possible you’ll have no idea what the hell he’s talking about or where he’s trying to go with this thing.

That’s not entirely true. It’s mellow as heck, it rides nicely and fits the evening mood almost perfectly. But it has nothing to do with Lupe. Ok, he’s not bombastic and so, that makes him palatable. It’s the overwhelming brilliance of the production that makes this album one of the best of the year. And that’s saying a lot when it’s in spite of the MC.

I get what he’s trying to do, I do. I just don’t enjoy listening to him as an emcee, but I do think he’s got a voice that hip-hop desperately needs. I just liked him more when he made skateboard songs and when it was a bit more accessible to the masses. Right now, the only kids who’ll listen to him are the ones that would’ve done it regardless and to me..that’s not a good thing.

But who am I to judge?