Lupe Fiasco’s Secret Show

Lupe Fiasco
Metro, Chicago
Tuesday, September 19, 2006

At last, Lupe Fiasco’s day has come. On an unseasonably cool September evening, this Chicago-reared MC gathered hundreds of fans for this free “MySpace Secret Show” — one that he initially cancelled due to illness. But after having his long-awaited debut, Food & Liquor, pushed back seven months, there was no way Fiasco could miss the celebration of his official arrival on wax. And so the show went on.

Of course, before Fiasco stepped onstage, some of his 1st and 15th entertainment group affiliates were given their chance to shine at the Metro. First up was Fenom, a testosterone-driven MC who admitted to being about three things: “sex, blunts, and 40s.” While the kid can rap, his insolent stage antics, like pretending the mic was his penis or taking swigs of champagne and spilling it everywhere, left at least half of the crowd jeering. Next up was Shayla G, who came out verbally blasting — although her energy couldn’t make up for an inability to completely find her rhythm ‘til the second song. But before she could really make an impact, she said goodbye and abruptly walked off the stage.

Thankfully the last of Fiasco’s affiliates, Gemini, left more of a lasting impression. This robust-voiced MC/singer kicked things off with a highly telling a cappella about growing up with thugs in an environ where trust was hard to come by. Following his bout in crooning, he dropped a handful tracks of soulful rap, including “Got Whatchu Need,” which displayed Gemini’s ability to drop hard-hitting ‘hood tales with a smoothed-out touch.

Despite Gemini’s strong outing, the crowd had grown a bit restless following his performance. But once Fiasco emerged from backstage, energetically hopping out with his hype man, the mostly teenage crowd went wild. Fiasco shared with fans that he had lost his voice earlier and was hooked up to an IV the same day (he showed off his band-aids to prove it). Fiasco wasn’t making any excuses, though.

From the get-go fans screamed out numerous requests of favorites from his many mixtapes and his freshly released official debut, *Food & Liquor*. Not one to follow tradition, Fiasco kept vinyl out of the picture and had his DJ pretty much just play tracks straight off of a CD. And maybe it was due to his illness, but Fiasco didn’t seem to have any set plan as he took extended breaks between each song, often trying to figure out how to proceed. Then again, this was Fiasco’s party, and he was gonna do what the hell he wanted.

With a mass of family and friends gathering behind him onstage, Fiasco ran through his hit singles like the brisk Pharell-produced “I Gotcha” and pretty much every track from his album. As expected, his breakout skateboarding anthem, “Kick Push,” resonated the loudest with fans. Screams and cheers were also abundant when Fiasco enthusiastically performed his mixtape hits like the Middle Eastern-flavored party joint, “Tilted.”

What was especially impressive about his set, though, was how he brought out many of his collaborators to perform with him, including Chicago-based vocalist Matthew Santos. During Fiasco’s performance of his track about the evils of capitalism, “American Terrorist,” he made his release party as much about guest artists like Santos as he made it about himself. With the bootlegs and every bit of drama Fiasco has endured this year (including a family death), I’m sure it felt good to know the city and much of the hip-hop nation have his back.

— Max Herman

Category: Live Reviews, Weekly