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Food & Liquor
by Lupe Fiasco


9.2

based on 20 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 86 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album

The Cool

Official Artist Site

Championed by Jay-Z and Kanye West, the Chicago MC finally makes his full-length debut with this 16-track disc.

LABEL:	Atlantic
RELEASE DATE:	19 September 2006
DISCS:	1 disc
GENRE(S):	Rap

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

The Onion (A.V. Club)

By boldly expanding the parameters of mainstream hip-hop, Fiasco's threatening to make rap a welcoming place for geeks and iconoclasts as well as pimps and thugs.

MSN Consumer Guide (Robert Christgau)

Though I wish the beats were less corny-orchestral, Fiasco marks his own turf in a three-song sequence that would have led the second side back in the day. [Feb/Mar 2007]

RapReviews.com

Being bold and different for Lupe pays off right from the jump.

Slant Magazine

Food & Liquor is one of the year's fresher efforts and future classics.

Prefix Magazine

Food & Liquor is the best hip-hop album of 2006.

cokemachineglow

There is not a bad verse on it.

Entertainment Weekly

A messy, ambitious CD by a deeply thoughtful MC. [6 Oct 2006, p.71]

PopMatters

The album might not become a rap classic, but it is easily one of the best rap albums of 2006, and maybe one of the top records of any kind to appear this year.

Uncut

While Food & Liquor struggles with its own contradictions, it does so over scorching beats and with lyrical flair. [Dec 2006, p.113]

Mojo

One of the albums of the year. [Dec 2006, p.120]

Rolling Stone

It's full of surprising, creative moments that recall Nas and Kanye West.

All Music Guide

Food & Liquor just might be the steadiest and most compelling rap album of 2006.

Village Voice

As for that perpetual hip-hop debate as to whether an MC is better served by his beats or his words, the Chicago rapper is deft enough in both arenas that you could carry these lyrics around in your head for days... while message boards light up with claims that hip-hop's first truly great instrumental album lies embedded somewhere in all this.

Pitchfork

Where Fiasco misses classic status is his sonic approach.

Stylus Magazine

Fiasco is actually an absolutely dazzling emcee and a genuinely nuanced personality, and both of these things are incredibly rare in hip-hop in 2006.

Playlouder

It's not quite the second coming or even the first for that matter, but 'Food & Liquor' should leave you feeling sated and occasionally elated.

The New York Times

There are few weak tracks on this beautifully quiet album, but there is no truly irresistible beat either. [18 Sep 2006]

New Musical Express

All in all, this is merely promising rather than masterful. [14 Oct 2006, p.35]

Dot Music

Cut out vague Shindoa track, "The Instrumental", tired Gunter Kallmann Choir-retread "Daydreamin'" and the offerings here that are marred by warbled soul harmonies - consistently added as afterthoughts to choruses - and this would be perfect.

Observer Music Monthly

His orchestral Kanye-meets-Nas muse lacks originality.

The average user rating for this album is 9.2 (out of 10) based on 86 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

jordan r gave it a10:
This is the best hip hop album ever created. Number 1 on my top ten hip hop albums of all time and shortly followed by the cool. It's hard to decide whether the cool or food and liquor is better but I'd have to go with food and liquor only because nobody in the history of the genre has ever put out such an extraordinary piece on a debut album. I still listen to the album the entire way through at least once a week and it's been over 2 years.

Edgar M gave it a10:
This is without a doubt the best rap album in the last 15 years! Lupe definitely gives Jay-Z, Nas, Eminem, Common, Kanye and all the other rappers in the game a run for there money in terms of being a story-teller and poet. Great, great album.

Ollie H gave it a7:
Better than most mainstream hip-hop, but it's by no means perfect, and there are much more skillful and innovative artists out there.

Rex gave it a10:
Probably, one of the best albums in the last 10 years or so. This guy has a tremendous future ahead of him.

Shay gave it a10:
One of the best debuts I've heard by anyone in a long, long time. Full of brilliant songs.

A C gave it a10:
Great, great album. Probably, the best album of it's kind since Jay-Z's "The Blueprint".

Eric J gave it a10:
This will go down as one of the best hip-hop albums of all-time.

Food & Liquor by Lupe Fiasco

Food & Liquor
by Lupe Fiasco