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Zero 7
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.
Food & Liquor
Universal acclaim
Based on 20 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 88 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album >
Album Info
Label: Atlantic
Release Date: 19 September 2006
Discs: 1 disc
Genre(s): Rap
Summary
Championed by Jay-Z and Kanye West, the Chicago MC finally makes his full-length debut with this 16-track disc.
Also By This Artist: The Cool
Also On The Web: Official Artist Site
What The Critics Said
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...
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.
Read Full Review >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]
Slant Magazine
Food & Liquor is one of the year's fresher efforts and future classics.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >All Music Guide
Food & Liquor just might be the steadiest and most compelling rap album of 2006.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this album is 9.2 (out of 10) based on 88 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
JJ Smoove gave it a10:
Lupe is hip-hop's savior.
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".
