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- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
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Mar 10, 2011Lasers offers more substance when the reins are loosened.
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Mar 7, 2011Lasers is more an indictment of the state of mainstream rap than anything. This is the absolute worst-case scenario of what can happen when commerce is placed above art, and in this instance it's especially offensive because Lupe is someone who doesn't need to bend over backward to be accessible.
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Mar 4, 2011Only traces of Lupe Fiasco's greatness are present on Lasers, and even then he sounds less focused.
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Mar 28, 2011Save for the brief reprieves of the barbed, anti-everything 'Words I Never Said' and the historical rewrite of 'All Black Everything', Lasers walks a fine line between conscious hip-hop and sleepwalking.
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Mar 9, 2011Lasers is an expressive album, more so than his previous records.
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Mar 23, 2011So the political nails are hidden deeply enough in the candy that sometimes it's hard to tell whether the juxtaposition is truly bracingly subversive or oddly self-defeating. Depending on your mood or disposition, maybe it's neither, either or both. A musical Rorschach test if there ever was one.
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Mar 21, 2011There is no doubt that the first half of the album is where the "money" is – a top-heavy reflection of pop-muscle tracks where Lupe is generally playing second fiddle to the beats/choruses. That would have fine if the Chicago native had been allowed to go all out and express himself on the other six tracks, more akin to "All Black Everything" so you may well find yourself stalling after "The Show Goes On."
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Mar 11, 2011Lupe's half-assed, club-ready radicalism is ultimately the most frustrating thing about Lasers, and not just because it provides numerous and obvious examples of rap's self-styled emancipator consorting with his avowed enemies.
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Mar 7, 2011Lasers works best when the grabby hooks, electro beats, and conscious rap rants are all turned down a notch.
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Mar 8, 2011Instead of retaining his distinctiveness, as mainstream rap has become more like Lupe, so he's begun to sound more like everyone else on Lasers
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Mar 7, 2011Now it's here, and it's a bit of a letdown.
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Mar 8, 2011Lasers is a chaotic album full of gummy rhymes that look better on the page than they sound to the ear, delivered with a tone of tragic bombast.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 74 out of 152
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Mixed: 43 out of 152
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Negative: 35 out of 152
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Mar 8, 2011
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Mar 8, 2011
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Mar 12, 2011