BEST NEW TRACKS: LUPE FIASCO “DELIVER”

Lupe Fiasco cares a lot about pizza, you guys, as his cool new song “Deliver” attests.

Ok, I gotta be real with you guys, this song is only partially about pizza delivery. The hook does refer to this sacred act, but the song is really about how some pizza chains don’t deliver to the ghetto due to safety concerns. He does not point the finger at Pizza Hut or that f*ck boy Papa John. Instead he lays the blame exactly where it should go: at the feet of white people who created the ghettos. (If you disagree with that statement, kindly read up on white flight and red-lining and get back to me.)

The most devastating line comes from the second verse:

“The ghetto was a physical manifestation/ Of hate in a place where ethnicity determines your placement/ A place that defines your station”

I’m not sure why he uses the past tense “was.” Maybe now we’ve moved to a place where ghettos are just about low income and not race? Who’s to say, this song is tremendous and tremendously powerful regardless.

LUPE FIASCO “DELIVER”

“Deliver” is off Lupe’s excellent new album, Tetsuo & Youth, out now thanks to Atlantic.

Thanks for stopping by Bitcandy, where we’re usually not this heavy-handed.

About Calvin Paradise

Calvin Paradise manages to live a productive life despite a childhood of home schooling and suffering from what some doctors have called the worst case of Groucho Marx's Syndrome in recorded history.