Billboard: The deathbed of Hip-Hop We hear a lot about how Hip-Hop -the revolutionary art of rebellion that was born to lend voice to the voiceless and a platform to their objections- has drawn its last breath. I don’t quite agree with that; it might be fair to say that hip-hop is troubled it but certainly not dead as there are many artists who have still remained sincere to the values that the pioneers of hip-hop had built it upon. It is thanks to them that hip-hop has not yet lost its soul and is alive …somewhere, in the underground maybe, just not on the radio. Hip-hop’s defining feature has always been about the lyrics but with lyricism disappearing from mainstream hip-hop and giving place to marketable materialism, most worshippers of …show more content…
In addition to that, beginning the verse by “I’m fearless” places him in a position of power where he fears no one and nothing which is advantageous to Lupe as it helps develop in the listeners a sense of respect for him therefore encouraging them to lend an ear with an open mind to what Lupe has in store for them. In the beginning of the first verse, the rapper reiterates his senses deficiencies which are all symbolic to his lack of sense to what the critics say about his songs and lyrics. He says that he is “earless” meaning he doesn’t listen to the criticism about the complexity of his lyrics and its controversial content which fail to appeal to the mainstream. He goes on to mention that he is “eyeless” and “peerless” to further imply that he is blind to criticism aimed his way. The word “Peerless” marks Lupe’s first of many uses of double entendre in this song and besides conveying the idea that he is not capable to see, it can be interpreted as him having no peers which in other words means that no one is on his level in the “rap game”. This is also the first of Lupe’s numerous instances of bragging on this track. Lupe says that …show more content…
He believes that Lupe should avoid being too lyrical and put effort into appealing to the mainstream public by talking about less philosophical and debatable topics in order to be “popping in the streets” or “winning awards”. However, the rapper changes his stance at the end of the third hook and instead of trying to convince Lupe to dumb his lyrics down tries to feature him on a track. This admire for Lupes style and hope for collaboration with him is further made clear in the first outro where the rapper gives Lupe his contact information (“here’s my main”) and that the rapper will stand by Lupe’s side no matter what other people say (“fuck what my boys’ll talk about”). This is because Lupe is too “hot to him” that the rapper is ready to put aside “his boys” for him. This switching of teams is a representation of the idea that most mainstream rappers deep down know that Lupe is better than they are and wish that they were on his level, but tend to keep it to themselves. But not for too long, as Lupe believes that eventually the very people who tell him to dumb it down will admit Lupe’s talents and will join him on his journey of keeping hip-hop