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As of right now there are only five more days for Lupe Fiasco to (kick) push back his record’s release date. Between him and Rhymefest, Chicago’s pretty much got the lock on delayed hip-hop gratification. Both of them managed to squander more heat than most rappers will ever earn, and in Lupe’s case it seems like that’s directly proportional to his inability to deal with the Internet. Lupe Fiasco’s Food and Liquor was set to drop back in June, which would’ve given the album the chance to ride the buzz generated by his verse on Kanye’s “Touch the Sky” and his own single “Kick Push.” But then the Internet fucked up his whole game. The album got leaked in an unfinished state, Lupe freaked, and while he was back in the booth reworking the record for a fresh drop his market was soaking up file-shared and bootlegged copies of the original. His hype meter was ticking down.
Meanwhile, Lupe’s record isn’t on the charts because it’s not out, at least not officially. It takes all of a few seconds of searching to download a copy of the album that will be released next Tuesday–maybe.
