Jesse James
Way back in 2006, Lupe Fiasco served up his debut album, Food & Liquor. The album was and still is, something special, littered with exceptional material. However, before delivering the project, the wordsmith recorded a track entitled “Hey Lupe.” The track has been locked away in the vaults, essentially since being recorded. It quietly resurfaced on the 2010 Vintage Fiasco tape, though there was no sign of life from “Hey Lupe” moving forward.
Well, this week, Charles “Chill” Patton, co-founder of Lupe’s 1st & 15th label, put together a package of three songs. The tacks included the previously-released “Gametime” and “Run Game” singles with the official “Hey Lupe” recording s well. Chill spoke about the track recently with The FADER. He stated: “I vividly remember the day Lupe recorded this song.” Chill went on to say, “I got the beat from the producer and played it twice for Lu while we were riding in a white Suburban, 20 minutes later we made it to the studio, and he immediately went in and knocked out the whole song — verses, hook, adlibs, etc.” He continued, “It was natural for him, but not so natural for me to see this, and I had been around some of the greats. This is when I knew he was a Monster!! It’s been in the vaults for many years, and now we are excited to share it with his fans.”
“Hey Lupe”
The track finds Lupe rapping: “They should break in the company and take him in custody For takin sumthin so basic and makin it uppity So publicly so what if he hold something so stubbornly So grudgingly up in here for something that he does so lovingly.” Now, after nearly fifteen years since being recorded, we get to check out the track for ourselves.
Press play on “Hey Lupe” in the stream below and enjoy it. In the meantime, be sure to keep it locked with The Culture Curators for more new music and check out the latest installment of our weekly playlist, ‘A Curation of Sound.’
