According to Chicago rapper Lupe Fiasco, where Food & Liquor II may have lacked any big name features, his upcoming album, Tetsuo & Youth, will likely make up for the lack of features on his last LP.
Lupe rattled off the list of guest features on Tetsuo & Youth during an interview with DJ Whoo Kid, and among the artists he says are currently featured on the album are Rick Ross, Big K.R.I.T. and Trae Tha Truth.
While speaking on the artists featured on his upcoming project, the Windy City emcee says he chose to recruit the artists mentioned to prove that his circle doesn’t consist of “a bunch of nerds and lames.”
“The one thing that I did do on this album, which I was hesitant to do on my last album, was I opened up my feature box,” Lupe said. “So, I got Rick Ross on the album. But I got Rick Ross and Big K.R.I.T. on the same song. I got a joint called ‘Chopper.’ I got my man Billy Blue on there. I got Yung Buk from Psychodrama. Not Young Buck from G-Unit. The OG Yung Buk from Psychodrama is on there. My man Trouble Trouble is on there. My man Glasses Malone is on there. My man Family is on there. Who else is on that joint? It’s like six niggas on there. My man Trae Tha Truth is on there. But it’s like real dudes that I know in the industry…It’s like ‘Yo, let’s do a record.’ Cause these people don’t think that it’s Gs in my circle. They think it’s like a bunch of nerds and lames running around. So, let me just do a little something to show these niggas I got a few, few hitters in my crew.”
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After speaking on Tetsuo & Youth, both Lupe and DJ Whoo Kid spoke on the introduction of the hipster rapper and the lack of backpack rappers. During the conversation, Lupe revealed that there still are backpack rappers out there and even cited Joey Bada$$, who recently expressed his frustration with being pigeonholed as a 90s rapper, and Pro Era as a group of artists who represent the backpacker niche.
“Nah, they still there,” Lupe said. “I think you got like Pro Era and Joey Bada$$ and his whole crew. Like for me they keeping that backpack—that grimy, high school, Timberlands. To me, when I look at a crew I look at people who doing it today who have that kind of essence of the ’90s. What I grew up [in]. What I grew up rapping as and rapping towards. I always go back to Joey and kids who nice, but still got like a certain authenticity about themselves.”
With Tetsuo & Youth scheduled for release next year, Lupe recently promoted the album thanks to his “Tetsuo & Youth Preview Tour,” which concluded earlier this month. Since the announcement of Tetsuo & Youth at the top of the year, Lupe has previewed a handful of tracks on the album and recently spoke on the project being less political than past albums.
“It ain’t gonna be a party album…I did like the first interview for the album, I think it was either with Rolling Stone or Billboard, and just told them like, you know, on purpose there’s no politics on the record,” Lupe said during an interview with 97.9 The Box. “I feel like people—I’ve said what I had to say and people replied how they had to reply.”
RELATED:Lupe Fiasco’s “Tetsuo & Youth” To Feature Big K.R.I.T.
