29 Days of Lupe Fiasco: Lethal Injection

This track is so on point it’s crazy, we know that. While most would claim “HHSML” to be a positive, uplifting song, I’ve always thought it was also a diss song to Southern music.

The diss isn’t subliminal at all. Lupe describes a Houston artist. He starts off with “I write what I see (C)” meaning that he only describes what he sees and is not creative. Seeing does not involve any introspection which is usually vacant with Southerners. “Cause everybody in the studio was like that's that heat”, um, yeah too many yes men are present. The hook is straight mocking simplistic hooks; “Stack that cheese” is what 36 Mafia or Lil Wil (“My Doughie”) be doing. Of course he couldn’t think of nothing so “writers block impedes”. Caddys don’t make a great MC. How many “Rappers” have I seen with 1100 friends? Way too many. How many “Wipe Me Down” blends have I heard from unheard of artists trying to get on? Too many. And the fact that the radio played it two times and are about to crown it as the “best” is hilariously true. The last two lines make it all come together, “Man it feels good when it happens like that/Two days from goin back to selling crack, yes sir.” This artist was never talented or even worked on his skills. He took rapping as a hustle and it rarely works that way. It happens, shit see Jeezy etc. but think of all of the unheard of cats from every city in the U.S. that are 29 and that have dabbled in rap and are nowhere. The percentage of making it is slim.

Then of course the track is inspiring. This rapper is trying to uplift himself with music, legality. He can’t wait to buy his girl everything but the mannequin, help his homies with lawyers fees and raise his kid in a decent economic condition/environment. The details Lupe uses shows how this rapper is struggling, grinding and has baggage. He doesn’t have a car or any money for beats and is the open mic champ for two weeks in a row. All he wants to do is chunk a deuce and politic, what’s wrong with that?

“HHSML” depicts the nature of someone trying to make it. There are no positives or negatives—just realities. There are obstacles hindering this rapper’s success. Some of it is his own doing: he can’t rap; and some of it his environment: the family is jailed and mom is slaving away at Minute Maid. He’s trying to make scratch any way he can. He figures that putting together a hot track is all that’s needed. The reality is, is that’s not how it always works. Lupe gives these scrappers hope; Scrappy and Mike Jones are just doing what they know and trying to get their families out the hood. Not everyone makes it. And if you’re spending your time talking guns and cars, sooner or later you’ll morph into that irreversible state. Furthermore, if you do make it, just making 1 million dollars ain’t going to do shit, with all the Bentleys and chains and things (see: "Mo Money, Mo Problems"). There’s no progression, you’ll be stupid and rich and those things don’t jive. Hip-Hop doesn't actually save lives. It does ruin them though and create false hopes.