Lupe Fiasco allowed the spirit of the late Amy Winehouse to take control for his latest body of work.
On Friday, June 28, the Chicago spitta delivered his ninth studio album Samurai via 1st & 15th/Thirty Tigers. The eight-track project, led by the title track and his previous single "Cake," is executive produced by Soundtrakk and is inspired by the deceased British singer's passion for Hip-Hop. In an interview with BET, Fiasco said the idea for the project is based on a stand-out scene from her 2015 posthumous documentary Amy. In it, she compared her new lyrics to battle raps crafted by the Wu-Tang Clan.
“What would it be like if she was a battle rapper?" Lupe told BET. "She kind of mentioned it–I don't know the full context of what was going on in her life at the time, and it's just watching the documentary and the way they kind of placed that as she would leave voicemails for her producer. That particular one just had to be related to rap. And initially it just started out as one song, ‘Samurai,’ and then it went into, ‘Well, what if she was in a battle? What would those raps sound like?’”
“I admire her songwriting ability, her tone, her manipulation of different genres," he continued. "I'm a fan of jazz deeper than any other genre. So being a fan of that and how she kind of put her signature on top of it and the depth at how she created has always been fascinating to me, amongst others. There's myriad folks who I look at like that and she's one, and that statement, the voicemail, kind of sparked and gave me some permission, to say, ‘Oh, let me pay that back with a portrait.’”
Lupe said he started cooking up the album a year before he recorded his 2022 LP Drill Music In Zion. During the process, he was able to reconnect with his longtime manager Charles “Chilly” Patton, who was locked up in prison for 20 years before he was released last year. Patton's son Dakari created the album's artwork that envisions Fiasco as an afro-samurai. The album's intro is meant to be an homage to the late singer, but Lupe says the album can relate to *any* artist.
“If I didn't say that the album was inspired by Amy Winehouse, it could be inspired by anybody; it could relate or have some type of reference points from any artist in any field," Lupe explained. "You go through some of the same trials and tribulations, some of the same thought processes, some of the same kind of creative inspirational pieces.”
Listen to Lupe Fiasco's new album Samurai below.