Before the World Cup, in a move that startled many, and led others to an almost impossible state of apathy, the U.S. Men's National Team announced Lupe Fiasco as the team's music director.
Why did they do this, you ask? Simple: because, that's why. And why do we bring this up? Because Lupe's new album, Tetsuo and Youth, dropped on Tuesday. We haven't heard it yet, but we're sure it's good.
We, personally, are in favor of Lupe Fiasco. We think he is a nice young man and a fine rapper, a bright light in today's sea of hip-hop darkness, where mediocrity and grandiose bragging (lying) abound. A sea of darkness where the disabled kid from Degrassi and this person can call themselves rappers — and be called rappers by other people — with all involved keeping a straight face. But we are rambling here, and must get back to Lupe.
Yes, we like Lupe Fiasco, but we had some concerns about his appointment. Naming Lupe Fiasco as music director was a shrewd P.R. move, to be sure, but as far as we know Lupe has no soccer background to speak of.
As far as we can tell, Lupe's only contributions as music director were to create a World Cup playlist - which you can see here - and make this song, which is, if we are being completely honest, not Lupe's best effort.
Lupe (and, again, we love Lupe) filled his playlist with the sort of rah-rah drivel that is used at every single sporting event in the United States. Seven Nation Army, really? And Lose Yourself, really? Seven Nation Army and Lose Yourself are fine songs, quality works of art. But, seeing that they have already polluted every other sport to a degree that makes us want to vomit on our sweater already, Mom's spaghetti, they should stay the hell away from soccer.
"This aggression will not stand, man," as a great man once said.
Also, the irony of including the song All I Do Is Win in a playlist meant to pump people up before a game against the team that knocked the U.S. out of the last two World Cups has not been lost on us here at The18. Never mind the fact that Cobrastyle, by the Teddybears, which should be on every soccer playlist until the end of time, was omitted. This playlist was just egregious. Come on, Lupe. You could have done better.
Whew. This was supposed to be a lighthearted article about how U.S. Soccer made Lupe Fiasco its music director for the 2014 World Cup and it turned into a bit of a rant, so for that we apologize. Listen to Lupe's playlist. There's some good (if generic) stuff in there.
@SamKlomhaus
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