Letting Go

 Lupe Fiasco's new album Lasers

       When Lupe Fiasco was asked about his recent song, Letting Go, he said:"It’s my declaration of independence from the clutches of the record industry, the blogs, the fans, the press, the lifestyle." Like many rappers, Lupe Fiasco had a hard time dealing with fame. "My self portrait shows a man that the wealth tortured", Lupe Fiasco says in his song, so now he is trying to let go of his lifestyle. There are many rap songs about mainstream rappers looking back at their previous selves and wondering whether their previous self would have thought that he had done good. In this song, in different verses, Lupe is talking to himself, as if he has two different egos in two different verses. The reason I like this song is because of the lines in his song that really makes me think.

        My favorite line in Letting Go  is "I don't get high. Life keep me at a decent height." This could be deciphered to be saying that he doesn't get high off marijuana anymore, but I interpret it as him not being able to become high off of life anymore, and he always stays at the same level. I think that is a very powerful thing to say because it makes me think about what fame can do to you. What if you get to a certain point where you cannot experience the emotion of elation anymore? I think that is a big downside to being famous, you cannot enjoy the small things in life anymore and I think that is why Lupe Fiasco felt the urge to rap about letting go of his lifestyle. I think what he's saying in Letting Go is that he wants to enjoy himself again. 

        I like to think of this song as if fame is a drug and him letting go is trying to stop using the drug. Many people in the world are suffering from trying to stop taking some kind of drugs, whether it's literally drugs, or something like it such as alcohol or cutting yourself. I think that it is an important message to spread, no matter what you're letting go from. "Let me in and let me go.  So I can roam around this wilderness. See it for what it really is." The message is to let go from what's holding you down. I think this is a very important message to spread.