Lupe Fiasco’s new album, “Samurai,” is a portrait of Amy Winehouse as a mythic battle rapper
Wasalu Muhammad Jaco (aka Lupe Fiasco) has been in the game for over 20 years now and he’s been instrumental in shaping and evolving hip hop in that time. That has also meant that Lupe has had to constantly pivot and change.
This is true with his latest album, Samurai, which was released on short notice late last month. The album is based on a very unusual premise: Samurai is a hypothetical scenario in which Amy Winehouse is a battle rapper. The concept isn’t entirely a figment of Lupe’s imagination; it comes from a voicemail Winehouse left for her producer, Salaam Remi, made public via the 2015 documentary Amy.
“I keep coming out with all battle raps — they’re just pouring out of me,” she says in the message. “Wu-Tang stuff — really neat, very beautifully alliterated little battle raps. So next time you wanna come for me and have a battle rap-off, I’m gonna kill you because I’m a samurai.”
