[The Tens] The 10 Best Hip Hop Albums Of 2012

Lupe Fiasco – Food & Liquor 2: The Great American Rap Album

To this writer, the Lupe Fiasco we all know and love came back in 2012. Following his dope 2006 debut (the original) Food and Liquor, Lupe dropped two disappointing follow-up albums in The Cool and Lasers. From the cover art to the production to the message, Lupe took it back to basics on Food & Liquor 2, dropping an album not for the charts, but for the himself and for the people. In fact, the release of the album was almost under the cover of darkness, but it proved that substance doesn’t always need to come with flash. Tracks such as “Strange Fruition”, “ITAL (Roses)” and “Battle Scars” and even the outro “Hood Now” highlight a perfect example of this emcee’s resurgence and why Food & Liquor 2 is one of 2012’s best. – Nene Wallace Reed