Lupe Fiasco just dropped off his latest studio album Drill Music In Zion, and his dense lyricism became the focal point of an interview with XXL, where he was asked to break down the project’s closer “ON FAUX NEM” where he raps, “How does that transpire?/To be so damned by God you want your friends to be goddamn liars?”
“I wish these n-ggas was liars,” Lupe said, referring to how modern-day drill music often comments on real-life crimes. “I wish that drill shit was entertainment. And I’m not picking on Chicago. It’s all over the world. N-ggas is drilling and killing all over the fucking world. I wish this n-gga wasn’t telling the truth, but they telling the truth. And n-ggas just hear it as entertainment. So, when I heard it, I didn’t hear no fucking entertainment to that shit.
He continued, “When I hear Pop Smoke, I didn’t hear no entertainment to that shit. That shit was fun, it was catchy, but, dang, n-gga. We have a problem in New York. We have a problem in London. We have a problem in L.A. We got a problem in Chicago. We got a problem in Atlanta. We got a problem in Texas. We not supposed to be dancing to the shit, man, you feel me? This is different. And the only reason I care so much is these n-ggas is 13, 14.”
Lupe’s eighth studio album Drill Music In Zion dropped on June 24 and serves as the follow-up to 2018’s Drogas Wave. According to Lupe, the album was recorded in three days and was made entirely on GarageBand with a $100 USB microphone.
“It’s not really about the city,” Lupe told XXL of the project. “Drill music’s everywhere now. We didn’t call it drill music. That’s the name that the new generation gave to gangsta rap. ’Cause it’s the same shit that we been dealing with forever. N-ggas talking about killing other n-ggas on record. Same shit, and n-ggas actually going to do it. People say, ‘Drill music is different ’cause these n-ggas is actually doing it.’ No, they was doing this shit before. N-ggas was dying and shit before.”
Listen to Drill Music In Zion below.