Drogas Wave

Lupe’s seventh studio album, Drogas Wave, serves as the second record in the “Drogas” trilogy. In some ways, this record represents “peak” Lupe. In several interviews in 2018, Lupe describes a conceptual record that discusses a group of mythical African slaves who are thrown overboard during the middle passage, but do not drown. These subsequent survivors become a supernatural force that sinks slave ships. To an extent, as the larger themes of the record emerge, conceptually Lupe is not only telling a literal tale of what he calls “The Long Chains”, it is also a metaphor to think about the surviving descendants of those Africans (in no way, to be clear, am I implying he is aligning with the ADOS or FBA movements). Recurring themes of black excellence and plight are throughout the record and experiential storytelling and parables exist.

Regardless of where Lupe may be in his career or interests at any given moment, what continually shows up and remains is his concern and love of Black people and his community. He often serves his sharpest words, both in craft and rebuke for these subjects. Be it about violence self-inflicted and structurally, or about habits and behaviors, Lupe’s social critique often is around the historical social conditions of black people. It's no surprise that in the current political climate of defunding the police, the rise of white supremacy via the Trump years and the ongoing trauma of dealing with state violence via the police that Lupe would draw so much focus to the subject.

The overarching narrative of the “Long Chains” can be heard on "Wav Files" and "Down" respectively. Songs such as “Gold vs. The Right Thing to Do”, and "Manilla" directly attack the morality of slavery through first and third person storytelling respectively. Similar to "Tetsuo & Youth" the interludes are used to almost signal “acts” in the record bookending a suite of songs with similar themes. Drogas Wave moves to personal narratives and broader social critique in the second and third acts with songs such as "King Nas" (a song dedicated to his Nephews) and “Jonylah Forever ‘’ and “Alan forever”.

In particular, "Jonylah" and "Alan Forever" work in several ways. Both songs refer to young children that die at the hands of violence.

Jonylah, by a stray bullet meant for her father, due to him allegedly being involved in a home theft, and Alan, a young boy who died during the immigration crisis that occurred in Europe during 2015. Lupe takes the license of imagining what it would mean if both children didn’t have an untimely demise, describing what their lives and by extension, the world might have looked like had they survived.

“Alan” begins with him telling us, that he was just: holding my breath

Blue shorts, red shirt, how I’m dressed

I look fresh, and I feel

Bleeeeeeeeeeessed

Then proceeds to humble brag about his swimming prowess, the irony that the “real” Alan died escaping from Syria hoping to reach Turkey via the Mediterranean. By the second verse, he’s grown to be an Olympic-level swimmer and in a twist, ends up saving a young boy from drowning at the beach.

Now entering that Canadian Olympic swimming team

And those medals are just glistening, so gold

So cold, yeah

And Alan did the most, all those world records he broke

That’s why his nickname is the lifeguard and my God is he dope

Michael Phelps cannot believe it even though he is his coach

He might be the next Steve Zissou, or maybe Jacques Cousteau

Where he saw that little boy, go and fall off of that boat

So he jumped off in that water swam him right back to the shore

Now ain’t that wild, crowd goes wild

Little boy scared so the child won’t smile

So Alan get a towel to dry him off and wipe him down

Put an ice cream out, that’s more his style

Father runs down that beach

Sees his son just playin’ in the sand

Hugs Alan who says he’s a brave little man

Walk away little boy, turns around and waves his hand

Call Jonylah say, “Guess what I did today?

Got my rescue on saved a kid today

Had my wet suit on and my fins today

Even taught him next time how to swim away”

You should really feel good that you gave your help

Might get you into heaven, might raise your health

Might get a lot of blessings, might

In this revised history of Alan’s life, not only is he a hero and an Olympian, but he and Jonylah are even connected and happy. The final line of the song “Bet you ain’t even know that you saved yourself” creates a sad irony as a what if.

On “Jonylah” we have Lupe as the narrator of this alternative timeline of her life.

How ‘bout them bullets ain’t slow you up?

You ain’t really died and we watched you grow up

At 12 months you took your first steps

Awkwardly across the kitchen floor to your best

Your first breaths that we can call words

Were in your father’s lap on November 23rd

And they were, “Live for me”, and he did for you

Flipped to Neutron and stayed inside the crib for you

And this commitment from your father

Imparted a deep sense of value you forever harbor

We were all so proud as we seen you getting smarter

And the bond grow deeper between a mother and a daughter

Cause you were not a martyr

(You live)

Lupe even includes her father “staying inside” to “live for her”. This implication that had the father of Jonylah not been in the streets committing petty thefts and he also being the victim of revenge she might have lived and this being one of the possible outcomes of it.

The second and third verse has Lupe recounting her progress, year by year, grade by grade, with her father a strong influence and supporter the entire way. Her life is a fulfilling one as she becomes a scholar living a happy life. Similar to Alan, her living results in her becoming a heroine saving a young child that is a victim of a stray bullet outside of the free clinic she runs (after refusing to work a high paying medical job away from the community she grew up in).

Accepted by every medical school you applied

But the coolest thing is when they offered you that high paying slot, you replied

“They need me in the hood,” and that’s where you reside

Free clinic, nobody denied And that’s where you heard the shots and quickly ran outside

And saw a man and a van and a bleeding baby in his hands

Fading fast, but you knew she could survive

Did everything you could to keep this girl alive

Stabilized until the ambulance arrived

And in that moment, where you gave your help

I bet you didn’t know that you saved yourself

Because of her medical expertise her direct intervention in this tragedy resulted in saving the baby’s life. As in "Alan" the final line gives the clue that in Lupe’s reality the child that both Alan and Jonylah are saving are themselves. For Lupe, both deaths were senseless, and maybe if the world was different could’ve been avoided, he uses his imagination to give us the possibility of what that would have been like.

"Drogas Light" as a concept speaks to the power of resilience and survival. As always, Lupe’s songs offer alternative views and perspectives on issues that he feels are deeply important and critical to the people he loves and what he himself struggles with.

What has contributed to Lupe’s longevity and cult-like fandom is that he does so while musically showing a wide range of influence, and, since Lasers, cultivating a very direct connection to his audience. Considering seven albums and counting, not to mention several mixtapes and various guest appearances, Lupe is the rare artist that has forged a career long enough to experiment, thrive, and fulfill the promise of his immense talent.

From his introduction, through to the present, what Lupe has represented is an artist who sees the world differently than his peers and has been unafraid and unrelenting in fighting to speak to the world on his terms. As he’s grown, so have the ideas and circumstances that inspire him to create, but none of those things stray far from his blackness, his Chicagoan roots or his ongoing crusade to balance the Food & Liquor that we all partake in.