Lupe Fiasco finally has a release date for his upcoming album Tetsuo & Youth after close to two years of waiting on the label. He has released the powerful video for the first official single from the album "Deliver" featuring frequent collaborator, Ty Dolla $ign. Directed by Alex Nazari, the video follows a young boy traveling quite a distance to get out of the "no delivery" zone of Chicago just to get two boxes of pizza (via Complex). It portrays the harsh reality of where Lupe Fiasco grew up on the West Side of Chicago with gangs, drugs and prostitution and how it becomes a ghetto to the outside world who have no desire to enter the neighborhood.
The video just how difficult the little things are, like getting pizza delivered, where one has to get it delivered right outside of the rough neighborhood and then go meet the pizza delivery man there. The absurdity of a kid balancing two large pies of pizza on his bike attempting to ride through the city streets only drives home the point even more.
Lupe delivers the message in a very unapologetic manner, decrying the situation of the ghetto.
Little Caesar's never sendin' pizza out ya'll way
Papa Johns never get delivered where y'all stayed
The Ghetto was a physical manifestation of hate
And a place where ethnicity determines your placement
A place that defines your station
Remind you n----s your place is the basement
White people in the attic
N----s selling dope, White people is the addicts
White folks act like they ain't show us how to traffic
All that dope to China, you don't call that trappin'?
Tetsuo & Youth will be released on Jan. 20 next year via his longtime label Atlantic Records, whom he has had a very strained relationship with. Pre-order the album here.
