DETAILED EXPLANATION OF LUPE FIASCO’S TETSUO & YOUTH lyrics

--- After listening to Lupe’s new album, Tetsuo & Youth, multiple times, I specifically want to begin this analysis by getting into the album’s last portion which ran from the season of Winter to Spring. Note that there is a lot of religious content that was referenced in this time period; I will get into all that later
--- The season started with “Chopper” and a lot of people are wondering why a song like "Chopper" is on the album. Well, you can't just get into a song like "Deliver" without giving an example of WHY the pizza man won't come to the ghetto. That is why “Chopper" is there. It's a hood ass trap song with features from rappers that purposefully spit their verses from the perspective of the killers, drug dealers, and the gangstas that live in the trap
--- Moving onto “Deliver,” like I said, this song shows the results of what went down in “Chopper" and the reasons behind not delivering pizza to the hood. If we look at the main line from the hook, "Pizza man don’t come here no more,” it contains a triple entendre: firstly, the forefront meaning is that the pizza can’t be delivered to such dangerous locations; secondly, the PEACE-of man doesn’t come there no more, and this is similar to the first meaning because there is violence that is preventing the pizza man from delivering the pizza; this all goes back to “Chopper” and how the absence of peace stirs up the controversy; thirdly, the piece-of MAN doesn’t come there no more. This one ties into the next song, “Madonna (And other mothers of the hood),” because the piece-of MAN not being there is referring to the father figures that are absent while their child grows up without them. With no father figure, the child will live his life without an example to follow or know what is right from wrong, so there are significant chances that he’ll be sucked into the hood activities such as drug dealing and gang affiliations, which will eventually lead to the mother's concern for her child’s well being
--- With all the information thus far, I think it’s time to start pointing out some religious references. Firstly, Madonna in other words is another name for Virgin Mary, who was the mother of Jesus Christ who never had a blood related father. Similarly to how Mary feared Jesus’s prosecution, the last thing that the mothers of the hood want are to see their sons die before their very eyes, but at the end of the song, referencing to the movie Boyz In Da Hood, the child lied dead in his mom’s house just like Ricky in the movie, much like how Mary was in attendance at Jesus’s crucifixion
--- The next song, “The Adoration of the Magi,” contains a significant amount of video game references that foreshadow two things: The Game, and the next song which he appears in, “They.Resurrect.Over.New." This song is speaking about a Magi, or a king from old times. In this song, the Magi is played by The Game. For those who are not familiar with The Game's background, he can be described as someone that controls everything in the evilest of ways, and this song is almost a continuation of the song he appeared in from The Cool, “Put You On Game,” which was rapped primarily from The Game's perspective with lyrics from that song that go, "I’m sure somebody'll find you tied up in this bag behind the hospital, little baby crack addicts had, then maybe you can grow up to be a stripper.” This song, “Adoration of the Magi” continues the baby theme in the chorus as it uses other artist’s albums that had babies on the covers (Ready to Die, Carter 3, NWTS, Illmatic, etc.) to symbolize that they they are too young to be on a rap cover, but that is why the Game adores them so much and is interested in the youth. That is why he made his reappearance to this album because the main theme of the whole album is about our youth and that is who he is interested in (Which Lupe has stated numerous times in his interviews if people were wondering. That’s where we get the title of the album with a little flair with Tetsuo in front of it). Towards the last line of this song, it becomes clear that the baby grew up to be a stripper just like The Game suggested and she is even having her own child too but doesn’t know it; this is why she is wanted by the game, or “adored by the magi.”
--- Religiously speaking, the Adoration of the Magi story has to do with the 3 western kings that lived centuries ago. They followed a star and found the whereabouts of Jesus where they presented him with gifts. This event happened on Jan. 6 which marks the same day Lupe released this song
--- Now that we have went over the 3 singles for this album (Madonna, Deliver, Adoration of the Magi), it’s about the time we can discuss a vital point that Lupe tweeted, he said, “What if I told you that Madonna Delivered the Adoration of the Magi?” Here’s were things get even crazier. From a religious perspective, "Madonna (Virgin Mary) Delivered the Adoration of The Magi (Jesus)." If we look at the phrase from a hood perspective, he is saying, “Madonna (and other mothers of the hood) Delivered the Adoration of The Game (strippers, gangstas, drug dealers, killers).”
--- Leading into the next song, They.Resurrect.Over.New. will probably have the listener wondering why there are so many video game references, well the answer is simple. If this album is about the Youth, then what other way would be better to portray The Game in front of the youth’s eyes? To a grown man, The Game is the drug game, strip clubs, war zones, etc., but to a baby, The Game is just simply a video game to them. In this song, Lupe said things like “we should be closer” and that is a direct message to the ghetto because his people are killing each other in there. Ab-Soul continues the Game theme by saying, “Trapped in a game where, the trap is The Game, yeah.” And the only way to get past The Game is to “Proceed to the next level” which is telling the youth to not fall into the hands of The Game and end up as the killers that make up Chi-raq, or the strippers that make up the strip clubs, or the drug dealers that make up the drug game. Rather the point of proceeding to the next level is to break away from the shackles, or like Ab-Soul’s last line, “Unloose the Noose.” That is the only way to crush the hood stereotypes
--- That is about it for the story, but there is still the concept of the seasons that go on throughout the album that seem really random. Lupe described them as palette cleaners to give the listener soothing breaks throughout the album, but it is even more. Notice how in winter, there are no kids on the streets and you get a chilly, eerie feeling from the sounds playing? That was the mood set for Chopper to symbolize that there are no kids on the street during that time. This is why Lupe wants his people to proceed to the next level so they can finally put an end to the violence that Choppers bring. That way the pizza man can Deliver to the hood again, the kids can play on The Streets again and ultimately, so The Game can be abolished. Why else would Lupe have a music video for Deliver where a kid has to go out of his way into a nice neighborhood to receive something that can't be brought to his parts? That is the lesson that Lupe is trying to teach. You can't just sit inside all day messing around with The 'Video' Game. You have to eventually get out so it won't end up controlling you, which is the true meaning of proceeding to the next level. In reference to pizza, you can't wait for things to be Delivered to you, sometimes you have to go out of your way to obtain them
--- Finally, we arrive at the last track of the album, Spring. This is an outro filled with cheers and fireworks that signify the end of a truly incredible album. If listened closely, the sounds of the kids can be heard once again meaning the violence has came to a halt. Obviously this is not the case in real life so could this be an alternate dimension where things are different? Furthermore, why are there no songs between Spring and Summer? When you go to repeat the album, it's like a whole chunk of it is missing. Did Lupe leave out a couple months on purpose? Maybe he is trying to say whatever takes place after Spring is for the youth to decide since they're the future. What they choose to do from there is up to them whether they want to stay in the ghetto forever or want to leave one day. It’s up them to decide what happens next. On a side note, Lupe didn't want this album to have a deluxe version, maybe for the reason that it would divert the listeners attention from the inner meaning. He may have truly intended for there to be no song between Spring and Summer so the Deluxe users wouldn't replay the album and get distracted by the bonus tracks
--- Like Lupe said in his interview with Sway, it may take years upon years for this album concept to be fully digested and respected for what it is. He said it may even take 100 years, and here is the reason why. If this album is about the Youth growing up and the ghetto's making peace one day, then the day that happens will also be the same day Tetsuo & Youth will be looked at as a masterpiece. This was the point of the video for Deliver. That video summed up the whole entire album. Lupe was trying to show that unless true peace is formed among the ghettos, then that is the picture they'll be left with forever. It's practically asking the question, if you can't respect yourselves, how can you expect others to respect you? And it's not only them, the youth has to pay for their elders mistakes and the unfairness of not getting a pizza will fall upon them as a child, then other factors will eventually come into play like they'll quit going to school and they'll remain in the hood selling dope for their whole life, so the point is, until their role models can spark the change, the cycle will never end
---In conclusion, this was a summary of the last 5-7 tracks of Tetsuo & Youth. If you read this far, I hope you have a better understanding of the album's concept and the season’s meaning and message. #FNFUP #T&Y #DROGAS

P.S. If you listen to the album in reverse, it's basically a doc*mentary of Lupe's life thus far and a message for what's to come