Just over a week after the first installment, Lupe Fiasco has shared "Conversations #2," part of the series with which Lupe wishes to tell the "story of an album," that album being Drogas, the first of three albums he intends to release this year. Similar to the last conversation, the latest audio recording involves Lupe's politically-minded friends and men who sound like important community leaders. Lupe does not speak throughout "Conversations #2," though the themes discussed will likely come into play on Drogas.
Much of the conversation centers on the divide between conscious hip-hop and rap that's inspired by vice. The discussion apparently took place "live on the scene back in 2013," and the participants all seem to agree that, at the time, mainstream hip-hop was dominated by music driven by violence, drug dealing, and drug use. They reflect that it wasn't always this way, as the most prominent gangsta rappers, such as N.W.A., used to counter their most vicious street tracks with more progressively-minded songs (e.g. "Express Yourself").
One man mentions Kendrick Lamar's "Swimming Pools," explaining how most fans hear it as a turn-up track, a response that he feels is contrary to the song's intended message. Accordingly, he implies that fans are somewhat responsible for subverting music that contains a challenging message.
The conversation eventually gets even more political, as the interlocutors compare a consumer's lack of control in the music world to the public's general ignorance of GMOs in the most common of food items. They feel that dialogue is the enemy of the corporations who are responsible for society's docile state. The man whom gets the final word resolvedly says, "If you don't wanna dialogue with us, then we might have to attack you."
