Chicago based rapper Lupe Fiasco released his fifth studio album, Tetsuo and Youth, last Tuesday.

After an instrumental introduction, Tetsuo and Youth begins with an almost nine-minute marathon track called Mural. The track follows a revived trend in hip-hop of discarding the “hook” or chorus in favor of uninterrupted rap. Though other tracks on the album follow more conventional song form, Fiasco’s ambitious Mural is clearly a bold statement about his lyrical ability and longevity as a performer.

Fiasco has long been one of the most politically outspoken musicians in the entertainment industry. Throughout his career, Fiasco’s raps have dissected matters of social inequality, race relations, consumer culture and also serve as a direct critique of hip-hop music itself.

Growing up in West Side Chicago, Fiasco despised the very music he now creates professionally. He resented the inherent themes of misogyny, violence and materialism that pervaded popular gangster raps. Over time, Fiasco began to appreciate artists like Nas, who posited themselves as intellectual street poets rather than cutthroat gangsters.

However, the young Fiasco experimented with his image by releasing mix tapes which glamorized criminality and gang activity. He became closely involved with Charles “Chilly Chill” Patton, who served as his mentor and financier. As time progressed, Fiasco’s music began to strike a more socially conscious tone.

In 2005, after meeting hip-hop mogul Jay-Z and signing to Atlantic records, Fiasco was catapulted into the mainstream. He rapped a verse on fellow Chicago native Kanye West’s legendary album Late Registration.

Fiasco narrowly avoided trouble with the law in 2007 after Charles “Chilly Chill” Patton was sentenced to 44 years in federal prison for drug trafficking. Having just released his first studio album, Fiasco was implicated in court of being involved with Patton’s illegal activity. He denied the charges and escaped conviction.

He courted controversy in 2011 after referring to President Barack Obama as “the biggest terrorist in the United States.” Though his rhetoric was brazen and ill-suited for the era of the soundbite, Fiasco refused to back down from his statement. He criticized Obama for the hundreds of innocent Middle Eastern people who are inadvertently killed by United States drone strikes every year.

Four years later, Lupe Fiasco has withstood further turbulence to arrive at Tetsuo and Youth. During a candid interview with Sway in the Morning, Fiasco referred to his latest album as a “masterpiece” and commented that it was his greatest work as a musician.

Though Fiasco refuses to be labeled a political activist on the track Deliver, it is apparent that social issues still weigh heavy on his mind. His primary goal appears to be uplifting disenfranchised black communities, and this complex struggle is detailed at length throughout Tetsuo and Youth.

Fiasco points his finger at many culprits throughout the album, namely the media. In Prisoner 1 & 2 he contemplates the compounding problem of mass incarceration using dual perspectives. The first segment of the track argues that criminals deserve rehabilitation and love from society.  The second segment explores the cynical mentality of the disenfranchised and illustrates how such attitudes can become culturally pervasive over time.

A duality in his own right, Lupe Fiasco will remain a polarizing figure in the music industry for years to come. His abrasive nature might not be for everyone, but Fiasco’s valuable perspective continues to challenge the daunting social issues which plague our societies.