This is the 2nd EP by Chicago veteran Lupe Fiasco. Breaking out in the mid-2000s with Food & Liquor and The Cool, but the man started to become inconsistent once the 2010s came around. Lasers is easily the worst thing he ever put out and Food Liquor 2: The Great American Rap Album was mediocre, but Tetsuo & Youth was such an incredible return to form. Then came DROGAS Light in 2017, which was a SLIGHTLY better Lasers. However, it’s sequel DROGAS Wave is a lot better despite being a tad bit too long. Lupe hasn’t put out much since but to surprise everyone, he’s teaming up with a 23-year old producer named Kaelin Ellis for HOUSE.

After the Virgil Abloh spoken word intro “HOMME MADE”, we get into the first song “DINOSAURS”. Where Lupe of course details the prehistoric age over a dreamy-boom bap beat. The next track “SLEDOM” talks about career decisions over a mellow instrumental while the song “SHOES” touches down on police brutality over a boom bap beat with some horns. The EP ends with “LF95”, which is essentially Lupe spitting off top over a jazzy instrumental for 5 minutes.

This is a solid prelude to Skulls when or if it comes out at this point. Couple joints drag out longer than they needed to, but Lupe sounds focused for the most part & Kaelin Ellis could definitely get bigger from here because I really dig his sound on here quite a bit.

Score: 3.5/5