Lasers (album)
Lasers is the third studio album by American rapper Lupe Fiasco, released on March 7, 2011 by Atlantic Records. Production for the album took place between 2008 and 2010. Lasers features production by The Audibles, The Neptunes, Needlz, Alex da Kid, Syience, and long-time collaborator Soundtrakk, among others. Trey Songz, John Legend, Skylar Grey, Sway, Matt Mahaffey, MDMA, Eric Turner and Sarah Green contribute vocals to the album.
Several terms redirect here. For other uses, see laser and laser (disambiguation).Lasers
March 7, 2011
2008–2010
57:03
- 1st & 15th
- Atlantic
- Lupe Fiasco (exec.)
- Charles "Chilly" Patton (exec.)
- Darrale Jones (co-exec.)
- The Audibles
- Alex da Kid
- iSHi
- The Buchanans
- Kane Beatz
- King David
- Needlz
- The Neptunes
- Soundtrakk
- Jerry Duplessis
- Syience
- Arden Altino
- Miykal Snoddy
Lasers was preceded by the lead single "The Show Goes On" and its follow-up "Words I Never Said" featuring Skylar Grey. The former became Fiasco's highest charting song on the Billboard Hot 100 and has been certified double Platinum in the US. The latter, however, only achieved moderate success on the Hot 100.
The album has received mixed reviews from most major music critics, having a score of 57 out of 100 at the review aggregator Metacritic. It fared well commercially however, debuting at number one on the US Billboard 200 with first-week sales of over 200,000 copies sold, making the album Fiasco's second top ten album as well as his highest entry on the chart.[6]
Release conflict and petition[edit]
Lupe Fiasco had announced on Twitter that the album was complete and was waiting for Atlantic Records to release it. A fan awaiting the release of the album, put together an online petition with the help of Rhymestyle from the "LupEND Blog" fan site, demanding that Atlantic Records release Lasers, due to the fact that the album was announced for a 2010 release and at the time still did not have a release date.[19][20] The petition garnered considerable attention on hip hop blog sites and attained over 5,000 signatures on its first day.[21] In response to the petition, Lupe Fiasco released a song titled "B.M.F. (Building Minds Faster)" (a remix of "B.M.F. (Blowin' Money Fast)" by Rick Ross) as a gift for his fans.[22] The story was featured on many websites, including CNN[23][24]
and MTV.[25][26][27] On October 7, 2010, Lupe Fiasco posted a picture of himself with Atlantic president, Julie Greenwald.[28] On October 8, Atlantic Records revealed that the release date for Lasers would be March 8, 2011.[29] Even though the release date of the album had been confirmed prior, a number of fans protested outside Atlantic Records' offices in New York City on October 15, 2010. Protest co-organizer Matthew La Corte has told The Village Voice that it should be considered as a "celebration of the release and everyone's hard work".[30][31] Lupe Fiasco also attended, and gave a speech.[27][29]
Speaking in a March 2011 interview with New York about the support that his fans have given him to release the album, Fiasco has said: "It was amazing, humbling, and inspiring, to the point where I went back in the studio and did more records … it made everything real, that your music is actually something that people want. And it's something that is successful, not in selling records, but the way it moves people and inspires them to do better for themselves."[32][33]
Commercial performance[edit]
The album debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart, with first-week sales of 204,000 copies.[85][86] Lasers marks Fiasco's first number one album on the chart as well as his best selling first-week sales.[87] The album is Fiasco's second top ten album on the chart with his first album, Food & Liquor, debuting at number eight in 2006, and The Cool debuting at number 15 in 2007.[88] In its second week on the chart, it fell to number three selling 47,000 units,[89] while in its third week, it fell to number ten selling an additional 29,000 copies.[90] As of August 10, 2011, Lasers has sold approximately 452,000 copies in the United States.[91] Internationally, Lasers has debuted within the top ten on the Australian and Canadian album charts, while also peaking at number 11 in New Zealand and number 25 in the United Kingdom.[92] On March 23, 2014, the album was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America for shipments of 500,000 copies.[93]