A few years in the making, {$Lupe Fiasco}'s {^Food & Liquor} follows a fruitless association with {@Epic} (as a member of {$da Pak}), an aborted solo deal with {@Arista} (which yielded one promo single), a handful of guest appearances ({$tha Rayne}'s {&"Kiss Me,"} {$Kanye West}'s {&"Touch the Sky"}), and a leak of an unfinished version of the album that set the official release back to September 2006. Still only 25 years old, {$Fiasco} -- a Chicagoan of Islamic faith who owns a number of black belts -- sounds wise beyond his age, rarely raises his voice, projects different emotions with slight inflections, and is confident enough to openly admit his inspirations while building on them. {^It Was Written} is his touchstone, and there are traces of numerous MCs in his rhymes, from {$Intelligent Hoodlum} and {$Ed O.G.} to {$Nas} and {$Jay-Z}. {$Pharrell} (aka Skate Board P) might've considered suffocating himself out of envy with his Bathing Ape sweatshirt when he first heard the album's lead single, {&"Kick, Push,"} dubbed a skate-{\rap} classic well before {^Food & Liquor} hit shelves. Like nothing else in the mainstream or underground, its subject matter -- skater boy meets skater girl -- and appealing early-'90s throwback production finally broke the doors down for {$Fiasco}'s solo career. Wisely enough, {$Fiasco} doesn't turn the skating thing into a gimmick and excels at spinning varying narratives over a mostly strong set of productions from {@1st & 15th} affiliates {$Soundtrakk} and {$Prolyfic}, as well as {$the Neptunes}, {$West}, {$Needlz}, and {$Mike Shinoda}. There are strings, smeary synthesized textures, and dramatic keyboard vamps galore -- templates that befit heartbreaking tales like {&"He Say She Say"} and casually deep-thinking reflections like {&"Hurt Me Soul,"} where the MC confronts some of his conflicting emotions: "I had a ghetto boy boppa/{$Jay-Z} boycott/'Cause he said that he never prayed to God, he prayed to Gotti/I'm thinking golly, God, guard me from the ungodly/But by my 30th watchin' of {#Streets Is Watching}, I was back to givin' props again/And that was botherin'/'Bout as comfortable as a untouchable touching you." Deserving of as much consideration as the other high-profile debuts of the past few years, up to and including {^The College Dropout}, {^Food & Liquor} just might be the steadiest and most compelling {\rap} album of 2006. ~ Andy Kellman, All Music Guide