Lupe Fiasco Recording "Food & Liquor 2"

Lupe Fiasco has begun work on his fourth album, Food & Liquor 2. The Chicago emcee last album, Lasers, has been the biggest commercial success of his career thus far, though the rapper has been ambivalent and sometimes even hostile towards that mainstream attention and commercial leanings of the album itself.

But Lupe says this album, while named after his critically-acclaimed debut, bears a debt to the glossy Lasers.

“It's really taking the lessons I learned from Lasers, and applying that to Food & Liquor 2. That's really it,” he said. But he still seemed uneasy with the success and approach ofLasers. “Me being an artist, I'm never happy with my work, because I don't ever think it's finished. It's hard for an artist to walk away from a piece and say, 'okay, that's done.'"