The more I listen to Tetsuo & Youth, the more convinced I am that it’s a modern hip hop masterpiece. I don’t give a shit if Lupe Fiasco isn’t “cool” anymore—but I suspect hip hop listeners at large do.

Fiasco uses his youthful, irreverent persona to his greatest advantage yet, and a frequently innocent, childlike vocabulary to trace colorful, crayon-textured trances of growing up too fast in an inappropriately adult environment. The same subject hundreds of rap albums have attempted, including 2015‘s token West coast darling To Pimp a Butterfly, but in an unprecedented way. The production of Tetsuo & Youth is symphonic in a smooth, Stevie Wonder-esque tribute, rather than something like Kanye West’s sweeping baroque. A beautiful and multifaceted subconscious trip. Now, he’s probably gonna go back to making crap because nobody was willing to lend him enough of an ear at this point. Feel ashamed, all of you! Not me, of course.