"Superstar" | ||||
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Single by Lupe Fiasco featuring Matthew Santos | ||||
from the album Lupe Fiasco's The Cool | ||||
Released | September 25, 2007 | |||
Format | CD single | |||
Recorded | 2007 | |||
Genre | Hip hop, alternative hip hop | |||
Length | 4:49 (album version) 3:59 (radio version) |
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Label | 1st & 15th, Atlantic | |||
Writer(s) | Lupe Fiasco, Soundtrakk, Prince Ben | |||
Producer(s) | Soundtrakk | |||
Lupe Fiasco singles chronology | ||||
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"Superstar" is a song performed by rapper Lupe Fiasco featuring Matthew Santos. It is the first single off his 2007 album Lupe Fiasco's The Cool. iTunes released "Superstar" on September 25, 2007 along with a radio version of "Dumb It Down."
On November 5, 2007 the official video was released and it was directed by Hype Williams. It premiered on BET's 106 & Park on November 23 and on February 19 it moved up to the number one spot on the countdown. As of December 31, it appeared at number 84 on BET's Notarized: Top 100 Videos of 2007 countdown. The song is featured on the soundtrack of NFL Tour and recently NHL 2K10. Star baseball player Hanley Ramírez used the song as his walk-up music at Florida Marlins home games.
In the song Lupe yells "FREE CHILLY" that is a reference to another song on his album. The song "Free Chilly" is about Lupe's business partner "Chilly" who was sentenced to 44 years in jail during the recording of "The Cool".
Most critics were positive towards the single. Complex ranked it at 95 on best songs of the decade. Bill Lamb, representing the music website About.com, awarded the song four-and-a-half stars, and gave primary praise to "Lupe Fiasco's dense lyrical meditation on life in the spotlight", "Matthew Santos' haunting vocals", and the "immediate setup of the melodic hook"; however, he did emphasize Santos' vocal delivery to be similar to that of Coldplay frontman Chris Martin — of which both Fiasco and Santos are reportedly fans — citing it as both a positive and negative characteristic of the song. Pitchfork, in an otherwise positive outlook, expressed a similar sentiment: "The hooky first single [is] "Superstar", with Fiasco protégé Matthew Santos (who has probably heard a few Coldplay albums) playing Adam Levine to Fiasco's Kanye West", thus comparing the song's style to that of "Heard 'Em Say", a Kanye West song released in 2005. However, music editor Nick Levine argues that "the hazy, gospel-inflected chorus, sung by Chicago folkie Matthew Santos, is just as memorable, suggesting everyone but Kanye should be quaking in his diamond-studded Reeboks." Blues&Soul felt that the song "blended Lupe's characteristic easy vocal flow with a pleasantly lumbering piano-led beat, a soulful hook, and the odd sample and sound effect." In a review for Yahoo Music, Jaime Gill wrote: "'Superstar' is a melancholy look at celebrity, with Fiasco delivering a languid rap about the insecurities that linger behind fame's brittle armour. Its set to a low-key piano part and a piercing, haunting chorus sung by one Matthew Santos. In one brilliant line, Lupe describes the luxuries of celebrity while skewering its loneliness: "chauffeur, chauffeur, come and take me away." It may be too subtle, slow and sad to be a hit in today's hip hop climate, which would be deeply depressing."