After nearly four years off from putting out an individual album and working on group projects, Lupe Fiasco is back. Too bad the album “Lasers” doesn’t live up to the much anticipated hype.

With about half of the album being leaked, most already know what the leader of the “First and Fifteenth crew” had to show on the album. Only half of it is enjoyable. The album is 12 tracks of mediocrity and a mix of hip-hop, rock, electro and Auto-Tune that can get annoying.

The album was released March 8, with hiccups from Fiasco’s label Atlantic Records being the source for the hold up. The album has its ups and downs because Lupe stretched this album too far. With the range this album has, it feels like it doesn’t have a direction.

This is because the album has been in production since mid-2008. As time went by, records sat on the shelf, and a lot of the original songs were either released early or leaked.

“Lasers” features solid production with good percussions. “Letting Go,” features Sarah Green and is a heavy Auto-Tuned, lyrically based song produced by King David. The production is crisp and clean with strong beats and instrumentals.

Personally, “Words I Never Said” and “All Black Everything” were refreshing tracks that don’t talk about the same things: bitches, hoes, cars, guns and money. The song featuring Skylar Grey is produced by Alex da Kid. In this song, Lupe releases a politically-charged verse taking verbal shots at George W. Bush, Barack Obama and the war on terror.

“All Black Everything” is a great piece of poetry devoted to the thoughts of what if Africans weren’t brought to America as slaves, but rather on their own account. The song takes on a classic feel because of the production by The Buchanans and is a twisted reality of the world with black people being the head of society.

A couple other songs that had good production quality and good-to-great lyricism are “Out of My Head” featuring Trey Songz, “The Show Goes On” and “Never Forget You” featuring John Legend. On the other hand, there were tracks with questionable selections of music and less than Lupe-like lyrics.

“State Run Radio,” featuring Matt Mahaffey, is good music with a good topic mixed and produced wrong. The chorus is horrible, and the intro to the song is too long. Also, the use of guitars is just awkward and interrupts the flow of the song. MDMA makes three guest appearances on “Lasers”, one is good, one is bad and the other is all right.

“Beautiful Lasers (2 Ways)” was co-written by Fiasco, MDMA and Kanye West and was previously released. The song has an eclectic sound that works with Fiasco’s use of Auto-Tune. “Coming Up” has an overuse of pianos and claps that gets annoying and is one of Lupe’s weakest efforts lyrically. “I Don’t Want to Care Right Now” was produced by The Audibles and is more upbeat than the other two, which were produced by King David.

The song is OK lyrically, and Lupe even shows off his technical speedy delivery, but the chorus reminds me of an Akon pop hit, especially because Fiasco sounds like Akon on the chorus.

Contemplating retirement, Lupe has said he wants to put out two more albums. “Food and Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album” and “LupE.N.D.” Hopefully they will both be better.