Lupe Fiasco, ‘Lightwork’ Feat. Ellie Goulding

Lupe Fiasco's latest song, 'Lightwork,' is an electro-hop track built around the Bassnectar remix of Ellie Goulding's 'Lights.'

Generally, when rappers borrow from a pop song, they use the sample as a hook to break up the monotony between verses -- but Fiasco takes a completely different approach on 'Lightwork.' The track opens with a full minute of the sped-up, remixed Goulding track and closes with 30 more seconds of the sample.

In between, Fiasco spits rhymes for three minutes without any breaks. The Chicago rapper touches on a number of subjects, including his own touring life and success: "Me and my band out on that road / On a never-back-down-from-a-stance tour / Yeah, touch more souls than a dancefloor / While they touch less tours than a hand or / Ceiling fan or wait, let me tell ya slower / Lift my fans up to the to the ceiling / And you’ll never touch the floor."

Later, he seems to address his recent album, 'Lasers,' which surprised some listeners with its bold political statements: "I know that don’t mix, like ecstasy and ketamine / Funny how I’m only sick if you never catch a thing / Argue with your friends over what really the record means / Back and forth about its course, with professors refereeing / Why he so rebellious? Up-front with his realness? / They wanna be Fiascos, reproduce his failures."

Fiasco has never stuck to the traditional hip-hop formula, and the engaging 'Lightwork' further validates his willingness to experiment. The song does not appear on 'Lasers,' but is instead said to be targeted for an upcoming mixtape.

Listen to Lupe Fiasco's 'Lightwork' Feat. Ellie Goulding