Pitchfork

Lupe Fiasco is better known for skateboarding or trying to be what Matthew Santos says he is, a superstar, than for jogging. So maybe that's why his verses got left off of Kanye West DJ A-Trak's just-released installment in Nike's Original Run series. (Then again, A-Trak says he doesn't really run, either). What the Fiasco knows, however, are sneakers. His are "more meaner, more cleaner than yours," in fact, and he rhymes about them with a bouncy, clever delivery full of internal rhymes and repetitions that would make a mash-up with fellow Chicago shoe lovers Cool Kids almost too obvious.

As with "Say Woah", the single from this Running Man LP, it's easy to see how "Mastered" might fit into a workout. A-Trak's synths have that insistent monotony that suggests they could go on forever, and there are vrooming noises like cars accelerating from behind you in a racing video game. And then there's Lupe again, effortlessly going from "bird flu" to "do do" to "bird food" to... exercise advice? "Take a second, you need to breathe," he suggests. He's right, but only 'cause I talk too fast.

Stream:> A-Trak [ft. Lupe Fiasco]: "Mastered"
[from Running Man; out now on Nike+'s via iTunes]