Patrick Stump is best-known as the main creative force behind ’00s pop-punk standard-bearers Fall Out Boy, but the R&B and hip-hop influences that have long been part of his music come to the foreground on his upcoming album, Soul Punk. “This City” is the record’s first single, and Stump tells the A.V. Club that the song's poppy slickness is representative of the album. “I'm kind of pop but a little left of center,” Stump said. “It sounds kind of like it makes sense on the radio but at the same time doesn't at all. It's very me.”
“This City” prominently features fellow Chicagoan Lupe Fiasco, and Stump said his relationship with the rapper goes back several years. “Before Food & Liquor came out he and I were talking about working on something together. I ended up producing the song ‘Little Weapon,’ for his The Cool record,” he said. “I actually wrote the hook for ‘This City’ with him in mind before I decided to use it for Soul Punk, so when the label asked me if I'd be interested in doing a remix with an MC he was the only real way I'd say yes.”
Check out the premiere of Patrick Stump’s “This City”: