The album features production from The Neptunes, Kanye West, Mike Shinoda, Craig Kallman, Prolyfic, Needlz, Soundtrakk, and Brandon Howard.

At age 19, Fiasco was signed to Epic Records and was a member of a group called Da Pak.

[2] In 2006, fellow rapper Jay-Z was impressed by Fiasco's feature on Kanye West's "Touch the Sky" and agreed to become the executive producer of the album.

[3] The title of the album, (somewhat of a surprise for many coming from a Muslim) refers to the various Food and Liquor stores in Chicago neighborhoods.

"[6]Prior to the release of Food & Liquor, Fiasco was one of Rolling Stone magazine's "List of Artists to Watch" in 2006.

[8] With the leak of the album, Fiasco was heralded as the potential "savior of hip hop" by critics,[9][10][11] as well as fellow recording artists West and Williams.

[19] "Kick, Push", the album's lead single, is about a young male and his love for skateboarding.

[20] The lyrics follow the skateboarder through many stages of his life such as his childhood, finding love, marriage, and adulthood.

[21] "The Cool" follows the story of a dead gangster who rises from the grave and returns to the hood where he lived and died.

[23] The album cover of Food & Liquor was designed by Chuck Anderson and Righteous Kung Fu.

[25] The cover shows Fiasco floating in air, surrounded by several items, including a Banksy postcard, a Nintendo DS, a sketchbook, the Qur'an, and a robot.

Club praised the album, saying that Fiasco "masterfully melds his peerless storytelling gifts with his idiosyncratic passion for skateboarding, fantasy, and incisive sociopolitical commentary".

[17] Stylus Magazine's Josh Love felt that it benefits greatly from Fiasco's impressive rapping and subtlety, which he found to be characteristics that are "incredibly rare in hip-hop in 2006".

[38] Sean Fennessey of Pitchfork was less enthusiastic and said that although Fiasco's raps are abundant with "wit and double meaning", the album's biggest flaw is his inability to write memorable hooks, which are instead "blandly-sung, unmemorable couplets".

[45] Food & Liquor finished 34th in the voting for the Pazz & Jop, an annual critics poll run by The Village Voice.

Fiasco held a poll on his MySpace profile, where fans were able to vote for which song they wanted to be made into a music video.