SINGH

4y

quotes from new interview

“I can take living in the ghetto, where there’s broken glass, prostitutes, empty lots and no prospects across a seven-mile radius, and make birthday cakes out of it!” says Chicago-born rapper Lupe Fiasco. “We take the least and make the most out of it . . . that’s what hip-hop’s sweet spot is.”

“I care about rap, but I don’t care anymore about the business side or selling records. I’ve always been a storyteller. When I was in the third grade, I wrote a play about a warring cat and mouse. I will be rapping right until the day I die.”

He mourns the loss of the city’s young drill artists FBG Duck and King Von, both murdered at 26 after their unapologetically macabre storytelling manifested into real-life tragedy. “Fame, all in the name of martyrdom,” Fiasco laments in one powerful new song.

“The structure and segregation of Chicago means you could go from a Gangster Disciples to a Black Disciples hood just by crossing the street. These gangs are killing each other, so how am I going to drive through their neighbourhoods playing drill music out the window that boasts about their friends’ murders?”

“My brother was a high-ranking gang member. I have friends that are Vice Lords, so I get it. But drill scares me because I know what happens at the end of that road: most of you are going to die. We need these drill rappers to live longer, because we need their intellect out in the world. Don’t throw away your lives or your talent by being forced into unsafe situations. As consumers, I believe we need to do a better job of telling them that.”

“Have you ever seen a nightclub when the lights are turned on? It’s f***ing gross. The paint is cheap, it’s sticky, the floor doesn’t match the walls. But in the darkness, you would never know any of this. It’s my job to shine that light and expose the dark side.”

In the past, he has been frank about his unhappiness with how he was treated by Atlantic Records, but since leaving the company he seems to have reached a more positive place of reflection. “Being on a major label allowed me to play to 40,000 people at Glastonbury. I travelled the world and brought those experiences back home with me. I just wish in those label meetings, where I felt degraded, that I’d shouted even louder.”

“We’re not basketball players, who have a limit to their bodies and taper off. Rappers only get more skilled as we get older, because we have more experiences to draw from . . . It isn’t about living for ever, ​​but living long enough to make a positive impact in the world that can’t be undone.”

airric

4y

cover looks amazing on the cd

LthePerry02

4y

I just noticed, there were only 9 song titles found on ASCAP a few months ago. Curious why one of them seemingly wasn’t uploaded or what it could be called

NewCopeJustDropped

4y

Wast autoboto one of them?

LthePerry02

4y

Yep, so it’s definitely real

NewCopeJustDropped

4y

Nice. Maybe the last one is 100 Chicagos? Was that one of them?

airric

4y

cover looks amazing on the cd

Skrimps N Grits

4y

100 Chicagos is not on the album

LthePerry02

4y

I just noticed, there were only 9 song titles found on ASCAP a few months ago. Curious why one of them seemingly wasn’t uploaded or what it could be called

NewCopeJustDropped

4y

You know what the last song is?

LthePerry02

4y

I dunno if anyone’s the OG version of From The Garden by Isaiah Rashad but the beat kinda reminds me of that

LthePerry02

4y

I just noticed, there were only 9 song titles found on ASCAP a few months ago. Curious why one of them seemingly wasn’t uploaded or what it could be called

Oblivion X

4y

What were titles ?