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http://www.halftimeonline.comThe buzz surrounding Chi-Town emcee Lupe Fiasco is practically deafening. With the popular ‘Kick, Push’ gaining mainstream acceptance Lupe is coasting down a road of surefire success. Fortunately, he hasn’t got caught up in the hype of being proclaimed ‘next.’ He is appreciative of his accolades but more importantly on top of his business as he discusses his label 1st & 15th, multimedia company Righteous Kung Fu, his own shoe and the realities of the record industry.
Halftimeonline: You’ve been doing a zillion interviews lately and I know cats be asking you the same questions over and over again and we hate to rehash. Can you answer the most common questions so we can get that out of the way?
Lupe Fiasco: Aiight. I picked up my name Lupe Fiasco in high school. My name is Wasalu and I would always rap under Lu, little Lu or Lu tha Underdog or something like that. So when it came time to change my rap name I had a friend named Lupe and so I was like I’ll take the name Lupe. The Fiasco part came from The Firm album because they had a song called “Firm Fiasco.” I liked the way Fiasco looked so I named myself Lupe Fiasco. As far as the leak I don’t really feel too bad about the leak anymore because it was such a big help and a boost to my situation. Initially when it happened I was shook creatively. I was worried that people were going to make their decision whether they like Lupe Fiasco or not that early [without the finished product]. The title of the album, “Food & Liquor,” comes from 85% of the corner stores in Chicago being called Food & Liquor be it Mike’s Food & Liquor, Factory Food & Liquor or whatever. I only saw that in Chicago so to me that was real specific to Chicago and real subtle too because if you weren’t from Chicago you wouldn’t know. On the other side of things I don’t drink or smoke because I’m Muslim but even outside of that I don’t like alcohol. I don’t like what it does to people, the way it smells, or anything like that. So the liquor represents the bad and the food represents the good. I think the world is made up of food and liquor, good and bad, so I wanted to put that out there for the album.
As far as me being Muslim it affects my music as far as the stuff I don’t talk about. I don’t degrade women in my records, I try not to use profanity in my records or put anything negative in my records. I always try to put a positive message or solution in my records so people can take something with them that’s positive. I don’t have 9 brothers but there are 9 of us. That’s one that runs ridiculously. It’s 9 of us, 5 girls and four boys, and I’m the youngest boy and the fourth youngest out of the whole family. Oh yea and Westside of Chicago is where I’m from.
Halftimeonline: Cool, I’m glad we got all of that out of the way. My man who put me onto you was really talking about you like you could possibly be the chosen one that will bring balance to the rap game.
Lupe Fiasco: Haha
Halftimeonline: If you’re album is as successful as you hope how do you think it will affect the hip hop landscape?
Lupe Fiasco: There are two things that make people change up. You have the creative people who just love different things and that makes them switch up. Another thing that makes people switch up more is probably money. So if it makes money you’ll have a lot of rappers with gla**es.
Halftimeonline: Haha
Lupe Fiasco: They’ll talk about being nerds and all that stuff. Not that you don’t have a few of those cats running around now but that’s gonna be their whole theme or mystique. You’ll have people running around making songs about snowboards. You’ll have people running away from the hood, cars, chains and talk about the most to the left stuff. I can see people making songs about airplane stewardesses and all types of other stuff. People will be coming out of the woodwork if it’s successful.
Halftimeonline: You’ve been buzzing like crazy, you have your own shoe and haven’t even dropped an album yet, so the hype is off the charts which usually leads people to say some premature things. What’s the most ridiculous thing someone has said where it even makes you be like damn you’re caught up in the hype?
Lupe Fiasco: It’s real subtle. It’s not nothing crazy but the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard so far is kids being like he’s the savior of hip hop. It’s like I’m the Messiah of Hip Hop. I’m like yo nah cuz I truly don’t believe that hip hop needs saving. It just needs a shift in the subject matter. It needs to shift towards more positive things and that doesn’t really have anything to do with the artist because there are artists out there who do positive things but they don’t get the focus from the media. They don’t get the push from BET, MTV, radio and the major venues but they’re there and it’s still hip hop. Just because they’re not out on the main scene doesn’t mean they don’t exist. So I am conscious of that and would never say that I am because I’d be overlooking all of those people who were doing it before me and will probably still be doing it long after I’m gone. I’m like you got people out there doing it better than me but they just don’t get the shine or the stars didn’t align properly on their situation like it did on mine. We’re talking about the same stuff and probably pushing the same agenda.
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