Lupe Fiasco
Lupe Fiasco
Wasalu Muhammad Jaco, better known by his stage name Lupe Fiasco, is an American rapper, record producer, and entrepreneur. He rose to fame in 2006 following the success of his debut album, Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor. He also performs as the frontman of rock band Japanese Cartoon under his real name. As an entrepreneur, Fiasco is the chief executive officer of 1st & 15th Entertainment...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionRapper
Date of Birth16 February 1982
CityChicago, IL
CountryUnited States of America
For me, I walk a line of fame and infamy. I walk the line of celebrity and non-celebrity.
The biggest budget is the military budget. For what? We're fighting two wars in very small countries that have no nuclear weapons, that have no capabilities to destroy anything. They probably couldn't even get to America.
I don't really care about the GOPs or the Democratic Party. My point is the people, giving the people truth.
The rewards we get by being those weird guys going against the grain to me are way more massive than selling a million billion records. I like climbing mountains or going on undersea dives for whales and stuff like that.
I don't like to hear myself sing. So to get comfortable [hearing myself sing], I sang in another accent.
Hip-hop is just something I actually know how to do. But I always had aspirations to participate in other forms of music.
My father had been in the military and he was a weapons specialist, so he had an affinity for weapons but also for the discipline of it. He taught us how to shoot when we were young. He opened up karate schools in the worst parts of the city, on purpose, and then he would systematically clean out a three-block radius, all of the gang-bangers and drug dealers and everybody of nefarious character.
I want to make music as good as Radiohead, as good as Coldplay. I can make hip-hop as good as anybody.
I'm a big fan of science fiction, animation, and things of that nature. Other worlds and that type of stuff.
This game wears on you. It tears you down. It's perpetual motion for some people who've achieved a level of independence, like Madonna and Jay-Z - they don't need to do music anymore. But there's people who need it. And in that need, that's when it's tough and it tears you to pieces.
I didn't go out shooting for anybody in particular because I shot for everybody unparticular. I make records for Muslims, Christians, rock 'n roll kids, skateboard kids.
It was, 'If you don't do 'The Show Goes On,' your album's not coming out.' I had nothing to do with that record - nothing. I was literally told how I should rap on it. But I'm a bastard, 'cos I'll turn around and put it back in your face.
We've done shows - we'll be in Dublin, and it will be nonstop pandemonium to the point where you think the crowd is going to implode, because they're making so much noise and they're so excited.
I just downloaded '1984' for my iPod, but I've read that before. It just hearkens back to the 'romance' of my high-school days. I really liked the space I was in when I was reading it.