Windy City rapper Lupe Fiasco managed to drop Drogas Light last year, but he was still two albums short of his goal to release three albums in 2017 (or 2016).

While chopping it up with Billboard about gaming, Lupe took time to speak on what exactly happened with the other two albums. He said it was essentially sample clearance issues that put the breaks on the other two projects: Drogas Wave and Skulls.

For eager fans, Lupe has continuously provided updates on Drogas Wave via a Reddit board. In what he claims is his “last update,” the rapper revealed that the album is “pretty much finished.”

?? #BeatNPath now airing on @kixasia @lupefiascobnp

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Responding to a fan who was asking about the delays, Lupe explained the situation in a post a few months ago.

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“We were hung up on a couple samples and producer negotiations and didn’t want to mix without having everything clear,” he wrote. “Also with this album we didn’t want to try and replay samples that we had to remove because of high clearance costs so as to ensure we had the best product possible even though it means dealing with slow moving process of sample clearance and the higher costs associated with that.”

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He also provided more info on the upcoming albums during the interview with Billboard.

“The albums were never really on a schedule … let me pull that back. Not to say never. I wanted to do three albums last year, and we were able to squeeze Drogas Light out,” he said. Waves was always in the pipeline, and Skulls was always in the pipeline. But we hit this wall with samples and stuff like that. I explained it all on the Reddit account that I set up to let fans know with daily updates. We actually did the last update last week. It is going to come when it comes.”

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“For me, I always shoot myself in the foot when I try to give an idea of a release date or a period of time,” he added. “So I’m just not going to do that … My portion — the raps are written, recorded. My part is done. Now it’s on to the next. Now it’s shift gears to figure out what I want to do with Skulls.”

Later in the interview, given that Lupe is a longtime Street Fighter fan and competitive player, he offered his thoughts on Nicki Minaj’s new “Chun-Li” single.

“Yeah, I heard it. I was listening to it the other day,” Lupe said. “I was waiting for the Chun-Li sound effects! I was like, ‘Yo, this is Chun-Li. Where’s the Spinning Bird Kick? The Yah-Yah-Yah-Yah-Yah!’ But I mean, she murdered it though. The first verse is kinda crazy.”

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