Lupe Fiasco says he has a drive to release music for a very specific reason.
“[I want to] just get this out before the Fall, so I can put out the next one so I can be done with this company,” Lupe Fiasco says in an interview with Los Angeles radio station Power 106’s Rikki Martinez. “That’s what we’re in right now. We’re just trying to get albums out just to get off the label.”
Fiasco says his frustrations have also driven him to thoughts about ending his career as a rapper.
“Personally, for me, I’d rather just be done,” he says. “I’d rather walk into the sunset and be up out of here. Unfortunately, my record label keeps me in a position and the greater drive is to get off my label so I can get out these contracts as opposed to retiring under these contracts and being with these people. That’s the greater drive to get it out. It’s not even about, ‘Let me please the fans.’”
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Fiasco says releasing music through Atlantic Records takes time.
“You’ve gotta wait nine months between release dates and you gotta worry about the extra nonsense they put you through,” he says. “That wears you down. But you fight through it.”
Despite being impacted by these circumstances, Fiasco says he understands the flip side.
“It has benefits at the same time, too,” he says. “But you always get faced with these, ‘Is it worth it?’ type situations. Some days it is. Some days, it’s not. Tomorrow will be a different day, but yeah, I’m almost done.”
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Lupe says he may embark on other ventures following his career in Rap, including work in film scoring.
“If the opportunity presents itself, you know, to go beyond than just doing music for a soundtrack, but scoring is whole other kind of piece,” he says. “We got offered a piece to do for a little Indie film, but it’s somthing that has to be something that’s really well planned out, well thought out. And sometimes you just don’t have the time it takes to be immersed in a project and put music to it to that degree and pulling in all the assets that you need to pull it off properly.”
Lupe Fiasco On Ab-Soul: “We Did A Bunch Of Records”
As he continues to make music, some of that will include collaborations with Ab-Soul, he says.
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“Soul is the homie,” Lupe explains. “I try to not look at it as a protege-mentor piece. It’s more like an equal piece. I actually try to put him ahead of me as far as in the caliber of how you look at people. I always tell Soul, ‘Don’t be me. Be bigger than me.’ I think he’s accomplished that in a few different ways. But Soul’s the homie…We did a bunch of records together, too. We might do some more.”
In June, Ab-Soul has called himself “Lupe Fiasco on drugs” in a “Showoff Freestyle.”
“It’s just a little inception to get your thoughts processing on the way to the club,” Soul raps on the track. “I figured it out, I’m Lupe Fiasco on drugs / No religious preference, just bundles of love.”
Recently, Lupe Fiasco spoke about Ab-Soul and the TDE family.
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“Listen, Kendrick is ill,” Fiasco said recently. “He’s super ill. To me, the whole TDE team is the illest team. They’re the illest team that I’ve seen in maybe five years. Ab-Soul’s on the album. That’s my homie…I’m trying to work with SZA right now…I love the creative collective they got. As an emcee, I wish I had that.”
Fiasco and Soul have collaborated on tracks, including “Thorns & Horns.”
Lupe Fiasco: “The Internet Made Me Dumb”
Beyond his frustrations with his label situation, Fiasco also says he is not pleased with the Internet during his interview with Power 106.
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“I think the Internet made me dumb,” he says. “Everything went away. I was just so focused on this stupid-ass machine. I always said that. When I got my first laptop, my first Apple, I was like, ‘Yo, this shit is making me dumb.’ And it becomes addicting to a certain degree. I’ve always had a hate-hate relationship with the Internet and technology.”
Fiasco adds that he wants to quit Twitter, also.
“I don’t think it’s good for me,” he says. “I’d rather not have it.”
Fiasco, who claims to not know how to use Facebook, says he wishes he could quit Twitter, but that the company won’t allow him to leave the network.
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“I wish I didn’t have it,” he says. “I tried to delete it multiple times and they won’t let me. Twitter won’t even let me delete it. Nah, I tried to delete it. Twitter, period, the whole account and Twitter has it where they won’t let me delete it. They make money off of it now. They won’t let me delete it. They won’t even let me turn it off.”
Lupe Fiasco Explains Twitter Hatred, Responding To Critics
Recently, Fiasco posted images of himself on Twitter as he viewed a Unites States soccer match during the World Cup. In the image, he is wearing three watches on one hand. The image is below.
When asked about the photograph, Fiasco explained his reason for posing with several pieces of jewelry.
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“People trying to stunt on Lupe for whatever reasons but they forget,” he says. “Nigga, I’m rich. I’m cool. Let’s not get too out of our pocket when you talk to me. I just tend to…hold that part of me back for the sake of not putting any in your face, you know, but I can put it in your face. And so for me, it’s like perfect, this is a perfect opportunity. Niggas want to get out here and talk crazy, fine. I put on every watch in the house. And don’t pull it ’cause the chopper’s here, too. So that’s just me playing a game. Unfortunately, we live in a culture where people feed into that. And I have no problem of going there with you, I just choose not to do it ’cause I don’t like the attention but at the same time too, I have no problem doing it.”
Fiasco says he sometimes uses Twitter because as an opportunity to respond to critics.
“Yeah ’cause I feel like people like to start tidal waves,” he says. “A ripple can turn into a tsunami, if you let it and I don’t have the patience for that. I don’t have the real head space to deal with that so when things arise, I try to nip it in the ass as quick as possible because people try to reach outside of the internet. People let that 300 retweets or whatever, of somebody poppin’, to pull something with you and you see it. You see the piece with Schoolboy Q getting his truck shot up, ain’t no telling how that started. There was no reason for it to happen. There was no beef. There was no argument, it was just like when I was in Salt Lake City, you know this crazy white bitch started throwing [expletive] on the stage, so it’s like, you don’t know where that came from. It’s unexplainable, so whenever you can get a grip of somebody poppin’, crazy or somebody doing something out of pocket extraordinary for one you expose them so people can see. But at the same time, too, you let people know, ‘However you want to take it, you want to ball out, you want to shoot it out, you want to fight it out, like wherever you want to take it, you know, the possibilities are endless for you to participate in that.’ And it’s just like a self protection kind of piece, ’cause if you let people get too comfortable which you thinkin’ that it’s all a game and they can come out and say whatever they want…You know it’s like, ‘I don’t want that for you,’ whether you understand you got a misinterpretation of who I am based on some skateboard song and that’s cool but…if you come to my house I’ma kill you.”
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