In an interview with MTV, Lupe Fiasco has revealed that “Hip Hop Saved My Life,” the latest single from his album The Cool, paid homage to two southern hip-hop mainstays.
The song is dedicated to Houston mainstay Bun B—a result, Lupe says, of when he visited Houston to do a show. Bun and his wife picked up the Chicago native from the airport and gave him a tour of the city.
“… I was just sitting back, soaking it all in,” Lupe said. “And I was just thinking, ‘How can I pay Bun B back?'”
Lupe also divulged that the song and video—which tell the story of an up-and-coming Houston rapper’s ups and downs on the way to success—is dedicated to Slim Thug.
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“My DJ first heard the record when Lupe’s album came out,” Slim Thug told MTV News in an interview. “I went on iTunes and bought it and was surprised it had a lot to do about me. I don’t think it’s entirely about me, but he took pieces of my hustle and put it in the song.
“We might not have the same type of rap style, but I respect him,” he continued. “I knew a lot of people that liked him when he first came out and checked him out, and he was jammin’. And anyone that’s jammin’ is all right with me.”
“It is based on Slim Thug,” Lupe revealed. “…I didn’t know at the time, but there was a situation in Houston where they were trying to figure out who the song was about. Was it about Slim Thug? Was it about Chamillionaire? And it was about Slim Thug, but [then] I dedicated the song to Bun. I called him up and said, ‘Yo, Bun, I’ve got a song for you, check it out,’ and he was the first person to hear it. I sent it to him and he was like, ‘Yo, it’s all good.'”
Both Bun B and Slim Thug, along with Paul Wall and Willie D of the Geto Boys, make cameos in the video.
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