I think of myself as a hip-hop fan in the truest sense of the word. Be it mainstream, or underground, old school or new school, the importance of all of the genre represents a big part of who I am, for better or worse.Around two years ago, I was honored to be asked to contribute to respected hip-hop blog Nah Right, and at the time, there was the "Hip-Hop is Dead" campaign going on, spearheaded by respected MC Nas' album which proclaimed it as such. Ever the optimist, and ever the apologist, I wrote an impassioned piece on a young Chicago MC who already had considerable buzz, but was poised to be the savior to drag hip-hop out of it's darkest period since 1997, after of violence and death left us depleted.
Wasalu Muhammad Jaco, or Lupe Fiasco, at one time, was a fresh breath of air for hip-hop heads such as myself who knew that yeah, artists like 50 Cent will always have their place, and are moderately important for the survival of the genre....but also knew that the beefed up, gun-toting side of the genre was killing mainstream perceptions, and was becoming, quite frankly, cartoonish. There needed to be an MC with creativity enough to shy away from that angle, and still not be brash enough to shun the masses, or force their quirkiness on us. Kanye West succeeded on the former count, but has moments of failure on the former. In short, there needed to be a link between the "backpacking" underground fans, and the mainstream hip-hop world. Lupe's first album, 2005's "Lupe Fiasco's Food and Liquor", didn't have a parental advisory sticker, covered topics ranging from Lupe's Muslim faith, to skateboarding, to obscure fashion, to robots. It wasn't forced, or different just for the sake of being different. He, to most of his peers, fans, and critics, represented the next wave of hip hop dominance.
So, how is it that now, 4 years later, just mere days after the (supposed) first single ("Shining Down") from his (supposed) final album, Fiasco has gone from universal savior, to polarizing figure, who is dying to get out of music? Find a set of hip hop fans, and the mere mention of his name either illicits sighs and eye rolls or fist pounds and head nods. I breached this topic with a good peer of mine who writes for the aforementioned Nah Right, and he simply sighed into the phone and said "It's those cats on that "pure" hip hop bullshit again..."
Let's explore this, shall we?
First off, it's not as though there was a drop off between records. 2007's "The Cool" may have even been better than Fiasco's first effort, garnering 4 Grammy nods, and I've got one dude that will fight to the death swearing that it's the greatest rap album ever made. What did happen in between the period from 2006 until now, however, could answer some questions...the case against Mr. Fiasco seems to include the following:
1.) In 2007, Lupe was asked to perform a tribute to underground hip hop pioneers A Tribe Called Quest, at VH1's Hip Hop Honors. Lupe didn't decline, because, well....as he said..."Q-Tip asked me. I couldn't say no". Lupe probably should have declined, simply because he hit the stage, and forgot the words to the song, "Electric Relaxation". It was an embarrassing moment for the genre, mostly because Fiasco is, and should have been carrying on Tribe's legacy. His sound is a direct derivative of Q-Tip and co. So, the following week, when he was interviewed about the screw up, and mentioned that he had never "really" listened to Tribe's classic album, 1993's Midnight Marauders, it sent shockwaves through the ever fragile underground community. Almost in one sentence, he alienated all of the backpackers who clung to him. And, to be honest, I was a little disappointed musically as well. Midnight Marauders is one of the sacred cows of hip hop music. A blending of jazz, pop, and rap, with lyrical wit, it's easily one of the greatest musical masterpieces ever, and one of the most influential pieces of hip hop history that we have. Put it like this. It would be like Jack White getting on stage, fucking up a tribute to Eric Clapton, and saying "Well, you know...I just never got into that album 'Slowhand....and what the hell is Cream??'". Fiasco didn't help his cause by further flying into a rage over the issue, after it was well dead, demanding hip hop heads to "Get off of your high horses, and let go of your sacred cows". Ouch.
2.) Early last year, in the heat of the Democratic Primaries, Fiasco, who is from Chicago, denounced Barack Obama and said that he would love to see Hilary Clinton win. Which was, by me, all well and good. Chicago, and the ever important streets, disagreed. Fellow Chicago MC's Rhymefest and Common lit into Fiasco on their respective blogs, and in magazines. The slight alienation of his more street fans began. Shortly thereafter, Fiasco announced that his third album would be his final, and he would be departing from rap, which alienated a handful from both sides of the aisle.
3.) Finally, and most recently. Sometime Tuesday morning, as it was announced by Fiasco himself, a finished version of his new single, the much anticipated "Shining Down" hit the streets. The single's reception can only be described as mixed, mostly due to the fact that Fiasco utilizes autotune, ever so briefly, in the first 6 bars of the second verse. Using autotune at a time when the backlash against the cartoonish overuse of autotune in hip hop is under fire. The elder statesman of rap, Jay-Z, just 2 weeks ago recorded and released the vicious, brutally confronting "D.O.A. (Death Of Autotune)" which effectively stood as a call to arms against the vocal tool. Jay went a step further, by pushing back his album, just so that any autotune used on the album could be removed and re-recorded, and as usual, the genre followed lock step with him. You would think Autotune usage was akin to treason in the past two weeks. So, jaws, hearts, and minds dropped alike when Lupe, rap's future, seemingly didn't get the memo. Making it worse, after the single gained mixed reviews, and hip hop bloggers tore into it, Fiasco became, well....sort of petulant. At some point last night, he put up a blog expressing his anger with the "leak" of this "unfinished" song, and that it wasn't intended for public ears yet. No one has mentioned that the single release date was a mere few hours before it actually dropped, nor that it SOUNDS about as finished as it can get. Not to mention that fellow Chicagoan, and frequent Collaborator Kanye West put the track up on his blog as well. Oh, boy. Does he have egg on his face, or what? To compound things, Lupe went on to seemingly blame his fans for his debut album not going platinum, stating, ""I DON'T LEAK MY OWN RECORDS!!! I'M NOT A FAN OF LEAKING RECORDS OR OF DOWNLOADING!!! My entire first album leaked and possibly cost me from going platinum my first time out as the final estimates of how many people actually downloaded that album illegally was well over half a million."
See, here's the point, though. All of that looks bad on paper. But hip hop fans did this. You all eat your own, and now Lupe is one meltdown away from being the next artist to be killed by his own scene. Remember what the indie scene (ahem...CHICAGO'S indie scene, see a pattern?) did to Liz Phair? what Seattle's grunge scene did to Kurt Cobain? What teenage girls in black eyeliner did to Pete Wentz? What Gotham City did to Batman?
I'm no where near saying that everything Fiasco has done is flawless. He should have probably declined the Tribe Called Quest tribute, and let's face it, it's not to much to ask to be affiliated with the classics of your respective genre, but....BUT....maybe it IS time for us, as responsible hip hop heads to loosen the grip we have on our sacred cows. Not forget them, but also not lampoon someone for a lack of familiarity. What does Lupe's ignorance of Tribe Called Quest REALLY say? That he's not as influenced by them as everyone ELSE painted him to be? I can live with that. He never claimed to be anything more than what he was, and Tribe never played into any of that. After the Fugees broke up, I listened to "The Score" for 9 months. 9 months STRAIGHT. And I dissed all mention of Lauryn Hill's solo career. I say that to say that as hip hop fans, we get so caught up in our classics, our immortals, and we shun anyone who doesn't fit into our circle of that as "not worthy". Second, I mean, not getting on a political soapbox...but when did it become cool to lampoon rap cats for having a strong political opinion? Now, had he shown up to a concert in a Sarah Palin tee, I'd have a differing opinion. No matter what's said....Republican and rap are two R's that just don't mix. No matter how many times I see the pic of Jeezy snuggling up to John McCain on SNL, it just doesn't seem right. Music that's about rebellion, whether it be metal, rap, punk....is just anti-political, to some extent. Yes, Barack Obama is (partially) black. Yes, Barack Obama is from Lupe's hometown. But, shouldn't that give him more of a right to have a differing opinion? And why do we cheer for Kanye West, who states "Oh, well....I don't know much about politics....", but blindly rallies for Obama? look, make no mistake. I'm Obama through and through, but I had valid reasons for that stance. We take one artist from the Chi with no reason for that stance, and cheer him, and the other with valid reasons against that stance, and ostracize him. And in the end, when it came down to Obama vs. McCain, Lupe fell in line, and supported Obama. Why was that not good enough? Yeah, Obama is more hip hop than Hilary, but dissenting from popular choices just for the sake of popularity is more hip hop than anything.
Lastly, Fiasco's single is great. It's fantastic, and it's everything that true rap fans should want. Instead you all picked it apart, tore it down, and within a matter of days, had it's main creator backtracking. Look, no one buys the fact that this was some "unfinished" version of the song, more that Lupe wants to re-record it so that it can live up to whatever unreachable expectations that are to be had of it. Who really gives a fuck if Lupe spits 6 bars of autotune?? Jay-Z?? How does the rap world benefit, if it asks "how high?" every time Jay commands "jump"?? I appreciated "D.O.A.", because of the rampant poor use of autotune in mainstream hip-hop. I also appreciate that Jay made the effort to never use it, even though his closest collaborator, and probably biggest fan, Kanye West was autotune's chief catalyst. It's like when Jay came out with the song "Change Clothes" in 2004, and changed the face of rap fashion, commanding that artists need to start dressing "more grown"...that worked out well, but if Lupe, or anyone is altering creative choices for fear of Jay-Z influenced backlash, well, then that's a problem, do we not agree?
Lupe's disdain for the industry brings us to this. He claimed that he was going to make one last album, and call it quits. Alantic's brain trust, Julie Greenwald and Lyor Cohen (Who some might remember from the bonus footage in Jay-Z's "Fade To Black" standing on the table and shouting, "I'M A GREEDY JEWISH BASTARD!!!"....ahhh, memories...) refused to let him out of his contract, stating that he had 3 albums to fulfill. Fiasco then intended to release a triple album, entitled "LupE.N.D." consisting of "Everywhere", "Nowhere", and "Down Here". This was postponed, and eventually nixed. Now, just one album, entitled "Lasers" is slated for release this winter. Fiasco claims still, that it will be his final effort, that he has no more to say, and that rap no longer needs him. Whether this is true remains to be seen, but I would argue that rap needs him now more than ever. He's the purest mainstream MC since Nas, who by the way, was torn down in similar fashion through the middle of his career. There's not a lot of new, young talent in rap that inspires much hope in me. I mean, Wale and B.o.B. seem promising, but anyone else? I like Asher Roth as much as the next guy who actually didn't go to college and has to live it out in a series of misleading, overused cliches...but I wasn't under the influence of enough Natty Light to enjoy "Asleep In The Bread Aisle" (And "Greenhouse Effect" wasn't much better...), and Drake? I refuse to hail the dude from Degrassi as hip-hop's White Knight, no matter how much Lil Wayne, who has become a shell of himself, endorses him.
Lupe Fiasco is still the future, the great hope, of this genre. At 27, with two universally acclaimed albums, and not even peaking yet, you have to ask what more people want. So what....so, he's not "Street" enough, for the hardcore rap, and he's not "backpack" enough for the underground crowd? If we can't accept Lupe's individuality, we might as well stop listening to rap music all together. So, I beg the rap community to ease off of Lupe. Don't eat this one alive. Once Kanye West loses it for good (should be here in the next two years or so, yeah?), he's our only link to positive mainstream influence.
Now that I'm done here, I'm going to catch some Degrassi reruns to remind myself why I can't take Drake seriously.
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