It is safe to say that hip-hop is not what it used to be. What started as a vent to express frustration and community issues in a fresh and unhindered form has turned into an outlet for rambles on the joys of having money and cars and the glorification of guns and drugs. Although these can also be considered issues in essence, the way they are positively portrayed to listeners promotes negative consequences. Inescapably, not only the rap community, but also regular listeners of radio or watchers of television are affected by negative and often fruitless rap. What we do not often acknowledge are those working effectually to counterbalance it. Enter Lupe Fiasco.
Fiasco, née Wasalu Jaco, has dedicated his entire career to shining positivity into the rap game. Whereas previous albums Lupe Fiasco’s Food & Liquor (2006) and The Cool (2007) had similar messages, his latest album raises the standards for socially conscious rap. L.A.S.E.R.S. fronts the creation of an entire manifesto that Fiasco created, based partially on the Ten Point Program of the Black Panther Party, of which his father was a member. Fiasco’s own program consists of a series of declarations to listeners, including his want to “end glamorization of negativity in the media,” to “end status symbols dictating our worth as individuals” and to “end the processed culture of exploitation, overconsumption and waste.”
The album title itself is an acronym for “Love Always Shines Everytime, Remember to Smile.”
“I had the title for five years,” Fiasco explained. “I like to have double meanings behind things. I don’t do anything for face value, so there needed to be a meaning or message somehow [behind it]. It’s no different for L.A.S.E.R.S..”
Fiasco, who has been mostly absent from the rap world (aside from one-off appearances like on B.o.B.’s “Past My Shades” and Janelle Monae’s “Tightrope” remix) has interesting, but humble, presumptions for his return to hip-hop.
“My expectations aren’t that high. At a certain point you get past fame, money, you get past certain things when it comes to making music because it’s such a personal thing,” the Grammy Award winner said. “I think the only thing that keeps me going and motivated, other than just making music and putting out the albums, is performing. I’m just excited to perform and put out some more records.”
Fiasco spoke diffidently on the impact that L.A.S.E.R.S. might have on other artists.
“I haven’t really pushed boundaries on it musically. When I think of people who do that I think of Kid Cudi’s last album or Frank Ocean [of Odd Future]. L.A.S.E.R.S. is an album. But it’s not like Kid A from Radiohead.”
Although Fiasco speaks modestly of the highly-anticipated album, its release did not come without a laborious grind. After starting the project without his business partner, label conflict and friction developed.
“A lot of creative conversations went south. The whole business of this record wasn’t about putting out another Lupe album and make it the best Lupe album there can be. [Instead, it was] let’s make this a business move and get into this revenue stream,” he said of the turmoil. “[Then] the business side of me kicked in that…told me to protect my own. Look out for the divine and conquer. The basic kind of rules when I came up in the business with my business partner, it was the things that he taught me to look out for [that saved me],” he said.
On Oct. 15 last year, while 29-year-old Fiasco fought with lawyers and the label, super fans organized a protest outside the Atlantic Records offices in Manhattan and dubbed the event “Fiasco Friday.”
“It was something that was unprecedented in the hip-hop world — the petition and the protest, even if you separate them, they are both unprecedented in that sense,” Fiasco recalled.
What he was most impressed with, however, was the thoughtfulness of it all.
“They went out and got the permits to protest, the police escorts, the barricades, the noise ordinance permits and allowances, they got lawyers, set up a website, marching instructions. It was such a thought-out process,” he said.
Although the protest confused some interviewers, fans responded as eloquently as Fiasco would himself.
“MTV was like, ‘Why wouldn’t you protest something that is worthy of a protest? Something like child hunger or poverty or gun violence or something like that?’ [But, the fans responded], ‘If you listen to Lupe’s music, you know that’s what we are doing. He is a part of that, he’s not the whole thing.’ And I don’t credit myself for being any way shape or form a leader in that world, but definitely a voice,” he said. “One small voice in the whole process.”
Now that the tumultuous process is over, Fiasco can focus on the real intended message.
“The L.A.S.E.R.S. manifesto isn’t a guidebook or a rulebook,” he said. “You have to do something. You have to act. If you don’t become an actor, you’ll never be a factor.”
