Staff writer Louis Johnson spoke with acclaimed Chicago rapper Lupe Fiasco Friday in anticipation of his upcoming show at the Orpheum Theater on Wednesday. The full interview is presented below.
LJ: What do you expect from the fans, the atmosphere and the city of Madison?
LF: I try not to have expectations when I go into a city, or another area or whatever. Whether it be a place I’ve been to multiple times or a place I’ve been to never or a place I’ve been to maybe once, I try to tone down my expectations so I don’t get over-excited. I just come in and say, “Hey, I’m going to give a good performance, no matter if it’s one person or 10,000 people, or if they’re kind of laid-back and chilling and everybody’s high, or if everyone’s just super turned up and ready to tear the place apart.” I just try to maintain the same level of performance that I do anywhere else.
LJ: What can fans expect to hear during the show?
LF: Well, the album is Tetsuo & Youth, and this is the Tetsuo & Youth Preview Tour, and it’s just that we’re previewing brand new records off of the new album, but still mixing that with the records that I’m known for, then also blending that with the kind of in-between, internet-sensation records that are more for the cult fan base kind of thing. Then some stuff that didn’t play on the radio, stuff that wasn’t front-page news. But definitely you’ll have the legion of core Lupe Fiasco fans who’ll be happy about it. So it’s just a mix of that. The push of it is to get the itch, get people introduced to the new album.
LJ: What is the meaning behind the title of your new album, Tetsuo & Youth?
LF: It doesn’t mean anything. It’s called Tetsuo & Youth, because I pulled it out of a hat. You know it was kind of just like two words I liked. So it doesn’t really mean anything, you know?
LJ: You said you wanted to appeal to core fans at your concert. One of my favorite underground Lupe tracks is called “Switch.” What were you trying to get across in this song?
LF: I don’t know. “Switch” was more from the mixtape era, and “Switch” was more like a demonstration. It was like going to the circus. You see acrobats and people getting fired out of cannons. It serves no real purpose in the world. It’s more just like this is what I’m capable of as an MC—rapping in seven different personalities with six different voices. It was really because that beat was dope. [The Mike Jones sample] had just came out, and this beat was crazy. It was kind of just like you know I’ma flick it.
LJ: What are you doing to expand or transform the genre of hip-hop?
LF: Nothing really, bro. I’m still in it. You know I’m bringing to it what I bring to it on a daily basis. Every time I put out a song or an album I’m adding to the culture. From my experiences or my talent I just try to perform and operate at a high level. So when people look back at hip-hop as a whole, you can never say that these dudes didn’t have talent or didn’t have skill, or that these dudes didn’t take it seriously, or these dudes didn’t have a message, or these dudes didn’t have some serious weight behind what they were saying. It’s just constantly reinforcing that to the culture and to the world. So that’s really it.
LJ: What do you think Chicago brings to hip-hop as opposed to the East Coast or the West Coast or the South?
LF: We just bring our point of view. We bring the Chi-Town point of view. Same way New York brings the New York point of view. L.A. brings the L.A. point of view. Canada brings the Canada point of view. It’s just our particular point of view from our particular place—and our influences and social factors—then bringing it to the world and competing with other territories. I think we have more quality over quantity. You can count on maybe three hands the amount of emcees that you immediately recognize coming from Chicago, as opposed to New York or maybe L.A. or the South. But with all those MCs, we dominate. We’re forces to be reckoned with. Whether it be Kanye to me to Common to Twista to Chance the Rapper—you definitely know we’re not nothing to play with in any capacity: on stage, on the radio, making videos. We definitely compete on a world-class level.
LJ: Who are your favorite artists right now?
LF: Well, in hip-hop, I love Big K.R.I.T. I like this new kid named King Krule from the U.K., who I’m kind of digging. But it’s still Atoms for Peace, which is still my love affair for Radiohead. It’s nothing too out-the-box.
LJ: As a kid what did you grow up listening to?
LF: I listened to everything. I started off listening to classical music. From there it went to being about jazz and then hip-hop and then rock music and everything else. So my inspirations have varied everywhere. You know, it’s funny because now I rarely listen to hip-hop. It’s really rare for me to just listen to hip-hop all day long. It’s always jazz, or at least a movie or opera or something like that. So just a mix of things.
LJ: What ventures are you into besides music, such as business or fashion?
LF: Yeah I have a few companies, a few business partners who do some different things. We just shot a film called “Little Ballers,” which will be out next year. It’s a documentary about Amateur Athletic Union basketball. I’m creative director for a company called Higi. It’s a kind of wellness-lifestyle tech company based out of Chicago. I do some work with them. As far as fashion, I got a fashion company called Trilly and Truly and a design company called Righteous Kung Fu, which does everything from clothes to sneakers to whatever be your direction artistically.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zu7hYbw0x3Y
LJ: How did the track “Old School Love” with Ed Sheeran come about?
LF: Me and Ed are on the same record company. It kind of came through the channel of the record company trying to get us on a joint. He did a record, sent it to me, I put my piece into it, sent it back and now we have this—hopefully a big smash on our hands.
LJ: You and Nipsey Hussle were both formerly signed to Epic Records. What did you think of his independent artist campaign, “Proud2Pay,” for his latest mixtape, Crenshaw?
LF: I don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade, but people have been selling stuff out the trunk of their cars for years. That’s been going on for decades and decades. I think it just got so much attention because it got exposed in the media—about an artist’s relationship with the music and how people don’t like to pay for music. That’s not a good thing for us. The reason it was so dope is it wasn’t digital. You had to actually come to where he was and purchase a physical piece of something and leave with it as opposed to going on The Pirate Bay or even iTunes and downloading something just willy-nilly. It’s like now you have to make an effort to come and get this. I think that whole process is what he kind of not really brought back new, but just did it for the sake of doing it. We can go so many ways with it, and the people respond to it. It just shows there’s still people who—if you come up with a good product—people will buy it. At the end of the day, you come with good product, people will buy it. And sometimes you come with a good product and people still don’t want to pay for it. But it was just one of those things where it was the right timing, right moment. I hope people really got the message of what it was. I appreciate my fans, but I hope you also appreciate the value of what I’m doing and not think I’m trying to cheat you out of something or just trying to give you some bullshit. Like, no, this is my art. It took time and money for me to create it. Even if I break even, it’s a bunch of stuff that goes into it. But at the same time too, people have been selling out the trunk of their cars for years. People still do it now.
LJ: Are there any artists you would like to sign or to promote?
LF: There are artists that are on tour with me. There’s my man Dee-1, who actually just got signed to RCA, then Stalley who just signed with [Maybach Music Group]. There’s a new kid who is still unsigned—his name is The Boy Illinois. I just kind of put people in the position to promote themselves and promote what they do, but I don’t want to be involved with them in a business relationship. I’m honestly not looking to do that anymore.
LJ: Do you plan on doing any collaborative albums similar to what Jay Z and Kanye West did on Watch the Throne?
LF: Yea. Me and Symbolyc One are putting together a project called Black Vietnam, which will come out after the next album, but we’re working on that now.
LJ: What advice can you give to the 20-something on how to be successful in the business, fashion or entertainment world?
LF: Know what you want. Set your expectations low. Set your work ethic high and your expectations low. Just know what you want. And that’s about it.
LJ: What do you want your lasting impression to be on your fans?
LF: As long as I didn’t lead you astray. I don’t want my reputation to be “he came and lied to us” or “he made me go hurt somebody.” I don’t want that on my record with the Lord.
