The gloss, though, hides a more turbulent heart.Īmidst textbook pop-hop vocal hooks on “Words I Never Said,” Fiasco drops 9-11 conspiracy theories, inflammatory comments on conservative pundits, Israel and even Obama, while “All Black Everything” imagines an alternate world where slavery never having happened somehow causes Ahmajinedad to win a Nobel Peace Prize (after Bill O’Reilly reads from the Koran). "I have three more to do with my record company, and I will continue to do music until I decide to stop.A confounding mix of confrontation and polishįor an album four years in the making, delayed by often-public struggles with Lupe Fiasco’s label, Lasers is surprisingly polished, poppy and contemporary. "This will not be my last album," Fiasco says. That decision, he says, "got lost in translation" - but he says he isn't discouraged. Even Lasers was originally meant to be part of a genre-spanning three-disc set - which he'd hoped would satisfy his current contract and release him to take a new direction. Last year, he introduced Japanese Cartoon, a post-punk side project in which he affects a mock British accent in the mold of Joy Division's Ian Curtis.
"Kick, Push," the Grammy-nominated single from his first record, Food & Liquor, became a skater anthem, popular with skateboarders black and white, urban and suburban.įiasco has continued to experiment. Take this couplet: "Jihad is not a holy war, where's that in the worship? / Murdering is not Islam, and you are not observant."įiasco says he sees his music, which pulls influences from prog and experimental rock, as a way to bring different groups of listeners together - including those who are wary of hip-hop. "My father always kept everything around us, from Western philosophy to Eastern philosophy." That air of tolerance is reflected in the song, which is in part a reaction to Islamic extremism. "I was born Muslim, but for a large part of my life, I wasn't necessarily raised Muslim," he says. He attributes this in part to the tradition of faith in which he grew up. Growing up around potentially dangerous influences in his neighborhood, Fiasco managed to keep out of trouble. In "Words I Never Said," from his new album Lasers, Fiasco explores another part of his upbringing: Islam.
"I know what tablas sound like, because my father played a lot of Ustad Ali Akbar Khan." Fiasco says his knowledge base has made him uncompromising as an arranger: "I can't play any instrument for the life of me, but I know what I want to hear." "I have an understanding of Queen and the way Freddie Mercury did his harmonies," Fiasco says. Known to use a range of styles in his songs, Fiasco says his father was instrumental in building this base of music knowledge. He listened to N.W.A in the car with his father, but also had access to an extensive record collection that spanned world music and jazz. Music was a big part of Fiasco's global education. It was just all these little knickknacks and pieces of the world strewn around the house." His father's tastes were even more eclectic: "There would be a massive collection of swords from Pakistan, and then a ton of Ravi Shankar vinyl, and then a set of bagpipes, and these vases from China. "My mother had a massive collection of National Geographics," he says. It was kind of weird to see that dual story that everybody has."įiasco's parents divorced when he was young, and he spent time with both of his parents, who each exposed him to the world outside his neighborhood. "I saw the dudes who would be the gangsta, big-time guys on the block, but would also be dedicated fathers. "I always saw two sides of life," Fiasco tells Weekend All Things Considered host Guy Raz. Fiasco celebrates the idea of being an oddball - he is a living juxtaposition. He raps about cops and drug dealers, but he's also known to quote Nietzche, Orwell, Chomsky and Howard Zinn. Now 29, Lupe Fiasco is arguably the most innovative rapper to hit the scene in more than a decade. This is the story of Lupe Fiasco - that's Wasalu Jaco's stage name.
But, while his friends were drifting in and out of jail, he joined the chess club and the academic decathlon at high school.
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Wasalu Muhammad Jaco grew up in rough neighborhoods in and around Chicago, where crack addicts would pass out on his front stoop. Lupe Fiasco went from high-school chess club to the heights of hip-hop.
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