Grammy award-winning rapper Lupe Fiasco has been around for a while. He won a Grammy for his hit “Daydreamin “with Jill Scott in 2006. The Chicagoan is now 40 years old as he first came on the scene in the early 2000s with stamp of approvals from Jay-Z and Ye. His first two albums were met with high praise, “Food & Liquor” and “The Cool”. He dropped “Lasers” in 2011 and that topped the Billboard charts that year. But around that time, Lupe had a few obstacles to deal with.
He wasn’t seeing eye to eye with his label, Atlantic Records. He also made comments about former President Barack Obama as he claimed President Obama was the “biggest terrorist”. Both instances did not work out in Lupe’s favor as his name became tarnished around the industry. Although, he continued to drop music eventually going independent.
https://twitter.com/lupefiasco/status/1545948628933640198?s=21&t=IifT4tQLunrQLjWHIe3KYA
Drill Music in Zion
Fast forward to 2022 and Lupe has found himself teaching rap at the prominent Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The course starts this fall and will involve computing and activism as well. Before he heads to class, he decided to drop us off an album. “Drill Music in Zion” was released a few weeks ago and he created the project in only 3 days! It is being received well, while Lupe continues to work day in and day out.
He spends most of the days dealing with the boring part of rap such as answering emails, phone calls, and following agendas. This is the business part that he refers to this as scams and scandals. Originally, Lupe wasn’t going to drop an album, but his label co-owner asked him to. The album title came to Lupe in a freestyle, and he instantly knew that was going to be the title. In an interview with XXL, Lupe explained that the album is not about Drill music or Chicago.
“It’s not so much necessarily about Chicago. It’s just the title and it’s how does that title guide certain things?”, said Lupe.
Reality of Drill Music
One thing about Drill music though, Lupe wished it was just entertainment. The rappers are telling the truth through the Drill music and people all over the world are singing and dancing to it. He references Pop Smoke, for example. He was killed as being a part of that type of music and Lupe is not entertained by that. It’s 2022 and Lupe has been in the game for 15 years now, he feels he doesn’t have a role in hip-hop anymore. Every now and then, he just wants to pop up and deliver his lyricism to the current generation.
Written by: Brandon Simmons
