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this is a great interview for the sole fact that lupe isn’t the bitchy, gripey shell of who he’s been for the past two years. he’s all smiles and gleamin’ off the successful campaign to release LASERS in a retail form – this interview follows that story and he has about 25 minutes worth of shit he had to say. good stuff. part II after the jump.
-grizzly
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as lupe edges closer to the date, the promo’s gonna be getting heavier. with a new single dropping february 1st, he put together this “political” clip to promote it. not a fan of the direction it’s headed, but that’s lu for ya. “words i never said” on feb. 1, lasers on march 8th.
-grizzly
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an underwhelming video, sure. but man, this song still rules everything. i really hope atlantic doesn’t drop the ball when it comes to promoting lasers, because they’ve definitely got a hit on their hands.
-grizzly
lupe talks to rubyhornet about the trials and tribulations that led to the road that’s headed for march 8, 2011. lasers is dropping, and that’s all that counts. let’s hope it’s actually good though.
-grizzly
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wait a second… lasers was gonna have catchy songs? and one that samples indie band modest mouse’s “float on?” the official release date is march 8th, 2011? okay, lu. go on and do you. i’ve waited this long…
lasers is out march 2011.
download:
- sunbear
guess i got my foot in my mouth now. lasers IS coming out, and even though it’s not anytime soon, we’re getting a single at the end of the month. i’m good.
-grizzly
lu, do us all a favor and stop crying about this. i feel your pain in atlantic’s inability to understand you as a mistreated artist and release lasers. it does suck. but after petitions, marches and speaking out during a keynote speech, you really think those dudes are just gonna friend it up and drop the record? at this point, it’s best if you have the record be “put into the wrong hands” and “leaked prematurely.” everyone’s gonna benefit off of it. and i mean it.
+ your entire fanbase will celebrate having it.
+ act out publicly and get pissed, that’ll go over well. you can set up a paypal fund on your website, enabling fans to donate money to “recoup” the losses of lasers.
+ also, go on another tour. every date on the steppin’ lasers tour was sold out and those were mid-sized ballrooms and small amphitheaters.
+ having the album out will get atlantic off your back about lasers becoming more ‘radio-friendly’ or whatever their beefs were, and you can start recording a follow-up.
after all, you are the one who signed your recording contract, and as far as the hip-hop community goes, you have very little creative freedom unless you’re lil wayne, kanye or eminem. do the right thing, lu. no amount of protesting or tantrums will put this record out. this whole FIASCO is detrimental to your fanbase and image.
-grizzly
this interview clears up a lot of the air around the lasers/food and liquor II situation. highly recommended. complex always does the artists involved complete justice when it comes to providing the public with a no-frills, all business interview.
And in this instance, Lasers has been done for two and a half years. I was ready to give it to you two and a half years ago. The reason I did Enemy of the State was out of desperation. Releasing these records now is out of desperation. This isn’t out of my feeling like, “Oh man, I got to satisfy my fans.” And this isn’t coming from some artsy place. These are acts of desperation. I don’t want to do desperate acts, I want to make music because I want to make music.
read:
lupe fiasco’s interview with complex magazine.
-grizzly
EDIT: CDQ EXPLICIT.
at this point, i haven’t the slightest clue about what’s to come from lupe. when he dropped this snippet about a weekish ago, it was tagged under the album food and liquor 2: the great american rap album. clearly there’s speculation. is F+L:2 replacing lasers? a follow-up? why would he be dropping songs from a follow-up if the initial isn’t out yet? complete tomfoolery. either way, this is one of the only good new lu songs, so get your hands on it and rock this CDQ (albeit clean) version for the time being.
download:
grizzly
dropped off via his twitter yesterday, lupe loses his damn mind and lights up the ross single. lupe announced the freestyle as a gift to those that have supported the #wewantlasers movement and signed this petition to pursued the higher ups at atlantic to release lasers. be sure you support the movement sign if you haven’t yet.
download:
lupe fiasco – BMF (building minds faster!) freestyle.
- panda
great interview by the hypebeast crew. has a nice live catalog of lupe’s steppin’ lasers tour thrown in for good measure as well.
-grizzly
and now, the headliner. lupe’s live show was completely unexpected. having seen him twice before, nothing compared to this show. his glow in the dark tour set was matched with a crowd 2/3 empty and complete houston summer sun, and his bun b and friends set was a mere four songs, leaving much to be desired. accompanied by one of the best hip-hop drummers i’ve ever seen and a full band, lupe fiasco touched base on his entire discography, including a mixtape cut and five new joints. the encore provided us with the livest version of ‘swang on em’ with bun b you’ve ever heard, too.
enough chattin. tracklist beneath the jump.
download:
-grizzly
after seeing this song performed live and seeing these ridiculously clean visuals for this song, it’s safe to say ‘i’m beamin’ has grown on me a bit. i was definitely underwhelmed at first, but a couple of the new songs get me excited about lasers. not to mention, lupe’s completely massive live show.
lasers drops…sometime soon hopefully.
download:
-grizzly
so apparently this chad hugo (of the neptunes) produced joint is a product of a 2007 recording session with alicia keys, which is why her vocal is so heavy on the track. since it didn’t end up on her last album, lupe took advantage and is bringing it to lasers. while i wasn’t blown away at first (i can only assume this isn’t a final master), it’s definitely growing on me with each listen. plus, you can’t go wrong with a neptune knocking the production out of the park.
download:
lupe fiasco – love letter to the beat f. alicia keys.
- panda
this is the best quality footage of this track there is, that i’ve seen thus far anyway. this song sounds dope as hell, which is much more than i can say for any new lu material i’ve heard off of lasers. as houston’s getting closer to their date of the steppin’ lasers tour, i’m getting way more excited.
and ignore the yelling bro in this video.
-grizzly
