Friday, October 1, 2010

MTV Offers Lupe Fiasco Some "Career Advice"

So today being a #FiascoFriday it was only too appropriate for the haters to come out and bash the way Lupe goes about his business. An MTV article claims that because Lupe doesn't drop a new track every week that he's fading out of the public imagination, hence the album delay. They also sort of inferred that Lupe doesn't deserve the #FiascoFriday protest, that is being held on October 15th outside of the HQ of Atlantic Records in New York, because he doesn't "deliver" to his fans on a more consistent basis.

One of MTV's main arguments was the fact that Lupe passes on "hit" records and refuses to record the types of songs that get massive radio play. Specifically the fact that Lupe passed on "Nothin' on You" and instead gave it to labelmate B.o.B. What MTV forgot to tell was that Lupe did initially record his own version of "Nothin' on You" but when he heard B.o.B.'s version he felt that it would be more of a success than his previously recorded version and guess what? it was. So a selfless act to give a labelmate a push in the public sphere gets Lupe criticized for not being selfish enough (yea that's what you want to teach kids right?). MTV instead makes it seem like Lupe passed on "Nothin on You" because he thought it would be a success. Seriously? who thinks like that? That's like a baseball player saying he's not going to use a bat to hit because he could actually get a hit (yea it makes no sense to me either).

Another thing that the article brought to the front was that if Lupe is actually all about the music why doesn't he just release L.A.S.E.R.S. as a mixtape? This is where the label politics and legal jargon come in. An album differs from a mixtape in the fact that the money provided to create it comes from the label versus a mixtape which an artist pays for themselves and sometimes the label will pitch in. Therefore an album is an entity of the label and not the artist themselves. This is why artists don't make crazy amounts off album sales because they only get a percentage of the profits and most of the profits go to the label in order for them to one, at least break even on the production value of the album and two, to create a profit (the album makes more than it took to make). Therefore if Lupe were to "release" L.A.S.E.R.S. without Atlantic's permission it could possibly be a breach of his contract (not totally sure about this 'cause I don't know what the particulars of the contract are) and Atlantic would have the right to sue him.

Anyway, Lupe fans went on the offensive and flooded Twitter and Facebook with messages of support aimed at Lupe and bashing MTV for it's um, "advice" to a critically acclaimed artist. It wasn't just fans either, artists like Chamillionaire and fellow All City Chess Club member Wale, also gave their endorsements to Lupe.





MTV has once again incensed the Lupe fans and let's all hope it's for the best and results in the release of L.A.S.E.R.S. I've been waiting for the album since the Cool dropped and I'll continue to wait but in the meantime I'm going to continue listening to the timeless and countless Lupe mixtapes and his 2 studio albums (by the way I did BUY the albums when they dropped) that have messages in them that ring true to this day. Certain artists get immortalized with their music and that's what Lupe's music will be like. It'll be remembered years from now and still ring true. Just like Tupac who some (like me) regard as the greatest rapper of all time. 'Pac didn't have an extensive mixtape collection or a large quantity of studio albums but his music lives on forever because he was a true poet that stayed true to his craft and didn't hold back in sending out the truths of society. If Tupac is the Malcolm X of rap then in my opinion Lupe Fiasco is the Martin Luther King Jr. of rap.

Peace and Much Love to Ya :)

*you can read the original MTV article here*