I love Obama, and I love the fact that it’s a black president of the United States of America, but he’s not the first black president. Robert Mugabe is a black president, too, so let’s not get to talking about precedents being set. – Lupe Fiasco
Once you’ve been on tour six, seven years, you get an idea of what works and what doesn’t work universally. There will be some crowds that we just can’t play a song, but we’ve got 90% of a show that we know is going to be a hit with the Lupe Fiasco fan. I think the catering has already been done. – Lupe Fiasco
The economical policies that are instigated really makes you think that the American government is a bunch of evil bastards. So just because you’re black, you’re still representing that government, and when Obama came into office he enacted the same policies that we would critique other presidents for. – Lupe Fiasco
I don’t hate the music, but I hate the process. When I look at it, I don’t see song titles and artwork, I see the fight – I see the emotions, the blood, sweat and tears. There are a couple of songs on there that I love; but ‘Lasers’ is a little bit of what you love, a little bit of what you like, and a lot of what you had to do. – Lupe Fiasco
We weren’t raised Muslim – we were born Muslim. I didn’t go to a Muslim school, but it was just the theme song. It was ambient. – Lupe Fiasco
I have yet to see someone attack Obama over his report card. A lot of people I talk to from both sides of the fence are like, ‘Well, what about this economy? What about these incidents?’ There are still no answers except time, but time is the answer for everything. – Lupe Fiasco
I definitely want to work with Thom Yorke. I want to work with Damien Marley; there’s a few international artists I wouldn’t mind working with – like Massacre Children would be ill, and I still have an affinity for the U.K. hip hop scene. – Lupe Fiasco
I think Romney’s talking himself out of the election, to be honest. I was wondering what was gonna happen when the Republican power structure turned the money on, and then they turned on the money and nothing happened. – Lupe Fiasco
With Australian audiences, there’s a certain level of education – as far as how much access and exposure they have to music from various genres. So when you do ‘Big Day Out’ and there are all these different musical acts, you see the same people in your crowd that were there for a completely different artist. – Lupe Fiasco
Oh yeah, I’m literally walking through my house now looking down and there are maybe, like, 15 pairs on the floor. For real. Real talk. It’s just simplicity. They’re something I wear every day. Before I got a deal with them, I was wearing some type of Vans all the time. I would just order them by the box, like, 10 at a time. – Lupe Fiasco
In Chicago, you have an absence of strong family units, and that absence gets filled by gangs. You have a failure in the school system, after-school programs and other social programs to help keep kids off the streets. Amnesty International speaks to that in some way, by keeping these issues in the forefront. – Lupe Fiasco
If you want to relate me to the newer cats, let’s go. Let’s go line for line and bar for bar. If it’s all about spitting and metaphors and MCing and lyrics and entendres, I will eat 99 percent of you dudes up. – Lupe Fiasco
I find it somewhat liberating to jump, to dive into things that are the opposite of me. – Lupe Fiasco
Obama came in and gave $700 billion to the bankers off the top as opposed to giving $700 billion to the poor. – Lupe Fiasco
You know, my goal, once I leave the music business, is like, ‘Man, Lupe didn’t lead us astray.’ It comes directly from Islam: leading people astray is the worst thing you could do. Especially in perpetuity; like, your music continues to go on and live without you. That risk is too great for me; I’m gonna keep it positive. – Lupe Fiasco
That should be the measure of success for everyone. It’s not money, it’s not fame, it’s not celebrity; my index of success is happiness. – Lupe Fiasco
In my fight against terrorism, to me, the biggest terrorist is Obama, and the United States of America. – Lupe Fiasco
Da Pak was a group out of Chicago. It was a put-together group. We actually met for the first time at this showcase. They were like ‘Yo, you should do a song together.’ So we did. It just so happened that the name of the song was ‘Wolf Pak.’ They said, ‘Y’all should be a group called Da Pak, and here’s a record deal.’ – Lupe Fiasco
