Why didn't Lupe Fiasco achieve long mainstream success? | r/hiphopheads

[re'up]

Never was really listening to Lupe, but I did like Dumb it Down in 2007?

Clipse did a version, I played a lot more, which tells you all about my tastes in a sentence. oh and Superstar, which I liked too, but again, listened to the street version, which was Young Buck LOL

My thoughts, are in addition to the the other really insightful points, NO ONE was going to have his content and look, and prosper much post 2008 or so. The whole game changed. Even major artists who weren't that weird or conscious got lost.

 

[NoHalfWay]

Never was really listening to Lupe, but I did like Dumb it Down in 2007?

Clipse did a version, I played a lot more, which tells you all about my tastes in a sentence.

Just listen to his music pre-2005/2006 then

 

[MegaTronBomb!]

Atlantic killed all that.

He got big right at the time Atlantic was notorious for 360's...but it also came out that Atlantic had a whole collection of pre-built hit songs that just needed a rapper to put a verse to.

But also, him being active on twitter did a lot of damage to the idea of what Lupe Fiasco was to a lot of fans...they found out that he had controversial opinions/takes and very much ok with being a contrarian for the greater good.

 

[MegaTronBomb!]

nikkas keep bringing up being signed to Atlantic, that’s got nothing to do with him putting out some trash which killed his momentum

I literally made a change petition for that Lasers album as a joke on SOHH.

He did admit that the fans respons to Lasers was had him hurt.... but the combination of label issues and dropping a dud stopped all that shyt.

 

[Sir Richard Spirit]

Lupe went wrong. For all the talent he has, there was a lot of self sabotage. IMO, he did the same thing Little Brother did, sign to Atlantic, and then complain when they wanted a certain sound or look. Its the definition of hustling backwards especially with Lupe. Not only did he have his own team of producers, his own sound, had Jay Z executive producing his album, had Kanye and Neptunes production. Did he reall NEED Atlantic? And even signing to a major, why not something like a Def Jam where he might've flourished and had more control.

Even with Atlantic, his argument was that they had him making songs he didn't want to make. Well, you can't really argue against the label when said songs become one of your biggest hits i.e. "Show Goes On".

I don’t think he complained about a certain look more so the way records were split up
His deal was RIGHT before the standardized 360. Lupe never wanted a 360 and when it was time for him to finish his deal they played games with him in order to get him to sign one.

Lupe DID complain about the music the label wanted him to make. He then tried to reverse the conversation and spin it into something else. LASERS was the end of Lupe.

 

[Pop123]

Bombing on Obama during Obama’s honeymoon phase lit the wick…criticizing and going at the jooz hard was the explosion/implosion that destroyed his whole shyt…imo. The label stuff didn’t help either

 

[Finesse]

Lupe had a more successful career than 98% of rappers.

 

[Ziggiy]

Its already been explained but the label fukked him over because he wouldn’t sign a 360. Lyor Cohen came to his hotel room while he was super sick with Meningitis and tried to strong arm him into signing a 360, which royally pissed Lupe off. Lupe told Lyor that in exchange for renegotiating his contract he wanted his Masters and Lyor refused and was an a$$hole about it. After that Lyor basically told him he was on the shelf.

The label also wanted him to record to pre-made “hit”’songs, which Lupe refused to do because he got no publishing off those songs. If you listen to his version of Nothing On You and Airplanes on YouTube he literally sounds miserable.




The label also wouldn’t let him record lupEND as a triple album, which would have ended his contractual obligations to them.

Even after the infamous hacking group Anonymous threatened to leak Atlantic’s entire infrastructure and the fans protested outside of Atlantic's offices, Atlantic would only release Lasers if Lupe included Show Goes On and Never Forget You, two prepackaged songs he would receive no publishing from. Thats why he dissed the album when it came out. Atlantic also refused to promote I’m Beaming which Lupe spent $150K on and Shining Down (They also lowkey tried to blackball Matthew Santos, who never wanted to be a pop star in the first place)

Couple all of this with 1st & 15th going through ALOT of drama and strife because of Chilly going to prison and Lupe not having the bandwith to be a label head and basically letting all the artists go. Lupe choosing to diss Obama at a time when black people dissing Obama was HEAVILY frowned upon and Lupe basically saying “fukk the industry” and going left and thats why his mainstream career was cut short.


If you piece together through Lupe’s interviews during the time of Lasers-Drogas Light Lupe just didn’t care anymore. Fighting Atlantic took a LOT out of him and he didn’t like the industry nor what was required of him to be a star in the industry. His only motivation for rapping was becoming the best lyricist he could be. He didn’t want to make hit songs which is why after Battle Scars from F&L2 he never tried. He didn’t collab with any big artists. And after his contract was blessedly up he went STRAIGHT indie.


I don’t think Lupe regrets the path he ended up taking. He got to experience all the trappings of fame as a “backpack” rapper (though he was far from it) sold millions of records. Won a Grammy. Was on the cover of GQ magazine. Has one bonafide classic album and another debatable one. Has the ultimate respect of his heroes Nas and Jay-Z. Didn’t conform. Told the label to kiss his ass. And can still tour to this day off of his catalogue. He went from being blackballed to being a professor at MIT. Thats nothing to sneeze at.

 

[CrimsonTider]

Lupe had a more successful career than 98% of rappers.

I think he had a slightly above average mainstream career. That’s a win

 

[TNC]

Lupe has/had a successful career. His style of content and music was never going to be Drake/‘Em levels but as far as substance rappers go, he’s had one of the best careers

 

[Street Knowledge]

His ear for beats is ass

 

[BK The Great]

Lupe was successful as far as him dropping quality music. The Cool & Lasers had him getting radio play. Even if it was a small run that’s a win for him.

 

[Black Hans]

Because he deliberately chose to be a self-righteous dweeb and being otaku instead of being a great emcee who spit real life

 

[MegaTronBomb!]

Its already been explained but the label fukked him over because he wouldn’t sign a 360. Lyor Cohen came to his hotel room while he was super sick with Meningitis and tried to strong arm him into signing a 360, which royally pissed Lupe off. Lupe told Lyor that in exchange for renegotiating his contract he wanted his Masters and Lyor refused and was an a$$hole about it. After that Lyor basically told him he was on the shelf.

The label also wanted him to record to pre-made “hit”’songs, which Lupe refused to do because he got no publishing off those songs. If you listen to his version of Nothing On You and Airplanes on YouTube he literally sounds miserable.




The label also wouldn’t let him record lupEND as a triple album, which would have ended his contractual obligations to them.

Even after the infamous hacking group Anonymous threatened to leak Atlantic’s entire infrastructure and the fans protested outside of Atlantic's offices, Atlantic would only release Lasers if Lupe included Show Goes On and Never Forget You, two prepackaged songs he would receive no publishing from. Thats why he dissed the album when it came out. Atlantic also refused to promote I’m Beaming which Lupe spent $150K on and Shining Down (They also lowkey tried to blackball Matthew Santos, who never wanted to be a pop star in the first place)

Couple all of this with 1st & 15th going through ALOT of drama and strife because of Chilly going to prison and Lupe not having the bandwith to be a label head and basically letting all the artists go. Lupe choosing to diss Obama at a time when black people dissing Obama was HEAVILY frowned upon and Lupe basically saying “fukk the industry” and going left and thats why his mainstream career was cut short.


If you piece together through Lupe’s interviews during the time of Lasers-Drogas Light Lupe just didn’t care anymore. Fighting Atlantic took a LOT out of him and he didn’t like the industry nor what was required of him to be a star in the industry. His only motivation for rapping was becoming the best lyricist he could be. He didn’t want to make hit songs which is why after Battle Scars from F&L2 he never tried. He didn’t collab with any big artists. And after his contract was blessedly up he went STRAIGHT indie.


I don’t think Lupe regrets the path he ended up taking. He got to experience all the trappings of fame as a “backpack” rapper (though he was far from it) sold millions of records. Won a Grammy. Was on the cover of GQ magazine. Has one bonafide classic album and another debatable one. Has the ultimate respect of his heroes Nas and Jay-Z. Didn’t conform. Told the label to kiss his ass. And can still tour to this day off of his catalogue. He went from being blackballed to being a professor at MIT. Thats nothing to sneeze at.

This was the time when people found out that Atlantic had an entire catalogue of pre-built hit songs to service to radio. If you listen to Wiz on Rolling Papers, you can clearly tell that Stargate had them songs in the stash ready to before he got on them.

 

[CrimsonTider]

Lupe has/had a successful career. His style of content and music was never going to be Drake/‘Em levels but as far as substance rappers go, he’s had one of the best careers

He had one of the best careers for someone in the rap nerd/backpack lane but he also had advantages that none of the others did

Kanye stimulus, Jay z co sign, Pharrell beats on 1st album