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

[LevelUp]

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.

Rep pending

 

[CrimsonTider]

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.

I bet you listened to the Weeknd

 

[doublejump]

Label issues and sometimes being too preachy for his own good. Still one of my favorites though.

 

[O.Red]

There's the music component to discuss but also Lupe was very much on and had many endorsement deals and cosigns

According to Lupe himself he lost all of that shyt over night when he called Obama a terrorist

Then there's the Atlantic dispute, which completed the process of him being blackballed

 

[Lucky_Lefty]

-Dissing Obama during his time as president, WHILE TRYING TO PROMOTE A NEW ALBUM (Lu himself said this put a stop to a major rollout he was working on and cut most of his media/music connections).

I remember walking towards the convention center with my then-wife to go to the inaugural ball and saying to myself, is that Lupe I hear saying "fukk Obama" and shrugged it off, thinking I was tripping. Come to find out, it was him

 

[Kooley_High]

Definetly a follower of Lupe until FL2. I can say his “Words I never said” phase did get to his head. I think he thought he was actually “doing something” by being super outspoken, but the way he was going about it wasnt smart.

But the label Drama combined with the above couldnt have occurred at the worst time. Like someone else said, Wayne, Drake, Ross, Kanye, Jay and Nicki were taking the rap world by storm. Not only that the new comers like Kendrick/Black Hippy, Wiz, J.Cole, KRIT and Wale were eating into his fan base. The game was changing and you couldnt afford to get caught up in drama during that transition.

 

[Mac Ten]

1. Lupe didnt play the game

Atlantic Records wasnt the right label for him anyways. He should have signed with Kanye/G.O.O.D music.

 

[maxamusa]

BOB took his spot

 

[DaHNIC82]

He's a very talented guy but that nikka is a obnoxious self pseudo know it all with a Im never wrong I'm God complex which rubs people wrong. Especially that bullshyt he was saying about George Zimmerman verdict and how he was caping for Iggy.


Then he started making lyrical wizardly type music to boast about how intelligent he is and not creating music that can be accessible by the masses. Kendrick and Cole came in his lane and excelled it.

 

[dakidbanks]

There were a few missteps in Lu's career. Some he has been very public and candid about, especially during his IG lives and interviews he's conducted. A couple of things:

-Lu's manager being in prison (this effected a lot of negotiations during his career)

-Dissing Obama during his time as president, WHILE TRYING TO PROMOTE A NEW ALBUM (Lu himself said this put a stop to a major rollout he was working on and cut most of his media/music connections).

-Signing to Atlantic because he thought Jay was going there. This is one of the biggest miscalculations because it led to a delayed album (Lasers) and him being musically stagnant after releasing the classic known as The Cool. Jay would go on to Def Jam (camel moves).

-Labels actively stopping their artist from collaborating with him (spoke on it during an IG live session). This started happening after speaking on Obama (see earlier reference).

-Kendrick beef? Lu was open at one point about Kendrick taking parts of his persona or creative ideas for himself (Kung Fu Kenny, DAMN being able to be played in reverse a la Tetsuo, Black Panther soundtrack cover, etc). Apologized years later, mentioned that while he still thinks he's the better lyricist, Kendrick makes better music.

-SLR rapping style. Lu is in my top 5 as far as artist are concerned but not everyone wants to play the DaVinci Code to digest music. His music is layered and very complex at times, making it a task for new listeners, since music has been dumbed down for the casual consumer.

Yet, despite all this, he's released some of the best music since being independent. Not a fan at all of these latest singles though.

Speaking of features, I wonder what happened to these

https://x.com/migos/status/543875394701918208?s=46&t=nzz8Rs37VGDGMwRR5ATjfg

https://x.com/lupefiasco/status/543875842716082176?s=46&t=nzz8Rs37VGDGMwRR5ATjfg

https://x.com/lupefiasco/status/543879908254945280?s=46&t=nzz8Rs37VGDGMwRR5ATjfg

Couldnt figure out how to embed the tweets as I’m on mobile but that’s Migos, Schoolboy, etc collabs in the vault

 

[Piff Perkins]

1. Lupe didnt play the game

Atlantic Records wasnt the right label for him anyways. He should have signed with Kanye/G.O.O.D music.

I don’t see how that changes much. Maybe he has less hits with Kanye. Plus he had more career success than any rapper signed to GOOD besides Big Sean.

He had a good run, is what I’m trying to say. Better than a lot of rappers at the time who we thought were bigger. It’s not like he was going to get more popular once Drake/Cole/Kdot took over in 2011/2012 so I feel like he made the most of his circumstances at the time.

 

[Mag Wheel]

I am a Lupe supporter and the answer is simple. That nikka likes trash beats. End of story.

 

[Wild self]

One word: timing

If Lupe dropped in 2002 when mainstream records with lyricism were still selling and complex bars were heard in all kinds of rap singles, Lupe would have blew the world. Too bad he dropped in 2006 when the lyrical bar was greatly lowered and people were obsessed with southern beats and feminine dances. Nobody wanted to hear triple-meaning bars and dope lyrical records at that point.

 

[Ziggiy]

1. Lupe didnt play the game

Atlantic Records wasnt the right label for him anyways. He should have signed with Kanye/G.O.O.D music.

He would have been Kanye’s glorified Ghostwriter on G.O.O.D Music. He was always MUCH better off being his own entity, his manager going to prison is the catalyst for things going south at Atlantic because there was no buffer between him and the label which means he had to deal directly with Lyor Cohen’s slimy, treacherous ways.

 

[Mac Ten]

One word: timing

If Lupe dropped in 2002 when mainstream records with lyricism were still selling and complex bars were heard in all kinds of rap singles, Lupe would have blew the world. Too bad he dropped in 2006 when the lyrical bar was greatly lowered and people were obsessed with southern beats and feminine dances. Nobody wanted to hear triple-meaning bars and dope lyrical records at that point.

The Game, Jay-Z, and Nas still sold records that year..

Iirc, Fall and Winter 2006 was when all the best releases came out.

Lu should have did what Jay did and dumbed his lyrics to double his dollars.