Lupe Fiasco energized hip-hop when his highly anticipated 2006 début Food & Liquor leaked on-line before shooting into the Top 10 of Billboard's album charts upon its release. Critics hailed the rapper as the savior of the genre on the strength of tracks like the skateboard anthem "Kick, Push" and his mellow, Ggrammy-winning duet with soul-jazz singer Jill Scott on "Daydreamin'."
Born Wasalu Muahmmad Jaco on February 17th 1982, in Chicago, Illinois, he is the son of a gourmet chef and engineer father. When the rapper was a child, his mother gave him the nickname "Lu" by shortening his first name. By high school his friends began calling him Lupe and he picked up Fiasco from a track by hip-hop super group the Firm. A fan of rapper Nas, Fiasco began rapping at age 19 with the group Da Pak, which signed with Epic Records and released a minor single before splitting up. He then signed with Arista, but the deal was cut short when he released a minor single before splitting up. He then signed with Arista, but the deal was cut short when the label folded in 2004. Fiasco forged on, eventually finding himself on the hip-hop radar when he released a series of critically acclaimed mix tapes. He signed with Atlantic Records, released 'KICK, PUSH' as a single and appeared on Kanye West's 2006 song 'Touch the Sky'.
After his début leaked, Atlantic rushed the release of Food & Liquor, and the album met with rave reviews for its strong storytelling, mature subject matter grounded in his Muslim faith and inventive mixes from name producers including West, Jay-Z, the Neptunes and Mike Shinoda. The disc earned three Grammy nominations including Best Rap Album. The Cool, a loose concept Album that follows aome of the characters on his debut, also received positive reviews and yielded the single "Superstar". In 2007, Fiasco also formed a super group with Kanye West and Pharrell.
Lyrical Style
Fiasco has been credited as a pioneer of the conscious hip-hop movement, which focuses on social issues. Subjects touched upon on his 'Food & Liquor' album include absent parents, terrorism, Islam and religious war, and prostitution. Fiasco attributes his interest in social issues to his highly cultured upbringing, as he describes his mother as 'very intellectual' and his father as a 'Renaissance man'. He rejects the misogyny common in hip-hop, which he discusses in the song 'Hurt me soul'. Despite this, Fiasco is strongly opposed to censorship in music,: "If we're going to censor things that are offensive, then we are going to have to blind and deafen everyone. Come on, man. Let's focus on education and literacy and poverty."
