Lupe Fiasco: A different perspective on hip hop

Hip-hop and rap had become one of the most popular and fastest growing music’s genres for teenager in United State and around the world. Hip-hop has never stopped changing from the time of Tupac and Biggies till now, with popular artist such as Lil Wayne and Drake. I absolutely hated hip hop when I first came to America, but Lupe Fiasco completely changed the way I look at hip hop. His lyrical and storytelling abilities are one of many aspects that sets him aside from other hip hop artist, whom rap mostly about money, woman, cars, etc.

Coming to America at age ten, I was never exposed to hip-hop and rap music until middle school, during which Lil Wayne was popular at that time. “Lollipop” by Lil Wayne was the first song I heard from Lil Wayne and I absolutely hated it, due to it offensiveness language toward woman. Not until I discovered Lupe Fiasco in my freshmen year in high school that entirely changed my view on hip hop. Wasalu Muhammad Jacob like many other rappers grew up in a low-income housing project, where prostitutes, drug dealers, killers, and gangbanger surrounded him. Unlike others, Lupe in his younger days disliked hip-hop music for its use of vulgarity, and preferred to listen to jazz. He experienced a variety of rap styles throughout his teenage year, with upbeats rhythm to gangsta rap and finally settle of the lyricism rap of Jay-Z and Nas.

My appreciation from him came mostly from his conscious hip hop styles, which mostly focused on social issues. He touched many subjects includes absent parents, terrorism, Islam and religion, war, and prostitution in his album Food & Liquor. He strongly opposed censorship of song, saying “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.” I also shared his view of the sexual discrimination, denigration of women, violence against women, and sexual objectification of women in hip hop, which still continued till now. His metaphoric word used in song such as “Gotta Eat" from the album The Cool, which is told from the perspective of a cheeseburger and speaks of the poor nutrition in black communities in the United States, while using a constant metaphor of drug dealing and hustling.

There are many aspects that people don’t agree with him. First, his Islamic viewpoint influenced much of his political view, which he notable for his anti-establishment view. He furthermore criticized president Obama for his stance on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, which he took action by choosing not vote in the U.S election. One instance, during Obama's second presidential inauguration, he was removed from the stage by the security for rejecting to move onto the next song after performing a thirty minute version of Words I Never Said, which contains anti-Obama lyrics, in Washington D.C.In conclusion, even though Lupe Fiasco did not pioneer his hip hop styles, but influencing by artists such as Common, Mos

Def, and Talib Kweli, it had helped him voice out his thoughts and opinion in his song to his fans. Lupe Fiasco doesn’t changed the rap game in any sense, for me he changes my whole views on rap, not just songs that talked about getting money and driving fast car, it have a meanings and messages behind it.