Idolator
So one thing I forgot to mention in my Hip-Hop Honors post is that Lupe Fiasco flubbed his verse on Tribe's "Electric Relaxation." To be perfectly honest I may have never noticed if I hadn't read about it beforehand, but rap nerds around the world had a understandable shitfit over one of their own cocking up the words to a classic. Or at least someone they thought was one of their own. Because Lupe's version of damage control includes claiming that he still knows Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em better than the Tribe back catalog, as the back and forth between Lupe on the Okayplayer message board and Eskay at Nah Right is unpacked by Vibe:
Last month, before the VH-1 Tribe flub, Lupe aired out his grievances to VIBE concerning the backlash to the revelation that he missed out on Marauders. "[Tribe] didn't sell 10 million records, so why would people think they had a blanket on the world like that? MC Hammer was way more popular to me than Tribe Called Quest."
It's all about hip hop vanity, Lupe explains. "Because there's kids in Harlem who right now would never ever listen to Midnight Marauders, I don't give a fuck what you do, they'll never listen to Q-Tip and they want to be rappers and they want to talk about positive things. So why would you shoot them down?"
His voice rises. "It's like, 'Oh, you ain't never listened to Midnight Marauders? You ain't expanding your horizons? Oh, you ain't real' cause they did that shit to me! 'Oh Lupe, that's fucked up man, I don't fuck with you now, I'm not buying your next album' and be dead serious! It made me feel like, 'You dirty bastards. Like how dare you.'"
Like most bloggers, I enjoy tweaking fanboy noses as much as the next guy, but I have to agree with fellow-tweaker Eskay here that "that this guy's stubborn bullheadedness reminds me so much of myself, it's creepy" and that Lupe "could have just ignored it, but instead he opened his mouth and kept talking, ultimately helping to create the big fuckfest of negativity he now finds himself sitting in the middle of." I mean, "Fiascogate"? All press equals good press, I know, but for an artist with shaky mainstream prospects at best, digging in and purposefully pissing off the underground is some kind of spectacular commercial suicide.
Unlocking Fiascogate [Vibe via Nah Right]
Comments
WHAT A FIASCO!
what made this whole thing awesome to watch (and participate in) was when Lupe got caught lying about Q-Tip personally asking him to participate in the tribute. the net-ass-whuppin that followed on Okayplayer is nothing short of the funniest thread ever posted on the internet... even if it requires that you listen to Midnight Marauders to get 95% of the jokes.
Possibly the best use of "you dirty bastards" in the history of ever.
so he's not white. but we knew that already.
Best headline.
The worst part of all this is Lupe's doth protest too much "I'm not a backpacker! I grew up on gangsta rap!" defense. That may be true, but he made the choice to make songs about skateboards and robots and shit.
Tribe never sold 10 million, but their career total is about 5 million. And Lupe will never ever sell 1 million.
of course he's right. q-tip is no mc hammer. q-tip was last seen at the nokia theater and mc hammer was last seen on channel 832 at 3am hawking cars.
I admit this is the fist I've heard of this story, but what exactly is wrong with what Lupe said? The pedestal bands like ATCQ are (undeservedly, in my opinion) are placed is a constant irritant to anybody who's posted on the internet for more than five minutes.
I like Lupe. He's a clever lyricist, which he seems to have inherited from the alt. rap tradition, and great pop smarts to go with it, which I guess is where the Hammer came in useful.
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