Crayola Coyote
Superstar
These dumb ass women always trying to cancel someone for not jumping to the occasion to please them. Get the fukk outta here.
Twitter Gets At Kendrick Lamar: "nikka Whole Discography Is Exploiting Black Plight But He's Quiet"
- Thread starter WSFGDan
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TheOptimisticCynikal
All Star
Sonically they ain't at all alike, but in my opinion, Lupe was supposed to be the next mainstream conscious rapper, but Atlantic couldn't control him
After things came to a halt for Lupe, label wise, (circa after Lasers release) I think Interscope (and roc nation w/ j.cole to a degree) saw a vacancy for "conscious" hip hop and built/improved on the Lupe blueprint, but they found less intelligent, more controllable persons.
At least you can Google search 'j. Cole protest' and see him in the mud on ground zero
Lupe Fiasco was the preeminent “conscious” rapper for millennial teenagers. He had more depth than a Kanye West. It was like one of us made it, but it still wasn’t “cool” to be woke yet. The Cool was 2007 - if you’re 30/31 right now, that was your freshman year of college. Cole, Kendrick, Wale and them were just starting to be noticed at that point. He essentially oversaw that whole lane in the mainstream as Kanye fgot arther away from College Dropout Kanye. Superstar was the number 1 song in America. When referring to the “conscious” rapper of the moment - mainstream acts would more commonly reference him. Those “college rappers” Asher Roth, and guys like Cole and them even opened for him. There’s pretty much a direct line in the eyes of a very late 80s to very early 90s kid who was in high school when Lupe got on and in college when these guys got on. Wale acknowledges it all the time and they all have at one point or another.
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Ski Mask
Friendzone: Collection 1
Yeah, going by his ferguson comments and that blacker the berry song, I'm cool on hearing from him about these issues.
TheOptimisticCynikal
All Star
Exactly this. When 'Touch the Sky' video came out with Lupe featuring, in the eyes of kids round me (outside of the United States, for perspective) Lupe was next up
A whole generation of skaters were inspired by Kick Push alone and nikka didn't even skate. Atlantic put all that on ice and other labels got the heads up and made moves
They should’ve just let Lupe be him. He has one of the most mishandled careers of all time. Imagine Lupe on Def Jam with just Kanye and Just Blaze production.Exactly this. When 'Touch the Sky' video came out with Lupe featuring, in the eyes of kids round me (outside of the United States, for perspective) Lupe was next up
A whole generation of skaters were inspired by Kick Push alone and nikka didn't even skate. Atlantic put all that on ice and other labels got the heads up and made moves
TheOptimisticCynikal
All Star
Maaan. I think the industry legit has a vendetta against Lupe and wanna make sure he doesn't get his flowers. I think i remember him saying Lyor laughed at him when he asked about obtaining his masters. They really didn't expect him to be grounded and forward thinking at such a young age
Watching the Joe Budden-Lupe discussion they had reccently I think Lupe was seriously deprived of a GOAT career all things considering how held back he was.
Hearing him say how he only had his boy in jail to reflect ideas off and was envious of Joe & Slaughterhouse having that equal level of talent around him. Records 10 songs and will feel like only 1 out of them is good enough.
Then considering, he never had a producer to build his own sound like a Dre-Snoop, YG-DJ Mustard, Cash Money-Mannie Fresh etc. All this and imo Lasers is his only blemish album wise and even that had charted singles if i remember right. People have even debated with me that it wasn't even that bad an album
Atlantic did in fact control Lupe. Lasers was not the album that Lupe was supposed to release. He announced The END, which was supposed to be a triple disc set. Then he had an album that he did produced by The Neptunes. Instead we got Lasers, which was pretty much a Paper Trail-lite. Lupe ended up laying the groundwork for B.o.B moreso than he did for Kendrick.
Dor all the anti-Atlantic rhetoric Lupe spewed, he fell in line and still put out Lasers instead of the albums he planned.
TheOptimisticCynikal
All Star
Damn. You probably have a better recollection of events than me speaking from my teenage fandom from that time.
I wouldn't say 'fall in line' though. He probably was tired, just wanted it to be over and felt he'd get further by just going through with it. Again, I admit, have to do my homework clearly. Also Lupe seems like a pretty solo type dude. I doubt he had a team around him that fought in his corner & put the battery in his back like he needed. Also social media wasn't as much a thing which changes the bargaining artist have with their labels. I'm sure if it was he could refuse to put music out, bytch and moan about his label and management like Uzi just for Jay Z come rescue him, that would've happened and the situation would work out like how it did for Uzi
I'd still say Lupe layed the ground work for 2 out of the Big 3 of Hip-Hop. A trend precursor. Hell. I'd even say him on his anti-Atlantic campaign and that whole back and forth made it easier for Uzi to get out his deal years later.
B.o. B always seemed to be mainstream poppy hip hop primarily and conscious second to me. The only connection I really make is the 'alternative black boy' vibes via Kick Push and B. o. B's aesthetic of that black guy who can hang with white kids and not look outta place
Piff Perkins
Veteran
Lets set the record straight. Lupe is a failed mainstream artist because he couldn't write a SONG to save his life for much of his career. It has nothing to do with him being some pure hip hop guy. He has more commercial radio singles than Kendrick. The real reason Lupe and his fans are so resentful of Kendrick is because Kendrick can balance between the mainstream and "real rap" worlds with ease. He's a great song writer, he picks great beats, and his collab decisions are excellent. He can get away with having a single with Rihanna and having an Alchemist beat on the same album because he excels in both worlds.
The real blueprint is Kanye, who had mainstream ass smash hits on College Dropout while simultaneously having tracks with Common and Kweli. People need to just admit they're mad that Lupe tanked his career with terrible music, and by the time he rebounded it was too late.The genre had moved on and a new collection of rappers with "conscious" lyrics and mainstream appeal had cropped up (Cole, Kendrick, Chance, Drake to a degree, etc).
Back to the thread tho: if someone hadn't taken Cole's picture at the protests you'd have no idea he was there. We don't know if he donated money. We don't know what Kendrick has or hasn't done...or any other rapper. No one is obligated to virtue signal via social media. Kendrick and Cole rarely tweet...in fact they only use IG and twitter to promote their albums or tours, usually. Who fukking cares.
The real blueprint is Kanye, who had mainstream ass smash hits on College Dropout while simultaneously having tracks with Common and Kweli. People need to just admit they're mad that Lupe tanked his career with terrible music, and by the time he rebounded it was too late.The genre had moved on and a new collection of rappers with "conscious" lyrics and mainstream appeal had cropped up (Cole, Kendrick, Chance, Drake to a degree, etc).
Back to the thread tho: if someone hadn't taken Cole's picture at the protests you'd have no idea he was there. We don't know if he donated money. We don't know what Kendrick has or hasn't done...or any other rapper. No one is obligated to virtue signal via social media. Kendrick and Cole rarely tweet...in fact they only use IG and twitter to promote their albums or tours, usually. Who fukking cares.
TheOptimisticCynikal
All Star
Man. This isn't even a Lupe thread, agreed. But just a quick look at his Wikipedia page alone and every album he released on Atlantic (he stayed on longer than I remember. Learning is great) was #1 on U. S Rap Chart. I didn't even know Lasers actually debuted #1 Billboard overall. Pre-streaming era and hip hop being the #1 genre in the world.
This is all to say, and again, consider everything he went through with his label, which I'm still surprised he stayed on, and still cranked out a further few (#1) albums for em. Clearly people feel he can write good songs
He didn't fall off, he stopped getting major label backing and went independent and got independent numbers
This is all to say, and again, consider everything he went through with his label, which I'm still surprised he stayed on, and still cranked out a further few (#1) albums for em. Clearly people feel he can write good songs
He didn't fall off, he stopped getting major label backing and went independent and got independent numbers
TheOptimisticCynikal
All Star
I long realize, and rightfully so, kendrick is just a rapper doing a job. Why should I expect him to be more than that? Not every musician/artist has the heart to be a Fela Kuti. For most artist, what you think they'd be just as passionate as you over is just muse and inspiration for content and material to make art. Which again, they're supposed to do. All that "conscious" "wokism" is just his content and what, numbers wise, garners him the most success. At the end of the day, it's all about numbers for him.
I wish i could pull up that tweet where he complained about album sales of g. K. M. c in Compton. That for me was when the illusion of him being this next Tupac, 'bRiNgInG rEaL hIp-HoP bAcK' pseudo-intellectual hip hop messiah started to fade.
Couple in with his really out of touch, almost incompassionate & pretentious 'black people need to respect themselves' comments & claiming 'to Pimp a butterfly will be taught in schools like to kill a mocking bird', its about legacy for him. Which again, isn't wrong, but its like a kid finding out Santa isn't real. It sucks, but when you really think about it, how was you able to een believe in it in the first place?
Don't get me wrong. He's really good at what he does. I love kendrick he's an era-defining artist for a reason. Shed tears to some of his songs. He's amazing at tapping into emotion through his music, he pushes boundaries when he decides to go experimental and is actually able to pull it off. Hell, I think artist wise it was a good choice to focus more on flows, vocal performance and overall musical aspect than trying to drop knowledge in his bars. But he's not this leader of hip hop I think we thought we were getting.
One last point tho. Kendrick has the Interscope machine backing him. That shyt took down the #1 Hip Hop Magazine at the time & made the Eminem '******' tapes more or less disappear. shyt is powerful & proven-effective
I wish i could pull up that tweet where he complained about album sales of g. K. M. c in Compton. That for me was when the illusion of him being this next Tupac, 'bRiNgInG rEaL hIp-HoP bAcK' pseudo-intellectual hip hop messiah started to fade.
Couple in with his really out of touch, almost incompassionate & pretentious 'black people need to respect themselves' comments & claiming 'to Pimp a butterfly will be taught in schools like to kill a mocking bird', its about legacy for him. Which again, isn't wrong, but its like a kid finding out Santa isn't real. It sucks, but when you really think about it, how was you able to een believe in it in the first place?
Don't get me wrong. He's really good at what he does. I love kendrick he's an era-defining artist for a reason. Shed tears to some of his songs. He's amazing at tapping into emotion through his music, he pushes boundaries when he decides to go experimental and is actually able to pull it off. Hell, I think artist wise it was a good choice to focus more on flows, vocal performance and overall musical aspect than trying to drop knowledge in his bars. But he's not this leader of hip hop I think we thought we were getting.
One last point tho. Kendrick has the Interscope machine backing him. That shyt took down the #1 Hip Hop Magazine at the time & made the Eminem '******' tapes more or less disappear. shyt is powerful & proven-effective
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