Fiasco says he feels driven to counter the nihilism that has cropped up in the new Chicago hip-hop: “You have people coming out of the city that carry the same DNA of progression, change and hope, which inspires musicians and poets to combat it, an opposing voice. It’s always been like that in Chicago. My piece can be just as strong and aggressive (as the gangsta rap), and I put that on the album.”
On the new album, Fiasco hammers away at a range of heavy topics, including the perpetuation of stereotypes (the five-letter “b” word comes in for a complex, song-length exploration), the perpetuation of slavery and ecological desecration in the name of expansion (“Unforgivable Youth”), the mistreatment of Native Americas in South Dakota (in “Around My Way (Freedom Ain’t Free)”) and CIA brainwashing (“Lamborghini Angels”). It’s no wonder he’s a fan of the late historian Howard Zinn, whose 1980 classic, “A People’s History of the United States,” documented the toll paid by common people so that the political and economic elite could advance their agendas.
If that makes Fiasco seem like a scold, he’s not apologizing. “I know you’re sayin’, ‘Lupe rappin’ ’bout the same (stuff)’/ Well, that’s ’cause ain’t (nothing) changed,” he raps on “ITAL (Roses).”
This Article Appeared @http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-10-03/entertainment/chi-lupe-fiasco-interview-20121003_1_lil-reese-lupe-fiasco-s-food-chief-keef