The artist I chose is Lupe Fiasco. For those of you who don’t know him, Lupe is a rapper who doesn’t fall into the stereotype that is made about the average artist today. He is labeled as a rebel and one of the smartest rappers doing music since his first album was released. Again, some might not think that his intelligence is that impressive when compared to today’s musical artists, but rest assure, it is. His lyrics tend to touch less on money, cars, and women, and more on political issues.

Lupe FIasco \”Words I Never Said (Video)\” Lupe has been criticized for giving some of his personal opinions on the war in Iraq on his albums. He speaks on terrorism and even gives reasons why he didn’t vote for Obama on most recent album, LASERS on a song called “Words I Never Said”. His consistency to not shy away from these issues is how Lupe manages to maintain his “rebel-like” identity. His fans kept his rebellious persona alive by protesting last year when his album “LASERS” wasn’t going to be released due to issues with the record company.

Lupe Fiasco \”The Show Goes On (Video)\” Atlantic didn’t feel Lupe’s album was fan  friendly enough to top charts. This was one of the main reasons why the album continued to be pushed back. ”Fans created an online petition that had over 33,000 signatures which lead to a rally outside of Atlantic Records with thousands of loyal fans screaming his name outside of the building. It was called Fiasco Friday.” (Thomas Golianopoulos, XXL Magazine). This shows that if you voice your opinion loud enough, the ones who believe in you will go the distance to keep you relevant. You can find the article in its entirety here.