Lupe Fiasco

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Lupe Fiasco : biography

February 16, 1982 –

Fiasco employs various lyrical techniques in his songwriting. The rapper views hip-hop as a medium conducive to storytelling, a primary element of his lyrics due to his background in theater. He wrote plays as a child, which had a strong effect on his songwriting approaches. Fiasco utilizes both metaphors and literal statements in his work, which he describes as "getting from point A to point B in as few words as possible". His use of metaphors is exemplified by the song "Gotta Eat" from Lupe Fiasco’s The Cool, which is told from the perspective of a cheeseburger and addresses the poor nutrition in black communities in the United States, while using a continuous metaphor of drug dealing and hustling.

Personal life

Religion

Lupe Fiasco has stated on MTV’s Rap Fix as well as in various other media that he is a Muslim, and that Islam "plays a part in my life and everything I do, to a certain extent… I don’t like putting my religion out there, I don’t like wearing it like that, because I don’t want people to look at me as the poster child for Islam. I’m not. I don’t want them to look at my flaws and be like, ‘oh, that’s the flaws of Islam’." His mixtape series Fahrenheit 1/15 featured a remix of Kanye West’s "Jesus Walks" entitled "Muhammad Walks", which went on to become very popular in the Muslim community."Biography Today", pp.62–63 He can be heard using Islamic recitals in "Hurt Me Soul", "Little Weapon", "Hi-Definition" as well as the intro and outro tracks to Lupe Fiasco’s Food & Liquor.

Political views

Fiasco is noted for his anti-establishment views. In an interview with Stephen Colbert on the satirical news show The Colbert Report, Fiasco stated his credo on political philosophy: "You should criticize power even if you agree with it." In another interview in June 2011 on the CBS program What’s Trending, Fiasco discussed the political content of his music, stating, "My fight against terrorism, to me, the biggest terrorist is Obama and the United States of America. I’m trying to fight the terrorism that’s actually causing the other forms of terrorism. You know, the root cause of terrorism is the stuff the U.S. government allows to happen. The foreign policies that we have in place in different countries that inspire people to become terrorists." He additionally criticized Obama for his stance on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. In keeping with his anti-establishment views, Fiasco does not vote in U.S. elections. On January 20, 2013, he was removed from the stage by the security for refusing to move onto the next song after performing a 30 minute version of Words I Never Said, which contains anti-Obama lyrics, in Washington D.C., during Obama’s second presidential inauguration. HipHopDX.com, January 21, 2013 The Guardian, January 21, 2013