Chicago stalwart Lupe Fiasco recent caught up with NBC’s “Nitecap” while performing in Miami. During the interview, the politically charged emcee discussed the burdens of being a conscious rapper in the modern era and illuminated some of the ideological pitfalls he’s faced in his career.
When asked whether it gets exhausting for him to play the part of socially conscious rapper in a culture preoccupied with wealth, Lupe explained that being a politically minded artist isn’t a black or white scenario. He said that he believes most Hip Hop artists play dual roles as lucrative hit-makers and conscious-minded musicians, adding that even he has had to go against some of his own beliefs in order to make end’s meet.
“I don’t know [if it gets tiring being a conscious rapper], it all depends on what your intentions are, what you’re trying to get out of it, how much you’re willing to put up with, how much you can actually take at the end of the day,” he said. “There’s all these different factors, so it’s not like a simple yes or no kind of thing; there’s certain things you have to do for the sake of sending your little sisters to college – that’s the greater good, and sometimes greater good means you have to go through a lot of nonsense to get there. But I don’t really look at the industry in those terms as black and white, conscious or not. Everybody do their piece and do their part – a lot of the most, that kind of ignorant music that people make sometimes, they can turn around a massive fortune off of that and…in one check, write away the ills of their community.”
Check out the first part below, and the second part of the interview over at Rap Radar.
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