In what is now being dubbed as “Fiascogate,” Lupe Fiasco has been amidst a storm of controversy and debate after flubbing a couple bars during A Tribe Called Quest tribute. This really only became an issue because Lupe notoriously stated some time ago he had never heard Midnight Marauders and didn’t plan to. For those who haven’t been following, you can read the story and Lupe’s defense here.
People all over message boards wondered what business Lupe had in a tribute to a group he never listened to. But Lupe, despite having similar feelings, did it because Q-Tip reached out to him personally to take part. Tip however, told Miss Info something very different;
“I’m not trying to make this any bigger than it is. But, I just want to clear up
one thing….We never hunted him down and begged him to be a part of
the show or anything like that. His name was pitched to us by VH1, and we said,
ok cool. The only time I spoke to Lupe about the Hip Hop honors performance was
on a conference call, which we did with the others artists too, like Busta and
Common, to plan the performance.
When VH1 brought his name up, based
on what he had said about us before, I thought it was ironic and it kind of
humored me. All that stuff he said about never listening to a Tribe album before
and having no interest in doing so, it doesn’t make sense to me.
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As I
said on the show itself, it was listening to NWA’s “Straight Outta Compton” that
inspired us to make “Low-End Theory,” and years later, I spoke to Dr. Dre and he
told me that hearing “Low-End Theory,” inspired him to make “The Chronic.”
That’s what music does. That’s what artists do, they seek out information, of
all kinds.
But no, I never hunted him down to be part of the tribute.
That didn’t happen.”
More on this as it develops…
