Lupe Fiasco has stunned fans by revealing that more music from his Child Rebel Soldier supergroup with Kanye West and Pharrell exists.
The Chicago-bred lyricist dropped the bombshell on Twitter on Thursday (January 26) after a fan urged him to to share unreleased songs from the group that he most likely has “in a vault somewhere on an old Mac or iPod.”
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In response, Lupe casually revealed that he does indeed possess never-before-heard Child Rebel Soldier music — and Tyler, The Creator has heard it.
The Food & Liquor MC shared a screenshot of a text exchange with Tyler — a noted Lupe, Kanye and Pharrell obsessive — in which he sent the former Odd Future frontman two tracks he made for CRS called “Engine Light” and “Shrink.”
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“Figured you’d might enjoy these… some rough demo sketches I did for CRS,” Lupe wrote to Tyler in the message.
A stunned Tyler replied: “BRO[.] WHAT THE FUCK[.] these r crazy” along with a face holding back tears emoji.
Tyler wasn’t the only one excited by the news. Lupe’s mentions became flooded with fans desperately pleading with him to share the files.
“bro pleaseeeeee, pleaseeeeee” one person desperately wrote, while another jokingly asked: “Who knows how to extract an audio file out of a picture?”
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Lupe Fiasco, Kanye West and Pharrell formed Child Rebel Soldier in 2007 with the release of their first — and best-known — song, “Us Placers.” Produced by Lupe and built on a sample of Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke’s “The Eraser,” the track appeared on Ye’s Can’t Tell Me Nothing mixtape and was accompanied by an unofficial music video directed by Va$htie.
“It was Pharrell’s idea one day in the studio ’cause we’re all similar, same likes and same dislikes, same goals and aspirations,” Lupe told BBC’s Newsbeat in 2008. “So on that level we wanted to create some music. But we haven’t actually been in the studio together, everything we did separately and just emailed it to each other.”
At the time, the trio had plans to build on the widespread acclaim of “Us Placers” by recording a full-length project together, with Lupe telling Billboard: “Now [our labels are] working it out. Whoever is going to pay is going to pay a whole hell of a lot. Everybody is excited.”
Kanye, Lupe and Pharrell hit the road together the following year on the former’s Glow in the Dark Tour, but a CRS album would prove to be elusive. Instead, they would release just two more songs as an official unit: a remix of N.E.R.D’s “Everyone Nose” and “Don’t Stop,” from West’s series of G.O.O.D. Fridays releases in 2010.
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Lupe later revealed during a Twitter Q&A in 2013 that “the CRS group is cancelled. Done. Not happening. Stop asking.”
Revisit “Us Placers” below:
