Lupe Fiasco

The Real Lupe Fiasco Is Finally Revealed! (diaryofahollywoodstreetking.com)

Wasalu Muhammad Jaco, more commonly known by his stage name Lupe Fiasco, is a Grammy nominated as well as award winning hip-hop artist. Lupe received his nickname from when his mother used to call him Lu. The Fiasco came from the music group the Firm and their song Firm Fiasco. Lupe fell in love with the used term Fiasco because he liked the way it looked on paper. He was born and raised on the west side of Chicago to an African American mother and father - a gourmet chef and engineer respectively. His father is also a prolific African drummer, karate instructor and owner of military surplus shops. Lupe was born among nine other children in his family. Lupe was raised a Muslim. In completion of his final years of schooling, Lupe passed and attended classes at Thornton Township High School, which is located in Harvey, Illinois. Mr. Fiasco started rapping when he was in grade 8. This boy originally would not use vulgarity because of the way his father's gangsta rap music group performed. After listening to Nas' 1996 album, "It Was Written," Lupe decided to venture into the world of hip-hop music which would eventually take him to some far places.

Lupe Fiasco While Preforming In Concert (http://DonEDarko.deviantart.com/art/Lupe-Fiasco-2-45170754)

By the age of 19, Fiasco discovering his talent in music, joined the group Da Pak who recorded one song and proceeded to break up. This young man then moved on to sign a solo deal with Arista Records, but the deal fell through for Fiasco when the company's head boss, L.A. Reid was fired. During the deal he recorded the song "Coulda Been" on a compilation of MTV's "Advance Warning." He then received a large internet fan base because of the release of his mix tapes. These critically acclaimed mix tapes are titled "Fahrenheit 1/15 Part I: The Truth Is Among Us," "Fahrenheit 1/15 Part II: Revenge of the Nerds" and "Fahrenheit 1/15 Part III: A Rhyming Ape." These mix tapes landed him the attention of Legendary Rapper & Producer Jay-Z. Jay-Z has been put on record as saying that Lupe's music is "A Breath of Fresh Air" in an industry that is over glamorized. This positive attention from fans, critics and renowned rappers gave Lupe what he needed to release his debut album, "Food & Liquor."

Lupe Fiasco's 1st Album: Food & Liquor (rap.about.com)

Lupe's first ever mainstream breakout was when he collaborated with Kanye West in 2005 on the track, "Touch the Sky," which was part of West's "Late Registration" album. Immediately after, Fiasco released the song, "Kick, Push," which took its inspiration from Lupe's love of skateboarding. This song, as well as the songs "Daydreamin'" and "I Gotcha" were the hit singles from his debut album, "Food & Liquor," which was released on September 19, 2006. The outstanding effort put forward on this album awarded him three nominations at the Grammy Awards including Best Rap Album that same year. At the same time, he was selected as GQ magazine's "Breakout Man of The Year". This large amount of mainstream success would allow Lupe to see that it was necessary to release a second album titled "The Cool".

Lupe Fiasco's 2nd Album: The Cool (bigpondmusic.com)

In 2007, Lupe released "The Cool" which was officially released on December 18, 2007. This album expanded on the story of the track "The Cool" which was released on "Food & Liquor." The first single released off "The Cool" was "Superstar," which features the musician Matthew Santos. This song instantly rose to be a mega hit and the biggest hit that came off "The Cool." This same song is used for several Major League Baseball players at-bat songs, it is also used on the HBO TV show "Hard Knocks" and in the video game "Lips." The album is abundant with songs as songs from "The Cool" are also featured in the movie "Street Kings." This progression allowed Lupe to keep up his music by discussing the release of another album in 2009.

This Is An Example Of Lupe Fiasco Themed Fan Art (http://emesghali.deviantart.com/art/Lupe-76097540)

During late 2008, Lupe announced that he would be releasing his final album in 2009. This was to be titled "LupE.N.D." This standing for Everywhere, Nowhere, Down Here. The Everywhere portion of this three disc set was scheduled to be released in 2009. Although, he later postponed the project and announced an album titled "The Great American Rap Album" which was to be released in 2009 followed by an album in December 2009 and June 2010, with LupE.N.D after this. This plan changed as he announced that this next album set to release in 2009 will simply be titled "Lasers."

Other facts about Lupe are that during 2007 Lupe formed a hip-hop group with Kanye West and Pharrell Williams. This group titled Child Rebel Soldier or simply CRS has worked on a few tracks. This includes a single titled "US Placers" and work on the remix of Pharrells band N.E.R.D.'s track "Everyone Nose". They have been quoted as working on an album for their group to be released in 2009. Lupe has also worked with Reebok on their "O.G" model of shoes, which he designed his own model to be used in the shoes series. He is also the co-founder as well as the CEO and vice-president of the record label 1st & 15th Entertainment, which is head under the label Atlantic Records. He is also working on remixing his album The Cool with the french Electro House group Justice.

I chose Lupe Fiasco as my hero because he has a very distinct and unique sound as well as in his music. These qualities cannot be found anywhere else in his profession. He doesn't produce music to make money or any other reason related to that, he makes music for the people. That is also what is a rarity in these times in the industry. He just is so inspiring because of his unique ability with his lryics and the quality of the music he produces. He also inspires because he sings about real life events and occurrences where other artists make their songs up. This inspiration allows me to be able to deeply connect with his music because I can picture the events of each song and sometimes I can relate to it. Lupe Fiasco inspires by the way he acts, sings, produces and relates music to real life and for this he truly deserves his long awaited recognition as my hero.