Credit: Eva Rinaldi

Lupe Fiasco has always been keen to prove himself outside of just Hip Hop. A native of Chicago, the rapper born Wasalu Jaco introduced himself to the world as a skateboarding-loving MC through his debut album Food & Liquor in 2006, with lyrics that touched on poverty, Islam, terrorism and racism.

‘Kick, Push’ was his first taste of his success in the mainstream before going on to surpass that with his hit single ‘Superstar’ from his The Cool album two years later. Keen to push his talents even further, Fiasco formed a band called Japanese Cartoon as a venture into rock music.

“I’ve always been a fan of all music,” he told Complex. “My favourite songs aren’t hip-hop songs, they’re songs from Queen like ‘Somebody to Love’. Hip-hop is something I actually know how to do. But I always had aspirations to participate in other forms of music. Once I got to create some Hip Hop, it was like, ‘OK, what am I going to do now?’ So my artistic side was like, ‘Yo, let’s do some rock music.'”

The inspiration behind the group came from the legendary British band Joy Division. Part of the fascination for Lupe Fiasco was the image of frontman Ian Curtis, who transformed himself when he went on stage for the ultimate performance.

“The true inspiration for Japanese Cartoon is the band Joy Division,” he said. “You ever watch footage of Joy Division singing? Ian Curtis is like a straight nerd. And he [doesn’t look] like the rock and roll type. But when he got on stage, he became a completely different animal, like he was having a seizure on stage.”

He added, “When he was performing he just threw himself into the performance, but when he came off stage he was a mild-mannered person. Japanese Cartoon is like a tribute to Joy Division and Ian Curtis.”

Rather than a side project, Lupe Fiasco wanted Japanese Cartoon to be an exciting band in its own right, being able to remove itself from opinions based on his rap career up until that point.

“I didn’t want it to be viewed as a Lupe Fiasco side project,” he said. “I wanted it to be like, ‘Here’s this band out of nowhere’. [That way] I can get an honest opinion. I didn’t want to get, ‘Man, I like Lupe, but that’s wack because he’s not rapping’, or a ‘Lupe, everything he do is dope!’ I wanted a true reaction to it.”

Joy Division aren’t the only British name to serve as inspiration for a Lupe Fiasco album. Earlier this year, he released Samurai, an album he described as “a loving and living portrait to and of one of my favourite artists, Amy Winehouse.”

“I’ve done many portraits of people I admire over the years. Some public and some private. This one took on a life of its own and became an album,” he said. “The story on this album, she becomes a battle rapper going around battling muthafuckas. It’s a full story, so the whole album’s a story … Each scene in the story has its own song. Just so n-ggas ain’t confused.”