The rapper Lupe Fiasco ‘had some bullshit’ with: “I’m not gonna sugarcoat anything”
Lupe Fiasco has spent a lot of time around Kanye West. Before releasing his debut album, Food & Liquor, the Chicago rapper was thrown into the spotlight with his appearance on ‘Touch the Sky’, the hit single from Ye’s 2005 album, Late Registration. During his early years, Lupe would often be in the studio with Kanye as he was making beats for some of the biggest artists in the industry, and even secured one for himself (‘The Cool’).
The pair have a deep friendship, going back to when Ye would come over to his place in the Windy City and didn’t know how to pronounce luxury brands like Versace – a far cry from the figure we know today. He was young and hungry, spitting verses he was eager to get feedback on.
“My relationship with Ye is very, um, interesting,” he began. “Ye has always been a friend and a homie. I’ve always respected him as an artist. He’s still a creative genius, a great curator of folk. I remember he would come up to my apartment in Chicago, and he would just be like, ‘I can’t even pronounce nothing. Pass that Ver-Say-See!’
“If you were around back then, he was always hitting you with verses. He wanted to get your opinion on his lyrics, and that shit will pop up years later on one of his big ass hits. It’d be like, ‘Oh, he spit that shit to me in the kitchen.'”
Despite knowing each other for a long time and performing worldwide together, their relationship hasn’t always been rosy. Over the years, Lupe has switched between liking and disliking Kanye, but that hasn’t diminished his respect for him as an artist.
“I’ve also had some bullshit with Ye,” he said. “I’m not gonna sugarcoat anything with him. We’ve had our moments where I was like, ‘I don’t fuck with this dude.’ But then other moments where I was like, ‘I really, really fuck with this dude.’ At this point, I really fuck with Ye. I think he’s still a creative genius.”
He added, “I think he has things he has to settle amongst himself and his community, but in terms of my relationship with him, the things we’ve done — been around the world on tour and been in groups together and did all that shit, he’s earned his spot.”
Outside of ‘Touch the Sky‘, the pair formed a supergroup with Pharrell called CRS, short for Child Rebel Soldier, releasing a song called ‘Us Placers’. The track saw them rapping over Thom Yorke’s ‘The Eraser’ from the Radiohead frontman’s 2006 album.
Lupe was part of Ye’s GOOD Fridays series in 2010, featuring on the song ‘Don’t Look Down’. They also both appeared on the remix of N.E.R.D.’s ‘Everyone Nose (All the Girls Standing in the Line for the Bathroom)’ and Fall Out Boy’s ‘This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race’.
He was famously part of Kanye’s Glow in the Dark Tour in 2007 and 2008, supporting his Graduation album. Other guests on the tour included Nas, Rihanna, Kid Cudi, Mr Hudson, and Consequence.