Lupe Fiasco is an undeniably talented artist. The rapper (real name Wasalu Jaco) found an unfathomable amount of success in the mid-2000s with his highly successful debut album, Lupe Fiasco’s Food & Liquor and continued to release high-quality lyrical and socially conscious rap material.
Jaco released tracks such as ‘Could Have Been’ and ‘Superstar’ and was swiftly with Arista Records. However, he got dropped shortly after the president and CEO who signed him, LA Reid, left the label.
The emcee signed to another label and released many albums, including Lupe Fiasco’s The Cool and Food & Liquor II. However, there is one album that Jaco released in the 2010s that he absolutely hates and is uncomfortable with.
In 2011, Jaco released his album Lasers. With extensive production from The Neptunes and Syience, and also included guest verses from the likes of Trey Songz, John Legend, Skylar Grey and Sway. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. However, critics didn’t receive it well, and even Fiasco didn’t like it.
In an interview with Complex magazine, Jaco spoke about the album. Elaborating on the lead single ‘The Show Goes On’, the emcee explained his lack of creative control concerning the single highlighting, “That was the label’s record. That wasn’t like I knew the producer or knew the writer or anything like that. That was one of those records the record company gave me, [they even gave me] stuff they wanted me to rap about.”
He continued, “I was used to it because they presented me like ten other songs in the same fashion or via email. So for me, at that point, it was just another record.” Although he didn’t like the lead single, it wasn’t the only part of the album Jaco wasn’t happy with. In fact, he disliked the entire project.
Explaining why he hated the album, Jaco told Complex, “One thing I try to stress about this project is, I love and hate this album. I listen to it and I’ll like some of the songs. But when I think about what it took to actually get the record together and everything that I went through on this record—which is something I can’t separate—I hate this album.”
He concluded by saying, A lot of the songs that are on the album, I’m kinda neutral to. Not that I don’t like them, or that I hate them, it’s just I know the process that went behind it.” You can listen to Lasers below.