List of Lupe Fiasco Quotes

I Grew Up In The 'hood Around Prostitutes, Drug Dealers, Killers, And Gangbangers, But I Also Grew Up Juxtaposed: On The Doorknob Outside Of Our Apartment, There Was Blood From Some Guy Who Got Shot; But Inside, There Was National Geographic Magazines And Encyclopedias And A Little Library Bookshelf Situation.

When You Understand That Your Tax Dollars Pay For Those Tear Gas Canisters That Were Being Fired Into The Crowd, And When You See That, And To Know That A Little Bit Of Your Fingerprint, Your American Dna Is A Part Of That, As Well As Those Stealth Bombers And That Bomb That's Lodged In The Side Of The School That Has "made In Usa" On It In Gaza, And All Of The Unmanned Drones That Are Blowing Up Weddings And Things Of That Nature, To Know That You Pay For That, You Really Have - You Don't Have To Do It Now, But You Need To Think About That.

My Mother And My Father Taught Me To Look At The Actual Problem, Not The Face Of It, Not The Veneer Of It. So For Me, I Was Never - I Was Impressed That It - Racially, I Was Impressed, Right, But Now In America It's About Economics, And It's Been About Economics, And Honestly, Everything's Been About Economics Since I Don't Want To Say The Beginning Of Time, But It's Been About Economics For A Long While.

This Nation Was Founded By Rebels And Revolutionaries, And Its Flags Were Carried Across The Battlefields By People Who Were Very, Very Against The Status Quo And Who Questioned And Criticized.

The Murder Rate In Chicago Is Skyrocketing And You See Who's Doing It And Perpetrating It, They All Look Like Chief Keef.

What I've Learned Is Not To Take Anybody's Advice. If You Rely Solely On Your Fans, It Sets You Up For The Downfall On The Industry Side And If You Rely On What Your Label Is Saying, It Will Disconnect You From Your Fans.

I Love Obama, And I Love The Fact That It's A Black President Of The United States Of America, But He's Not The First Black President. Robert Mugabe Is A Black President ,too, So Let's Not Get To Talking About Precedents Being Set.

I Know What Tablas Sound Like, Because My Father Played A Lot Of Ustad Ali Akbar Khan.

Oh Yeah, I'm Literally Walking Through My House Now Looking Down And There Are Maybe, Like, 15 Pairs On The Floor. For Real. Real Talk. It's Just Simplicity. They're Something I Wear Every Day. Before I Got A Deal With Them, I Was Wearing Some Type Of Vans All The Time. I Would Just Order Them By The Box, Like, 10 At A Time.

My Whole Team, It Wasn't About Putting The Album Out, It Was About Getting Off The Record Company And Going Independent Or Going To Another Label. To The Point We Were Like, 'listen, Just Take 'lasers.' You Can Have Whatever Percentage Off The Next Ten Records I Do For The Rest Of My Life. I Just Do Not Want To Be Here Anymore.'

It Definitely Wasn't Like, 'hey, I'm Going To Steal That, And Nobody's Going To Know.' The Original 't.r.o.y.' Came Out In 1992, And It Was Like A 20th Anniversary Kind Of Thing. All Of Those Intentions Were There For It To Be Resurrecting A Classic For A New Generation. I Tried To Honor It.

I Was Literally Told For 'the Show Goes On' That I Shouldn't Rap Too Deep. I Shouldn't Be Too Lyrical. It Just Needs To Be Something Easy On The Eyes. Like A Record Company Telling Picasso That We Don't Need These Abstract Interpretations Of Life, Where People Have To Sit Down And Look At It And Break It Down.