Lupe Fiasco flubbed Phife’s verse on “Electric Relaxation” during the VH1 Hip Hop Honors tribute to A Tribe Called Quest. It was kind of a surprise, because he messed up, among other things, “I like ‘em brown, yellow, Puerto Rican or Haitian,” which is kind of like, the line everyone knows. Whatever, it happens. I didn’t dwell on it.
Little did I know that since then, Lupe, 25, has been on a rampage of disrespect the hip hop sites have dubbed FiascoGate. Apparently, he has never listened to Tribe, who he says were before his time, never owned Midnight Maurauders, and had never heard “Electric Relaxation” prior to his performance. Interestingly, Lupe and I are around the same age, and I have been unable to go through life without being exposed, on multiple levels, to A Tribe Called Quest and their various works. And hip hop is not my chosen profession.
And now the saga continues. As Lupe is getting skewered on the message boards, Q-Tip has come out to contradict the young rapper, who says he only participated in the tribute because Q-Tip asked him directly and he wanted to “represent the young people.”
“I’m not trying to make this any bigger than it is. But, I just want to clear up one thing….We never hunted him down and begged him to be a part of the show or anything like that. His name was pitched to us by VH1, and we said, ok cool. The only time I spoke to Lupe about the Hip Hop honors performance was on a conference call, which we did with the others artists too, like Busta and Common, to plan the performance…
As I said on the show itself, it was listening to NWA’s “Straight Outta Compton” that inspired us to make “Low-End Theory,” and years later, I spoke to Dr. Dre and he told me that hearing “Low-End Theory,” inspired him to make “The Chronic.” That’s what music does. That’s what artists do, they seek out information, of all kinds.
[HHDX]
Wooooow. Lupe just lost hella repsect in my book. Who the hell doesn’t know that line??? White boys know that line!!
So, instead of acknowledging and admiting that his knowledge of Tribe is limited, he’s mad at them for existing?
I guess it’s because Tribe didn’t “dumb it down” for him.
BMD, I’m so with you! If he just said oh I was nervous, it wouldnt be so bad. But to respond with you never listened to Tribe and didnt really want to be involved is damn rude.
I never listened to Tribe so whateva.
I love ATCQ, so I definitely noticed Lupe’s mistake, but I wasn’t mad at him about it. Lots of people mess up on stage. Artist forget their own dang old songs all the time. Lupe did go to far trying to defend himself though. I’m sure lots of folks were on some “Wooooow, how could you mess that up?” type stuff, but he should have kept a cool head. Lupe should have just owned up to the mistake and moved on. Some “exact” quotes floating around on the net have him saying how ATCQ never sold 10 million albums and therefore they didn’t have much of an impact and how MC Hammer had more of an impact than they did. That is going too far in my book. Why go the record sales route? Just chalk it up and move on.
Even if he was disrespectful or arrogant or whatever, “FiascoGate?” That term is saved for legal scandals i.e. Watergate, Lewinskigate and every day in the Bush admin. He screwed up a song. He didn’t break a law, kill a person or lie about a BJ. How about Jenagate? Disproportionate amount of attention to put on something that people do all the time. Amy Winehouse forgets her lyrics regularly and she wrote them.
I quess you have to be a lover of HIPHOP to understand!! I’m wit U BMD
This hurt me. Bad. I’ve appointed Lupe as my favorite “now” rapper. And ATCQ will always have a special place in my heart (what is a what if you ain’t got a gun). And I’m from SW VA and I listened to all that stuff. NWA, Outkast, KRS 1, Rakim, Twista…it didn’t matter what corner of the map it came from, I listened to it. It taught me what was going on in NY, Cali, and all parts in between.
So when someone who has meticulously branded himself as a conscious MC disses one of the greatest “backpack” groups of all time, it strikes a nerve with me. I would have preferred family to just admit his mistake and keep it moving. I still got love for my Muslim brethren, but damn Lupe- why you gotta diss Tribe?
Regardless if he was a fan or not, if you agree to fill in for a role for a group, ANY group, familiarize yourself with the lyrics. PERIOD. You were unprepared so don’t get mad when you get called out.