Looks like Lupe Fiasco is gonna stick to his principles no matter what.. We’re getting reports that he was dragged off stage from security at a StartUp RockOn event in Washington DC..Apparently he performed his anti-war, anti Obama song Words I never Said for 30 minutes.. The concert hosts tried to get him to change songs.. Lupe refused and the next thing you know guard hit the stage and dragged him off.. Wow.. I guess Obama supporters ain’t having the disses unless your Kid Rock or Ted Nugent…They talk smack all day and never get shut down…From the way the reports go, this reminds me of the time when Lauryn Hill came to perform at the DNC Rock the Vote Party in 2004… She kept the crowd waiting for 2 hours.. She showed up grabbed the mic sang the words Politicians are shady.. hummed a little and left never to return.. Lupe decided to make his point known by staying for 30 minutes..
Here’s a few of the tweets collected by Buzz feed about Lupe’s performance and shut down
including this one from reporter Josh Rogin and Matt Dornic
Lupe Fiasco just got thrown off stage here at the Hamilton Live after he went on an anti-Obama diatribe mid set.
Things going terribly wrong at @lupefiasco performance during #SURO. Kicked off stage, bashing obama.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/zekejmiller/lupe-fiasco-thrown-off-stage-at-inauguration-conce
You can see a video of Lupe and his encounter below
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ScQl5_GQao
Here’s the official statement from organizers which came out a short while ago…
StartUp RockOn is all about startups helping startups. At Sunday night’s Inauguration Celebration at the Hamilton Live, organizers set out to honor innovative visionaries with grants, accolades and a party worthy of the success we achieved at the RNC and DNC this summer.
Lupe Fiasco performed at this private event, and as you may have read, he left the stage earlier than we had planned. But Lupe Fiasco was not “kicked off stage” for an “anti-Obama rant.” We are staunch supporters of free speech, and free political speech. This was not about his opinions. Instead, after a bizarrely repetitive, jarring performance that left the crowd vocally dissatisfied, organizers decided to move on to the next act.
The party continued as planned, and we celebrated the announcement of CodeNow’s winning the Grant Challenge. CodeNow is a non-profit startup based in Washington DC that teaches “underrepresented high school students basic skills in computer programming.”
StartUp RockOn was founded last year by three startups: HyperVocal, EventFarm and Fighter Interactive.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22l1sf5JZD0
Reblogged this on .
I guess that first amendment is just as subjective as the second.
Why would you sing an anti Obama song at a pre inauguration concert? I mean is relevancy that important Lupe?
Why would you book Lupe for an inauguration event and expect different? Y’all thought he was gone do “Kick, Push”?!
did what he knew was right. love that shit! lupe spreadin’ truth
I love Lupe, and especially that verse in “Words” about the bombing of Gaza. But the video seems to confirm what the SURO press release says — he wasn’t performing. He was just waving his hands around while the band did some weird jazz-fusion jamming. I would have preferred him just talking straight to the issues.
thats crazy (black)
Much respect Lupe, expose this fraud for what he is. THE GAME IS THICK.
Reblogged this on Substantial Music and commented:
Although, I have been and still am an Obama supporter, I respect Lupe for sticking to his beliefs. #Salute
What a moron! Did he think this was gonna really fly?
that sing song nursery rhyme crap is boring as hell
So we live in a country where, if you think murder and drone attacks on innocent people are wrong, you’re a villain? ::shrugs:: Real hip hop speaks the truth. Much respect to Lupe.
Lupe focused like a laser! Who you gonna believe, Obamanipulative BARACQUIE$CENT$; or your lying eyes?
Courage is the ability to speak truth to power wherever you are. It is never a convenient time to discomfort the comfortable. And many don’t confine their words to the government-designated “free speech zone.” It is breathtakingly sad to witness how quickly people side with power. Yet it is more heartening to see a young brother taking a stand against a set-up and a trick bag. A set-up to honor empire and endless war. I stand with Lupe! Lupe did more to honor Martin Luther King last night than many of his critics will do in their entire lifetimes.
Okay, yeah, say what you want. If they aren’t going to kick you off the stage when you begin voicing your opinions, they are allowing you a certain amount of public forum. But doing the same damn song for 30 minutes isn’t mature public debate, it’s effing annoying and, as they said, bizarre.
In the wordz of the great ICE T…FREEDOM OF SPEECH…JUST WATCH WHAT YOU SAY.
there is a time and a place for everything..clearly that was not the way to express yourself. -purple
So disrespectful-teal
Wow.. wats going on here (RED)
F–k Obama. Does he know what conspiracy to commit murder is? Somebody gotta let him know what the deal is. Maybe he need to ask those who are dying in Pakistan and Afghanistan from drone strikes. Spare me this fairy floss Jay Z / Beyonce Illuminati garbage. Lupe is definitely on my playlist. Keep reportin the truth. HIP HOP since 83-84. SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY.
@Chris, it is amazing that you condone these antics. These incidents did not just happened on the day we celebrate MLK’s birthday and the festivities of yesterday! And for the record the Illuminati is very real, I wished the souls lost could come back and show and educate you how real it is. As Gil Scott Herron said that the revolution will not be televised. Also for the record ONE MAN could never run this or any other country! How much of Lupe’s money is going to any cause for that matter? Giving back through lyrics don’t cut it! We have enough clowns in this Universe and to repeat the same thing for 30 minutes is enough to drive anybody crazy! The end result was just what it iwas
How much money should Lupe be giving and to who? who gets to determine the set amount..Does he need a foundation or does he need people to vouch for him.. whats the list of approved folks for him to give money? and since when didnt lyrics cut it? Thats not what was said in the past.. The mission was to spit words to power from the Black Arts movement on down.. when did it change?
Yo, everyone on this site is entitled to their own opinion and I thankful for yours. I don’t see why it’s ”amazing” that I support Lupe. I think it is quite insidious Obama chose that day for his inauguration. How dare he insult MLK with using the man’s birthday to make a political point. The system that was built up by the ”slavemaster” is still in effect today. I feel slavery was the worst kind of treatment to a human being. And let’s not cheat ourselves. This country was built on the blood of humankind.
One can trace this from the 1500’s right up to 2013. What has changed? The same bloodthirsty tactics that were practiced when Africans got hauled onto boats and taken away from their homeland are happening although via different methods. And it hasn’t been any different under Dictator Obama. People just fall in love with the image that because they have a ”black” President that they are free when IMO ALL Americans are more enslaved then ever and it’s getting worse.
I don’t think Lupe is on the level of a group like Public Enemy but just to protest against the norm is much better than the trashy pop singers who are manipulating and destroying the minds of the young every time they bring out a new project full of sex appeal and shock value. And it is shocking to say the least. To see the extent of how this is being done and what frequency check out vigilantcitizen.com if you haven’t already.
As shown, it is no co-incidence, these images are deliberately manufactured for the young generation. So back to our buddy Lupe, what is so wrong in having a different opinion and expressing it? What about his money? Maybe he should donate it to one of Obama’s phony campaigns to make life better for the average American? But he’s already got Jay Z and Beyonce on his side so who needs Lupe? Conscious lyrics can not be bought. They do not have a monetary value and the young need more people like Lupe.
In the same way the humankind needed MLK when he said ” I have a dream”.
Lupe Fiasco make hip hop look bad. He need to humble himself, if he knew he wouldn’t give the fans what they paid for ticket wise then he shouldn’t of perform… People gonna think twice before booking for hip hop show.
I’ve seen the video of Lupe Fiasco’s entire song, watched the video of Lupe being “escorted” (read thrown) off the stage, and read the official statement. I think Lupe is on point, I think Lupe was removed from the stage due to what he expressed in his music, and I think the “official” statement sucks.
Obama is in the process of increasing U.S. military presence in 35 African countries. He is a bigger war monger than George W. Bush. He sent UN Special Envoy William Jefferson Clinton and former U.S. s/elected president George W. Bush to Haiti as overseers, and tried to keep the twice democratically elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide in exile in South Africa.
(This is the same GW Bush who is dumb as a box of rocks, and who (in March, 2010) shook hands with a Haitian man and promptly wiped the same hand on Clinton’s shirt. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqcoKzCZ0DM
And it’s the same William Jefferson Clinton who (needing a better penis, some would say) is alleged to have inserted a cigar tube into Monica Lewinsky’s vagina in the course of his “improper” relationship with her – which he’d at first denied – and for which he was eventually impeached.
Clinton ordered missile strikes on innocent Iraqi civilians in 1993, with no repercussions whatever, but f***ed Monica Lewinsky in the Oval Office in 1995-6 and got impeached. And this is 1/2 of the tag team Obama sent to Haiti…
Lastly, do not forget that an 89 year old celebrated White House correspondent, (Helen Thomas) someone who had covered every U.S. president from Eisenhower to Obama in a career that spanned 57 years, was forced into retirement (in June, 2010) after stating publicly (on the White House grounds and to a rabbi, no less) that Israel should be told, “…to get the hell out of Palestine.” and “Remember, these people are occupied and it’s their land. It’s not German, it’s not Poland…” When asked where Israeli Jews should go, she replied they could “go home” to Poland or Germany or “America and everywhere else. Why push people out of there who have lived there for centuries?” She also mentioned she was of “Arab background.”
Willie Green also said Obama doesn’t care about Black people in 2010, 5 years after Kanye West decided after Katrina that Bush didn’t care about Black people either.
2010 was a banner year.
Now here we are barely into 2013, and the goon squad gets to remove an artist from a stage in the middle of a show because Obama because of some lyrics?
And some of ya’ll think that because the jack boots have a cullard face, they won’t end up in your cornflakes?
Shame on you.