Fiasco Quotes:

I find it somewhat liberating to jump, to dive into things that are the opposite of me.

- Lupe Fiasco

topic: Opposites, Fiasco, Liberating

With 'Hip-Hop Saved My Life,' I attempted to make 'Kick, Push,' but for rappers. To give a real basic play-by-play of the life of a rapper before he makes it - if he ever makes it, because you can get stuck in that and be trying to make it for the rest of your life.

- Lupe Fiasco

topic: Real, Rapper, Play, Fiasco

Fear is such a weak emotion that’s why I despise it

- Lupe Fiasco

source: Song: Words I Never Said, Album: Lasers, 2011

topic: Emotion, Weak, Despise, Fiasco

Reggae, oh man. It's the ultimate music. The positivity. The musicality. The whole cultural expressionism of it. The danceability. Just the cool factor. The melody factor. Some of it comes from a religious place. If there were a competition of who makes the best religious music, it would definitely be the Rastafarian reggae.

- Lupe Fiasco

topic: Religious, Positivity, Men, Expressionism, Religious Music

If they burn a book, have no worries. The book will feel NO pain so neither should you! True destruction of the Qur'an cannot be done with fire; it is destroyed when we fail to remember & practice its lessons in our daily lives. If this occurs, then it is ANOTHER fire that you should truly be concerned about!

- Lupe Fiasco

topic: Pain, Book, Fire, Fiasco, No Worries

I think that all the silence is worse than all the violence

- Lupe Fiasco

source: Song: Words I Never Said, Album: Lasers, 2011

topic: Thinking, Silence, Violence, Fiasco

Obama came in and gave $700 billion to the bankers off the top as opposed to giving $700 billion to the poor.

- Lupe Fiasco

topic: Giving, Bankers, Poor, Fiasco

Failure: Is it a limitation? Bad timing? It's a lot of things. It's something you can't be afraid of, because you'll stop growing. The next step beyond failure could be your biggest success in life.

- Debbie Allen

topic: Failure, Next Steps, Growing, Failure Is Not An Option, Fiasco

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.

- Lupe Fiasco

source: "Lupe Fiasco supports Barack Obama but says he's not first black president" by Alvin Blanco, www.mtv.com. March 9, 2011.

topic: Talking, America, Black, Mugabe, Fiasco

The murder rate in Chicago is skyrocketing and you see who's doing it and perpetrating it, they all look like Chief Keef.

- Lupe Fiasco

source: "Lupe Fiasco Retires? Rapper Says He’s Done After Chief Keef Attacks Him On Twitter" By Kia Makarechi, www.huffingtonpost.com. September 6, 2012.

topic: Oakland, Chicago, Looks, Chief Keef, Fiasco

The truth is limitless in its range, if you drop the T and look at it in reverse it could hurt.

- Lupe Fiasco

topic: Hurt, Looks, Limitless, Fiasco

I think there's a lot of the hip-hop crowd behind Barack Obama because he's a black man. Honestly, I'm rooting for Hillary because race is only going to go so far. All the presidents are men at the end of the day.

- Lupe Fiasco

topic: Men, Thinking, Race, Fiasco

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.

- Lupe Fiasco

topic: Rap, Eye, People, Fiasco, Record Companies

We have to make the physical music a little more valuable instead of just having a download link and a bunch of songs you downloaded from some torrent site. People try to make the music value-less, and I don't think we're going to stop that train, but the one thing that they can't devalue are things that are in the outside world.

- Lupe Fiasco

topic: Song, Thinking, People, Fiasco, Devalue

I always preach that you have to be active as a citizen no matter what, and some people just voting as an excuse not to do anything.

- Lupe Fiasco

topic: People, Voting, Matter, Fiasco

Takes a long time to happen so fast... To realize that your future is somebody else's past

- Lupe Fiasco

source: Song: Old School Love

topic: Rap, Past, Long, Fiasco

If you're going to fight terrorism, to me, you fight the root causes of terrorism.

- Lupe Fiasco

source: "Bill O'Reilly Confronts Rapper Lupe Fiasco Over Calling Obama a 'Terrorist'". "The O'Reilly Factor" with Bill O'Reilly, www.foxnews.com. June 20, 2011.

topic: Fighting, Roots, Causes, Fiasco

Sometimes I wish I never found the Internet. Sometimes I regret getting a laptop and Wi-Fi for logging into the Internet because it is such a distraction. If you have any addictive personality, the Internet will magnify it.

- Lupe Fiasco

topic: Regret, Personality, Wish, Logging, Fiasco

The only person who really impressed me with making new music is Cudi. Everyone else seems to be jumping on the same music, the producer-made stuff, but the one person that's made new music to me is Cudi.

- Lupe Fiasco

topic: Jumping, Stuff, Made, Fiasco, New Music

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.'

- Lupe Fiasco

topic: Team, Independent, Lasers, Fiasco, Record Companies

You know, my goal, once I leave the music business, is like, 'Man, Lupe didn't lead us astray.' It comes directly from Islam: leading people astray is the worst thing you could do. Especially in perpetuity; like, your music continues to go on and live without you. That risk is too great for me; I'm gonna keep it positive.

- Lupe Fiasco

topic: Men, People, Goal, Fiasco

I don't really get the same kinda romance that I would get from, like, jazz. And even to a lesser extent to rock 'n roll. Rock 'n roll has a romance to it - how can I put it? A very vulgar romance, but still a romance; whereas hip hop has more facade.

- Lupe Fiasco

topic: Rocks, Hip Hop, Romance, Fiasco

I know what tablas sound like, because my father played a lot of Ustad Ali Akbar Khan.

- Lupe Fiasco

topic: Father, Sound, Knows, Fiasco

I look at people like Picasso and Da Vinci and Escher and Miles Davis, and they'll write or paint that one definitive masterpiece of maybe 50 that they have that's really trying to go outside the box, trying to do something that's tough. And then when you accomplish it, you look back and go, 'Yeeaaaah - masterpiece.'

- Lupe Fiasco

topic: Writing, People, Trying, Escher, Fiasco

A match made in heaven set the fires in hell.

- Lupe Fiasco

source: Song: The Coolest, 2007

topic: Fire, Heaven, Hell, Fiasco

In my fight against terrorism, to me, the biggest terrorist is Obama, and the United States of America.

- Lupe Fiasco

topic: Fighting, America, United States, Fiasco

All the big revolutions, whether it's the Industrial Revolution, the Arab Spring, those changes happened by economic and social shifts brought about by the people's voices, and those things weren't voted for. Most of our changes today are brought about through technology, not by voting.

- Lupe Fiasco

source: "Lupe Fiasco on Freedom". Interview with Lisa Bonner, www.ebony.com. June 28, 2012.

topic: Spring, Technology, Voice, Fiasco, Arab Spring

I think that American presidents, that position in itself, as well as American foreign policy, it has terrorism in it. CIA agents going to overthrow certain governments - they're using terrorist tactics. They're not going in there like, 'Hey, you wanna have some cake?'

- Lupe Fiasco

topic: Thinking, Government, Cia Agents, Fiasco, Hey You

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.

- Lupe Fiasco

topic: Honor, Generations, Hey, Fiasco

I definitely want to work with Thom Yorke. I want to work with Damien Marley; there's a few international artists I wouldn't mind working with - like Massacre Children would be ill, and I still have an affinity for the UK hip hop scene.

- Lupe Fiasco

source: MTV Interview, www.mtv.com.au. March 4, 2011.

topic: Children, Artist, Hip Hop, Marley, Fiasco

Everybody has their opinion on what's 'real,' and what's they choose to listen to and their personal preference. Whether they're 2 years old or 200 years old. And people can listen to whatever they want.

- Lupe Fiasco

topic: Real, Years, People, Personal Preferences, Fiasco

There's already been black presidents who've been corrupt, so it doesn't strike me that having a black man in office means he's going to be the Messiah.

- Lupe Fiasco

topic: Mean, Men, Office, Fiasco

That should be the measure of success for everyone. It's not money, it's not fame, it's not celebrity; my index of success is happiness.

- Lupe Fiasco

source: MTV Interview, www.mtv.com.au. March 4, 2011.

topic: Fame, Should, Measure Of Success, Fiasco

When you start creating opinion, and you start creating difference of opinion, you're doing something. People are actually sitting down and critiquing. A lot of the stuff people hate, they really don't. They only look at the outer shell. They don't really get into it.

- Lupe Fiasco

topic: Hate, People, Opinion, Differences Of Opinion, Fiasco

Some stuff I don't even put out. I'll just be home, happy, creating something for myself, and then ball it up and throw it in the trash. It's less about trying to prove something or get on somebody's list or make a fan happy or make a hater mad or convert a non-believer. That's not the case for me anymore.

- Lupe Fiasco

topic: Home, Creating, Mad, Fiasco, Non Believer

Chief Keef scares me... not him specifically, but just the culture that he represents.

- Lupe Fiasco

source: "Lupe Fiasco: Not Retiring From the Rap Game Just Yet" by Nicole Powell, www.hollywoodreporter.com. October 19, 2012.

topic: Scare, Culture, Chiefs, Chief Keef, Fiasco

It's a massive undertaking putting an album together... It's not light weight at all.

- Lupe Fiasco

topic: Light, Together, Weight, Fiasco

The story of 'Lasers' is my story. I didn't have to look too far to get subject matter for this record; it was stuff that was happening to me.

- Lupe Fiasco

topic: Looks, Stories, Records, Fiasco

We weren't raised Muslim - we were born Muslim. I didn't go to a Muslim school, but it was just the theme song. It was ambient.

- Lupe Fiasco

topic: Song, School, Theme, Ambient, Fiasco

I do this for the sake of myself. It's a selfish process. I don't really have any expectations from anyone for your comments or your reviews or your previews.

- Lupe Fiasco

topic: Selfish, Expectations, Sake, Fiasco, Preview

I hope that God forgive us, all of us sinners turn us back into beginners, put us up where the winners go, Holy apartments in the gardens in which the rivers flow, thank you for all your blessings and all of your miracles.

- Lupe Fiasco

source: Song: Fighters, Album: The Cool, 2007

topic: Blessing, Garden, Rivers, God Forgives, Fiasco

Barack is at a level where he can't - no matter how much he wants to or how much we want him to - he's not going to come take out our garbage, so to speak. He can't be the garbage man and the president. He can't be the mayor and the alderman. He can't fill all those roles. So I always push for local, local activity on the political scene.

- Lupe Fiasco

topic: Men, Political, President, Fiasco, Want Him

You can't control it once you turn it into the label, so there's the expectation that it'll leak a week before the album comes out. That's the world we live in.

- Lupe Fiasco

topic: Expectations, Albums, Labels, Fiasco

I think you have to ask yourself does voting work on the level that you are trying to effectuate change; that is the conversation you must have.

- Lupe Fiasco

source: "Lupe Fiasco on Freedom". Interview with Lisa Bonner, www.ebony.com. June 28, 2012.

topic: Thinking, Voting, Trying, Fiasco

Some people are the greatest people on Earth with good hearts and will get in the studio and make the most negative music in the world for the sake of success. That's what the music business does to you. That's what capitalism does to you.

- Lupe Fiasco

topic: Heart, People, Doe, Fiasco

People don't understand that where I come from, everyone is either a convict, been in jail, been in a gang, is a hooligan of some sorts, but those are my brothers, my family and the people that I travel with. Those are the people that I roll with.

- Lupe Fiasco

topic: Brother, Jail, People, Fiasco, Convicts

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.

- Lupe Fiasco

source: "From Pine Ridge to preacher pedophilia, Lupe Fiasco album aims to incite". Interview with Eliott C. McLaughlin, www.cnn.com. August 7, 2012.

topic: People, Rebel, Flags, Challenging Status Quo, Challenging The Status Quo

Making your moves, paying your dues, chasing the cool.

- Lupe Fiasco

source: Song: The Cool, 2006

topic: Moving, Chasing, Dues, Fiasco

The economical policies that are instigated really makes you think that the American government is a bunch of evil bastards. So just because you're black, you're still representing that government, and when Obama came into office he enacted the same policies that we would critique other presidents for.

- Lupe Fiasco

source: "Lupe Fiasco supports Barack Obama but says he's not first black president" by Alvin Blanco, www.mtv.com. March 9, 2011.

topic: Thinking, Government, Evil, Fiasco

Whats the biggest commercial for aggression, sexuality and materialism? What gets pumped into these kids heads? Taking someone elses girl, which is so laissez-faire in hip-hop, will get you killed in the streets, but it doesnt seem to be an issue when you hear it on the radio.

- Lupe Fiasco

topic: Girl, Kids, Issues, Laissez Faire, Fiasco