S. Samuel
Fans of Grammy-winning rapper Lupe Fiasco have announced a date they will come together and protest outside of his Atlantic Records' label.
The rally is currently set to take place in mid-October at the label’s New York City office building.
2 months ago the WeWantLasers Petition was started and over 28k people signed it so far but the only reaction we got from Atlantic Records was a tweet saying “Lasers is coming” and that’s not enough! If you think the petition would be the only thing we’d be doing to get this album released – you’re wrong! On October 15th, Lupe Fiasco fans will gather in New York City to protest in front of the Atlantic Records Headquarters! So if you’re in New York or close – be there! Wear the Lasers Uniform and bring picket signs! – If you have friends in New York – tell them about it! And for all people who aren’t able to be there, spread the word online! (Twitter / Facebook, Blogs etc.) or if there’s an Atlantic Records building in your city, you can go there, too. (LupeE.N.D. Blog)
Earlier this month, Fiasco said in light of the album’s release being delayed multiple times, he decided to begin work on another solo project called Food & Liquor 2.
“It’s like Lasers, that’s one album that got disrupted in the business process. It’s a great album, but that album may not come out. But here’s Food and Liquor II. So what’s going to make you happy? What’s truly going to make the people happy? I’m giving you another album. I’m already past it. I’m not sitting around, ‘Oh man, I want Lasers. Why don’t they put out my songs?’ Crying. For what? You go in and put out another record. And that’s what I did…If God wills it to be, we’ll be talking about Food and Liquor II. And if Food and Liquor II doesn’t come out, we’ll be talking about Food and Liquor III. [Laughs.] If Food and Liquor III doesn’t come out, we’ll be talking about Food and Liquor IV. If that doesn’t come out, we’ll put out The Cool II, The Cool III. I’m never going to stop. I love music. I’m never going to stop making music. I just did a whole punk rock album. So when the business overshadows the music, then I’m done. And I’ma step away from that, which is what happened to Lasers. All people see is music. It’s a music business. The music is beautiful and great. I love to perform it, and I love to go around the world, and I love to sing it and say it. But I hate to pick up my phone when I get off stage to talk about the music business!” (Complex)
Last July, Lupe gave his reaction to the fan-launched online petition against Atlantic Records to put out his Lasers album.
“I love to see progression,” he said yesterday via phone. “I love it. I love to see this petition. It brought me to tears a couple of times like, ‘these n—as really f— with me. All these kids and these fans f— with me and it’s some positive sh–. Go to Wearenotlosers.com and see what Lasers really is. … That’s what they’re petitioning for. Listen to ‘I’m Beamin,’ the song. It reaffirms what we’re doing…I don’t think the label cares about an album. I don’t think n—as care. People just want their number-one record. They don’t care about the rest of the album. I was talking to an engineer the other day and he said, ‘These n—as don’t even care about mixing an album no more.’ They just want the first three songs. Three singles. They get them, one, two, three, they don’t care what’s on the rest of the album. I know this for sure. I’ve seen it. You can’t blame them because of the attention span of the game and the attention span of music, how fast things are going. You only got them one, two, three shots. I’m not no fool. I’m looking at it like ‘Yeah, you’re right.'” (MTV)
The petition was aimed at Lupe’s label home, Atlantic Records, and demanded a release date.
“Dear Atlantic Records: The fans below have been waiting for the release for Lupe Fiasco’s album ‘Lasers’ for over a good year now. Since when it was originally announced last summer, there has still yet to be a release date announced. It has even been stated by Lupe Fiasco the artist himself, that the album is in fact completed. Enough is enough, we demand that you stop playing around and give us the album that we have been highly anticipating since the release of The Cool.” (Petition Online)
Check out some past Lupe Fiasco footage below:
