S. Samuel
While fans will still have to wait to see if the rumored Child Rebel Soldier album actually materializes, Grammy-winning rapper Lupe Fiasco has revealed he and producer Pharrell Williams are currently working on a joint album.
Although he kept the details on the skinny side, Fiasco broke the news of their forthcoming project this week.
According to a message on Lupe Fiasco’s official website today, the Chi-town rapper will collaborate Watch The Throne-style with Pharrell Williams in the near future. The message reads: “FOOD AND LIQUOR 2 COMING SOON….LUPE AND PHARRELL ALBUM COMING SOON…”. No other information on the collaboration was given. (The NJ Underground)
Last October, Lupe said fans should not get upset with him due to the fact that the expected CRS collaborative effort featuring Pharrell and Kanye West was never released.
“Um, probably not. I don’t foresee it. I don’t know,” Fiasco said when asked about the LP’s status. “Everybody has their different approaches. Do you want a CRS album or do you want a ‘Friend of the People’ mixtape or do you want a ‘Food and Liquor 2’ or do you want… It’s like, you know, you can’t do all of it. And then with CRS I have to get Pharrell on the same page and get Kanye on the same page – is it something that we even still want to do, you know? It was something that we maybe thought about doing 3 or 4 years ago. 3 or 4 years later, is that something that we still want to do? … It ain’t on me, it ain’t on Lupe — There’s three other people that’s involved; three different record labels; three different kinds of systems and management and all this other kind of stuff involved. So, creatively I’m always down to collaborate but, this particular thing, I don’t know.” (All Hip Hop)
In March, he also blamed scheduling conflicts for the project’s delay.
“Honestly I don’t know, it’s all scheduling,” Lupe explained in an interview. “We’re all three independent artists, all working. It’s not like we’re dormant, we’re all working, so it’s about finding that moment where we can all get together and sit down, and come up with the songs and the ideas. We just haven’t had the opportunity to do that as of late, enough to put an album, a serious album together, and even if we get to that point, the business of the album coming out is ridiculous because it’s three separate labels, three separate interests and that’s going to be a paperwork nightmare. So there’s elements to it – big hurdles that need to be jumped before we can proceed with it properly and give people what they want, which is an album.” (Gigwise)
Around mid-January, Fiasco pointed his finger at West and Jay-Z‘s Watch the Throne joint album for possibly halting production for the CRS project.
“I think the Jay-Z/Kanye collabo [Watch the Throne] kinda was like, ‘Aww man, aww no,'” Lupe said in an interview. “Whenever we get to go in [the studio] and have the time and the opportunity to do it, we’re always working on some other project. Pharrell gon’ do a soundtrack for a movie, Kanye does another project. It’s becoming less of an album and more of everytime we do a song together–me, ‘Ye, and Pharrell, a CRS thing.” (Hot 93.7)
No further details have been revealed as of now.
Check out some Lupe Fiasco footage down below:
