S. Samuel
Grammy-winning rapper Lupe Fiasco has reacted to the new Kanye West and 2 Chainz "Birthday Song" release and said he cannot whole-heartedly co-sign it.
Despite sharing a bond with Yeezy, Fiasco said the song and a majority of the music out these days do not impress him.
“Eh, eh,” Fiasco told radio host Jenny Boom Boom when asked for his reaction to “Birthday Song.” “[You weren’t feeling it?] Eh, you know, for me, for me, hip-hop I want, and we were saying this earlier, I want to hear stuff that I haven’t heard before. So like 99 percent of the hip-hop that I hear these days is just the same. And it just kind of gets like, ‘What am I listening to it for?’ And for me, that’s just keeping it 100. It might be good; the beat is dope, lyrics might be whatever, technical things. But at the end of the day, it’s like, ‘Why am I listening to this?'” (“Jenny Boom Boom TV”)
The new record premiered online Monday (July 23) afternoon.
Everyone knows the words to “Happy Birthday,” but Kanye West and 2 Chainz have a new version for your ears. “Birthday Song,” released Monday, is the latest bit of readily accessible music from the G.O.O.D. Music chief and his newest protege. The song continues Kanye’s rapid sprint away from the emotional lyrics and lush beats of his last disc, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Like his other recent efforts (“Mercy,” “New God Flow” and “Way Too Cold”), “Birthday Song” centers around vague boasts and not entirely feminist lyrics (“All I want for my birthday is a big booty girl”). (Huffington Post)
Last fall, Fiasco said plans to work on a joint project alongside Pharrell Williams and Kanye West diminished.
“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)
He also previously blamed scheduling conflicts for delaying the collaborative effort.
“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)
Check out Lupe Fiasco’s interview below:
