Before Food & Liquor dropped in 2006, Lupe garnered a lot of buzz with his Fahrenheit 1/15 mixtape series. Here we have video of Canadian hip hop artist K'naan and his crew listening to Part 1 of that series, The Truth Is Among Us. Watch above as they listen to "Muhammad Walks" and "1st & 15th Is Back".
It isn't often that we get to see an artist show genuine reactions and appreciation for the work of a fellow artist. A lot of dancing around, rewinding, jaws dropping, looks of amazement, and even a proclamation that "there is a new mothaf***in king in town!". WHAT'S F*CKING WITH THAT?!
The 10th edition of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival is coming to a close with its most hip-hop heavy day of the weekend. While rap duo Clipse was a late scratch, the day still bore witness to two of the genre's more adventurous artists in Chicago's Lupe Fiasco and Somali-Canadian artist K'Naan.
Lupe Fiasco opened with his playful 2006 hit "Kick, Push," but he's advanced well beyond the delightfully fun anthem to skateboarding that put him on the map. Opening for Kanye West's Glow in the Dark tour seems to have paid off, because Lupe Fiasco arrived at Coachella as a more seasoned, intense performer.
A full backing band provided jazzy segues for each song, bringing an accomplished elegance to "Hip-Hop Saved My Life," which allowed the song to escape any sense of bravado. That's not to say Lupe Fiasco doesn't brag, but when mentioned near the end of his performance that the remainder of his set would feature only "Grammy-nominated" songs, it was a boastfulness that was celebrating hip-hop as art.
"First of all I'm on tour like crack on whore/Consistently, like black on poor..."
Wow. Listen to Somalian/Toronto artist K'naan rap over Lupe's beat about being physically assaulted in Sweden..
"Some of you may have heard or read about what happened in Sweden's Gothenburg. Where after the performance a bouncer wouldn't allow me to go backstage to collect my things, though I had my pass in hand. The story is deep, and Sol Guy (my friend and manager) ended up going to jail for the night in Sweden. And me and the band spent the night at the station waitin for him. While it was us who were disrespected and actually physically assaulted, it was also us who were betrayed, processed and reminded of the diseases in the human heart.
Fortunately, we were traveling with a camera and so we have some of those people and some of the situation on camera.Those of you who know my music know that I've never really written for leisure. And that my experiences have always been at the forefront of my music. And you must agree, rarely is life uneventful. But this one called for special presentation. So I wrote a song, using Lupe Fiasco's Kick Push instrumental. Documenting the experience we had in Sweden, I call this song... KickED PushED. We also put together a video for the song, using the ACTUAL footage from the scenario. Nothing is re-created, or re-enacted, everything that you see is REAL.
