Lupe Fiasco Fills What’s Missing In Hip Hop’s Middle

Lupe Fiasco spoke with Australia’s Time Off magazine on why he thinks it took so long for his career to kick off. “I think it was timing,” he explained. “The music industry is pretty saturated, [with party hip-hop] kinda reaching its peak, so people were waiting for something a little bit different to what was going on – as far as approach and style and even image – just a different person to come out with a different story, because you’ve heard the gangsta story and then you’ve heard the opposite of it which is, ‘I’m just this conscientious dude and I wanna build schools…’. There was something missing from the middle. If you look at Kanye, who represents the center, it’s more flashy, it’s more braggadocio – his persona is a little bit more harsh. So I guess I became the light-hearted hero who struck at the right time – something that people were waiting on.”