Forbes

Forbes is an American business magazine founded in 1917 by Bertie Charles "B.C." Forbes. In 2012, the publication did an interview with American rapper Lupe Fiasco at Cedar Lake Studios in New York, where he held his album launch for Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album Pt. 1. In 2024, they discussed with Fiasco his ninth studio album, Samurai.
== Articles ==
Title 	Year	Author 	
"Power of Music Part 2:Lupe Fiasco and The Business of 'Conscious Rap'" 	2012	Zack O'Malley Greenburg	
"Is Lupe Fiasco Retiring From Music?" 	2016	Hugh McIntyre 	
"The Lupe & Royce Show Is Podcasting at Its Finest" 	2020	Aswin Pranam 	
"Lupe Fiasco to Release 9th Studio Album 'Samurai' This Summer" 	2024	Ime Ekpo 	
"How Lupe Fiasco Flexed His Lyrical Prowess in 'Cake'" 	2024	Ime Ekpo 	
"How Lupe Fiasco's New Album, 'Samurai,' Archives His Artistic Evolution"	2024	Ime Ekpo 	
== Interviews ==
=== 2012 ===
;On Occupy Wall Street:
"Just because you support Occupy Wall Street doesn't make you a firm, staunch anti-capitalist. You are never going to get away from capitalism, even communism has money making elements to it. … Any type of political ideological system, there is some money made by someone, somewhere."
;On being an anti-establishment artist:
"You can definitely can market it and monetize it, just like anything. And definitely build on it as a brand and create this whole following. It has legs financially. I'd hate to say it's completely non-capitalistic, because that would be untrue."
;On other artists who may not be "conscious" enough:
"I don't want to put that tag too quickly on people. You know, saying that because they are successful, they are not 'conscious' … You have people who, on the surface, seem that they are not 'conscious' or socially aware, who reach a certain status financially who can in one check write away the ills of those [disadvantaged] communities."
;On holding companies accountable:
"You challenge Samsung and say, 'Hey man, are you guys putting illegal coltan in your phones?'” They take it more seriously because now they just paid to sponsor one of your tours, and now they kind of have to put themselves on the line. … It's an interesting, complex, contradictory, hypocritical relationship that we all embrace. But it's just something I just don't think we are going to escape, to be honest."
=== 2024 ===
;On his career:
"I'm just creating at this point. I try not to do the whole artist career thing anymore. I think my career is in other spaces. I do music now purely for the joy of it, not even for the entertainment value of the public. It's more about being creative and adding to the discography."
;On his inspiration for Samurai:
"The title comes directly from Amy Winehouse. The whole story behind this album is based on Amy Winehouse's documentary that was released years ago,” shared Fiasco. “There was a scene in it where she leaves a voice message on Salaam Remi's voicemail, where she says she keeps coming up with all these little battle raps. And if he ever wants to battle, you know, come, let's battle, she'll kill him because she's a samurai."
;On his appreciation for jazz:
"I have a deep respect for jazz artists, vocalists, singers, and players. Anytime I get the opportunity to perform, like with Robert Glasper, who is a really close friend of mine, or Wendell Patrick, who teaches at the Peabody Institute, I go for it. Recently, I did a jazz collaboration with the jazz ensemble at MIT with students from my class, and we did a big concert there. Anytime I can be in a jazz space, I seize the opportunity. I have a high level of respect for jazz musicians.
;On post-production:
"Whenever I finish a record with Soundtrakk, he'll take it and then do more post-production. The thing that was dope was having Chill here; that post-production was under his supervision. It really was the first time that Chill and I worked on music together, even though it had been 18, 19 years."
"We kind of captured them all, and it was quick. It wasn't like we were in the studio for weeks; we were in the studio for a couple of days. Then they did a lot of post-production. I went back on the road."
;On creating songs:
"When you're in the business, in the industry, I had to learn how to make songs. I didn't know how to make songs. During my first and second record deals, I was learning how to create songs—club songs, pop songs, all kinds. It was like a school for me."
"I don't think I really learned how to make records until later. You can see it on my mixtapes; there may be some interesting records, but honestly, I still don't think I know how to make songs consistently. My ratio was like one good song out of every ten records. I think the ratio is smaller now."
;On his longevity in hip hop:
"We still have a studio, we still got beats, I still got raps, I still got these bars, so we're gonna still make albums. I was always looking at Jay-Z and Nas, in terms of, how long do we have? How far can we go? Me being their junior by a decade or so. How long do we have?"
“We can do this through 50. And then it's like, oh, can we do it through 60? Can we do it through 70?"
== References ==
Category:2012 interviews
Category:2024 interviews
Category:Magazines