Shoes

"Shoes" is a song by Lupe Fiasco and Kaelin Ellis, featuring Virgil Abloh. It was released as a single on July 15, 2020, and interpolates the 1999 song "How I Get Down" by Rakim. The music video was released to YouTube on July 30, animated by Caleb Clark."Lupe Fiasco - SHOES (feat. Virgil Abloh) ft. Virgil Abloh". YouTube. July 30, 2020. The song is an ode to the late Ahmaud Arbery (May 8, 1994-February 23, 2020), who was murdered while jogging in Satilla Shores, Brunswick, Georgia. In the chorus, Abloh sings about hypothetically designing the shoes for Arbery.
== Background ==
Lupe Fiasco told Apple Music, "It was time spent trying to find the shoes that [Ahmaud Arbery] actually wore. We intentionally, actively spent time looking through the footage, trying to get a sense of what it was without being too macabre about it or being too disrespectful, but to be accurate.""Lupe Fiasco: 'HOUSE', Possible Nas Collaboration, and Tribute To Ahmaud Arbery | Apple Music". YouTube. July 24, 2020. Regarding his collaboration with Abloh, Fiasco shared to Vulture, "I want to make this song about Ahmaud Arbery, and I want to focus on his shoes and this aspect of him running. What would be the most fitting thing to do? It would be to design a pair of shoes. And who is the best running-shoe designer in the world? Virgil is super-creative, super-forward-thinking, and super-artistic, and so it was easy. We did it before all of that shit [with the donation] jumped off. So it wasn't done to reframe Virgil into 'I'm really a good guy. Look at this song I made about Ahmaud Arbery.'"
When it was addressed of him memorializing people such as Alan Kurdi and Jonylah Watkins through music, he explained, "[T]he only way to give them that opportunity is through the imagination: grow them up and give them purpose through the art. With Ahmaud, it's a little different. He's lived not a full life, but he's already lived to a certain extent. He already expressed the things that he wanted to do and be and experienced some of those things. So it's less about trying to bring him back to life but more about memorializing or amplifying the effects of his death. Some people, you're going to create statues of, name a building after, name a street after; some people, you got to make a pair of shoes. It's the effect that a person can have after their death, not just as an example of racism in America. I would want my legacy to be—which Virgil then kind of put it succinctly—that running is freedom."
== Lyrics ==
== References ==
Category:2020 songs
Category:Collaboration songs
Category:House
Category:Lupe Fiasco songs
Category:Singles
Category:Songs