Anonymous

“It's hard being a Lupe fan, go to Harvard to be a Lupe stan.”This page uses Creative Commons Licensed content from Wikipedia.The original article was at Anonymous (hacker group). The list of authors can be seen in the page history.Category

## **Anonymous**

### **Type**

* Multiple-use name/avatar
* Virtual community
* Voluntary association

### **Formation**

2003

**Anonymous** is a decentralized international activist and hacktivist collective and movement primarily known for its various cyberattacks against several governments, government institutions and government agencies, corporations and the Church of Scientology. They were involved in getting a release date for American rapper Lupe Fiasco's fifth studio album, *Tetsuo & Youth*, the incident covered by many media outlets including *Complex*, *The Guardian*, *The Fader*, *Gigwise*, *AllHipHop*, and *XXL*.

## Background

Fiasco has experienced a longtime battle with his record label, Atlantic Records, over project releases and his artistry. On October 14, 2014, in a since-deleted Instagram post, he remarked, "ATLANTIC RECORDS won't release the album until they get a 'pop' single. [S]o putting together a mini-project while they find one for me. It's called 'Lost In The Atlantic Ocean' with a bunch of my friends to stay active and happy..."

The following day on October 15, Anonymous took to Twitter to threaten Atlantic: "You have 24 hours to present a statement announcing the immediate release of @LupeFiasco's album. If you do not comply, we will launch a direct attach against your website, your associates, and your executives." It included other tweets, like "We're watching @AtlanticRecords very closely," "You easily put trash music out to the masses and blatantly censor anything that will make people actually think," "When people are fed basic messages, they become as such," and "You have two hours left @AtlanticRecords You got some shitstorm coming. #FreeLupe." Finally, Atlantic announced the release date of *Tetsuo & Youth* around 19 hours after the given ultimatum.

Anonymous wrote in response, "Well then. Never mind. Looks like @AtlanticRecords made the smart move and listened to us. #LupeFreed." They also published an official statement:

>
> Citizens of the World and lovers of conscious music,
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> We are Anonymous.
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> 24 hours ago we released a short Twitter ultimatum. We called upon record label Atlantic Records, responsible for releasing conscious rap artist Lupe Fiasco's long awaited Album. We demanded a statement from the label within 24 hours to release a date or we would unleash the complete and utter fury of our collective on their company and executives. 21 hours later they released a short Tweet citing the album and it's release date.
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>
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> At this time it can be concluded that we have proved our point. We wish music that is educating the masses to keep being released. We will fight for that. Lupe Fiasco, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, Common and others are the moving force behind conscious rap. This is music we will fight for.
>
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> Operation Atlantic, Operation Free Lupe; disengaged.
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> Mission Accomplished.
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> We are Anonymous.
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> Never cease to expect us.
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>

Fiasco responded "V" in acknowledgement.

## References

1. ↑ Fleischer, Adam (October 14, 2014). "Lupe Fiasco Is in Another Battle with Atlantic Records". *MTV*.
2. ↑ "Atlantic Records (@AtlanticRecords)". *Twitter*. October 15, 2014.
3. ↑ Chiu, David (October 17, 2014). "Did Anonymous Actually Force Atlantic to Give Lupe Fiasco a Release Date?". *The Fader*.
4. ↑ Davis, Justin (October 16, 2014). "Did Anonymous Force Atlantic Records to Give Lupe Fiasco's "Tetsuo And Youth" a Release Date?". *Complex*.