LupEND

***LupEND*** was going to be Lupe Fiasco's final project with Atlantic Records. It would've been split into a "triple-disc album," where 'END' stood for "Everywhere, Nowhere, Down here."

In January 2022, he addressed over Twitter, "LUPEND was canceled because the label didn't want to do it, ROY just wasn't turning out good so I pulled the plug [and] SKULLS exists I just haven't recorded it yet BECAUSE I kinda really don't want to release it as an album."

## Background

He first informed *Billboard* in December 2007, "'LupEND'—that's going to be my last album's title. When you play a video game, you can only put in three letters for your name, and when the game's over, those three letters and 'END' pop up. My next record might be my last one."

In January 2008, Fiasco told *Entertainment Weekly* that he was around 85 percent committed with the plan, where he was contractually obligated to do a total of five albums, though *LupEND* would've satisfied the agreement through renegotiations. He added, "I'll pay Atlantic back or whatever. It's like a student loan," and of how he would prefer to retire early due to the toll: "This game wears on you. It tears you down. [...] It's like they're paying you, but how much is your independence, your soul, and your sanity worth?" On October 31, 2008, Fiasco told the Chicago crowd at Congress Theater, "The name of the next album is *LupEND*. That's Lup E-N-D. So, if my mathematics serve me correct from a fabulous Chicago public school system, it's not one album ladies and gentlemen... it's three." He continued, "Let's see, E, we'll call that one Everywhere. N, we'll call that one Nowhere. And the last one D, we'll call that Down Here. So, *LupEND* is actually a triple CD."

He clarified in an interview with British magazine, *Loud and Quiet*, "I had four more records with Atlantic Records, and my thing was that I was gonna do an album that was three records released over a period of time, but all under the same title, like *Star Wars*. This was 'LupE.N.D.'—Everywhere, Nowhere, Down Here, was going to be the thing. It's something that got canned, but it was going to fulfil a majority of my contract, and then I could have done a greatest hits record or whatever, and then I'd become Lupe Fiasco 2 or something like that. So it was never that it was going to be no more records, just that I would be out of my agreement with the record company."

In August 2021, he stated that the record's concept was "about the end of the world where everybody was dying from a mysterious disease. So people started to keep digital diaries of their lives and uploaded them to a single gigantic server." In January 2022, he confirmed that *LupEND* was "100%" canceled.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Cohen, Jonathan (November 10, 2008). "Lupe Fiasco Bowing Out with Triple-Disc Set?". *Billboard*.
2. ↑ "Lupe Fiasco (@LupeFiasco)". *Twitter*. January 7, 2022.
3. ↑ Watson, Margeaux (January 17, 2008). "The Successes of Rapper Lupe Fiasco". *Entertainment Weekly*.
4. ↑ "Lupe Fiasco Says LupEND Will Be a Three-Disc Release". *HipHopDX*. November 2, 2008.
5. ↑ Stubbs, Stuart (February 25, 2011). "Lupe Fiasco Isn't Retiring, but the Making of His Third Album, 'Lasers', Almost Made Him Wish That He Were". *Loud and Quiet*.
6. ↑ "Lupe Fiasco (@LupeFiasco)". *Twitter*. August 29, 2021.
7. ↑ "Lupe Fiasco (@LupeFiasco)". *Twitter*. January 7, 2022.