Biography Today

***Biography Today*** was a book series that covered a variety of high-profile people across the news, media, and pop culture, geared towards a young audience. It was edited by Cherie D. Abbey. Lupe Fiasco was featured in Volume 18, published in 2009.

## Excerpt

### Birth

Lupe Fiasco was born Wasalu Muhammad Jaco on February 17, 1982, in Chicago, Illinois. His mother, Shirley, worked as a gourmet chef. His father, Gregory, worked as an operating plant engineer and also owned Army surplus stores and a martial artist school. Fiasco has nine brothers and sisters, of which six are half brothers and sisters.

### Youth

Fiasco, called Lu as a child, grew up on the west side of Chicago, Illinois. His family lived in an apartment in Chicago's Madison Terrace housing project. The neighborhood was rough, but Fiasco's parents worked hard to help their thrive. "I grew up in the 'hood around prostitutes, drug dealers, killers, and gangbangers," he explained. "On the doorknob outside of our apartment, there was blood from some guy who got shot; but inside, there was National Geographic magazines and encyclopedias and a little library bookshelf situation. And we didn't have cable, so we didn't have the luxury of having our brains washed by MTV. We watched public television—cooking shows and stuff like that."

Fiasco's parents exposed their children to a wide range of experiences, including the culture of Chicago's many different ethnic groups. He credits these early adventures as a major influence on his development as an artist. "My father was a real prolific African drummer, and can play anything from the djiembes [African drums] to the bagpipes. My mom is a gourmet chef that has traveled the world. We were always around different cultures. It is because of these artistic experiences there are no limitations to what I talk about on my records."

Fiasco's father had also been a member of the Black Panthers civil rights activist group and a former Army Green Beret. His father was also a marital arts master. Under his direction, Fiasco began practicing martial arts when he was only three years old. "My father told me to respect weapons," he recalled. "I learned to respect them so much that I never wanted one. I did martial arts. If I had to fight, I could defend myself. But it also taught me to see when a fight is coming and how to defuse it. I learned how to think. That's the most important thing my mother and father taught us." By the time he was ten years old, Fiasco had already earned four black belts in martial arts and two in samurai swords.

When Fiasco was five years old, his parents divorced. After that, Fiasco lived with his mother, but his father continued to be a strong presence in his life. "After school, my father would come get us and take us out into the world—one day, we're listening to [rap group] N.W.A., the next day, we're listening to [Indian sitar player] Ravi Shankar, the next day, he's teaching us how to shoot an AK-47, the next day, we're at karate class, the next day, we're in Chinatown... We experienced everything with my father because the things he was into were so vast." With this type of experience, Fiasco began developing his musical tastes even before he started school, becoming interested in jazz and classical music. By the time he was six years old, he loved listening to the music of Beethoven and Tchaikovsky, playing the same records over and over. For Fiasco and his family members, these cultural explorations extended to their religious practice as devout Sunni Muslims. "We would go to different mosques around the city," he recalled. "Each mosque would be in a different community, so it would be a different ethnic group. It would be Pakistanis, it would be Indians, it would be Palestinians, or it would be Africans... So I was always all over the city in different neighborhoods. I got to see a lot of different people... It's like we were almost traveling the world... I got exposed to a lot of different cultures."

Fiasco's mother has described him as "a great spirited child. Smart, a bit complex; he kind of was a loner; he didn't hang with a lot of people... He always had the glasses. Always had a book bag over his shoulder and some type of a writing tablet. He loved to skateboard, too. You could hear those little raggedy wheels... ka-kunk-ka-kunk-ka-kunk, all night long." Fiasco loved reading comics and any other kind of books. His childhood favorites were Dr. Seuss, the Berenstain Bears, the science fiction novels of Jules Verne and George Orwell, and the books of Mark Twain.

### Education

When Fiasco was in the sixth grade, he went to live with his father in the south Chicago suburb of Harvey, Illinois, and attended school there. Science was his favorite subject, and he especially liked chemistry. He thought of pursuing a scientific career but abandoned that goal because his math skills were not good enough for advanced study in the sciences. In high school, Fiasco discovered a love of the theater, and he ran the lights and sound for most of the school's theatrical productions. He joined the chess club and was also a member of the school's Knowledge Bowl Decathlon Team. Fiasco graduated from Thornton Township High School in Harvey, Illinois.

### Career Highlights

#### Becoming a Rapper

Fiasco first began rapping in eighth grade because he wanted to find a way to express himself through music. "I come from a literary background, and I loved to tell stories. I remember freestyling stories, not in rhyme, by just coming up with things when I was a kid on the bus. But I couldn't play an instrument, so I decided to take my storytelling mind and to apply it to rap, which seemed like a natural thing. So I practiced a lot and really tries to apply the techniques I'd learned from poetry—which, of course, is the predecessor for rap."

At first, Fiasco tried out stage names like Little Lu and Lu tha Underdog. But by the time he was in high school, his friends were calling him Lupe. Then he chose the name Fiasco from a track called "Firm Fiasco" by hip-hop supergroup The Firm. Although some people tried to talk him out of the name, he was committed to it. "I simply liked the way the word looked. You know how rappers always have names like MC Terrorist—like they're 'terrorizing' other rappers? I knew Fiasco meant a great disaster or something like that, but I didn't realize that the person named Fiasco would be the disaster, and that you should be calling other MC's fiascos—not yourself. I was moving real fast at the time, and it kind of humbled me in a sense. It taught me like, 'Yo, stop rushing, or you're going to have some fiascos.' So I just kept it. It's like a scar, I guess, a reminder to not overthink or overrun anything ever again."

By the time he was 17 years old, Fiasco was thinking seriously about a career as a rapper. Although his parents didn't like the idea of their song pursuing a career as a hip-hop performer, his father allowed him to set up a recording and mixing studio in the basement. Fiasco scoured Chicago's flea markets and secondhand stores, where he bought the necessary equipment: an old mixing board and record player, a stack of old vinyl records, and mic stands. Working with a group of friends, Fiasco rigged the studio and began making demo tapes and remixes of songs by other artists. Soon Fiasco formed a rap group called Da Pak. Copying the style of California gangsta rappers like Spice 1 and Ice Cube, Da Pak began performing wherever they could. In 2000, when Fiasco 19 years old, Da Pak signed a contract with Epic Records. But the success of the group was short-lived, and Da Pak disbanded after releasing their first single. "We had a song out about cocaine, guns, and women," he said, "and I would go to a record store and look at it and think, 'What are you doing?' I felt like a hypocrite. I was acting like this rapper who would never be judged, and I had to destroy that guy. Because what Lupe Fiasco says on this microphone is going to come back to Wasalu Jaco. When the music cuts off, you have to go home and live with what you say."

In turning away from the violent images of gangsta rap, Fiasco found that he was more attracted to the lyricism of rappers like Nas and Jay-Z. Around this time, his mother gave him some recordings of 1960s poetry performance groups like the Watts Prophets, who were among the first to use spoken word with music in format that would later evolve into rap.

#### The First Big Break

Fiasco was inspired and determined to build his career as a rapper. By 2001, he founded a music production company called 1st & 15th (also known as FNF), named after the traditional twice-monthly paycheck dates. He signed a recording contract with Arista Records, but the deal fell through. However, the Arista deal wasn't a complete failure because it allowed Fiasco to meet Jay-Z, who was then the president of Def Jam Records. Jay-Z called Fiasco a "breath of fresh air" and said Fiasco reminded him of himself early in his career. In 2004, Jay-Z helped Fiasco get a new contract with Atlantic Records. Fiasco then began recording the tracks that would eventually become his first album.

While he worked on his new music, Fiasco released his critically acclaimed mixtape series *Fahrenheit 1/15* over the Internet. As word spread, his remixes were downloaded by people all over the world, quickly resulting in a global fanbase. His remix "Muhammad Walks," based on Kanye West's "Jesus Walks," became popular with Muslims all over the world.

Fiasco's big break came when his track "Conflict Diamonds," a remix of Kanye West's "Diamonds form Sierra Leone," caught West's attention. West was so impressed with the remix that he invited Fiasco to perform on his upcoming single "Touch the Sky." The success of Fiasco's contribution to "Touch the Sky" resulted in the early release of his first official solo single. Entitled "Kick Push," the skateboard themed song was inspired by Fiasco's own childhood hobby and soon became a hit. "It's a skateboarding song. I used to skateboard when I was younger. I was really into it. I never really knew that skateboarding was so deep as a culture. It's just as deep as hip-hop." "Kick Push" was nominated for two 2007 Grammy Awards.

#### *Food & Liquor*

Fiasco's first full-length album, *Food & Liquor*, was released in 2006. The album's artwork shows him surrounded by a collection of various items, including a ninja doll, a Nintendo game console, and a copy of the Muslim holy book, the Koran (also spelled Qur'an). He explained the image on the cover like this. "All of that is out of my book bag. It's the stuff I carry around every day." The album's title also has a significant meaning for Fiasco. "The title reflects on me being Muslim and being from the streets. In Chicago, instead of having bodegas like in New York, the majority of the corner stores are called 'Food and Liquors.' The store is where everything is at, whether it be the wine-o hanging by the store, or us as kids going back and forth to the store to buy something. The 'Food' is the good part and the 'Liquors' is the bad part. I try to balance out both parts of me... Food to me represents growth and progression. You need it to live. Liquor is not a necessity; it's a want. It destroys you. It breaks you down. I can see why it's prohibited in Islam... I've always felt like liquor represents the bad, and food represents the good, and everyone is made up of a little of both."

*Food & Liquor* received rave reviews, with some music critics even calling Fiasco "the savior of the genre." Fiasco was praised for his storytelling talent and his ability to present mature subject matter grounded in his Muslim faith. A *Rolling Stone* reviewer said, "Without dipping his toes into violent imagery, wanton obscenity, or other hip-hop clichés, Fiasco reflects on the personal and the political, and reminds fans of everything hip-hop can be. it's full of surprising, creative moments." His raps were called complex, thought-provoking, and playful, and the beats were praised as inventive. An *Interview* magazine critic said, "The album straddles hip-hop and rock, with songs that segues from funky blaxploitation grooves into grunge, cabaret, and swirling cinematic string arrangements."

*Food & Liquor* was widely considered one of the best hip-hop records of the year and received a total of four Grammy nominations. In 2007, *Food & Liquor* was nominated for Best Rap Album, and "Kick Push" won two nominations, for Best Rap Song and Best Rap Solo Performance. The following year, "Daydreamin'" was nominated for and won the Grammy Award for Best Urban/Alternative Performance. The album also received four BET Hip Hop Award nominations. It appeared on several Billboard music charts, ranking No. 8 on the Billboard 200 and taking the No. 2 spot on Billboard's Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.

#### *The Cool*

Fiasco's second album, *The Cool*, was released in 2007. The album's title is taken from a track on *Food & Liquor*, and several tracks on *The Cool* expand on the story presented in the original song. Here Fiasco introduces three distinct characters: Michael Young History, representing "My Cool Young History"; The Game, representing the damaging influences of greed, vice, and hustling; and The Streets, representing temptation and corruption. Fiasco explained the story told in these songs. "It's about how The Cool starts off as this little boy, he grows up without a father, he's raised by The Game, falls in love with The Streets, goes on to be this big-time hustler, gets killed, and comes back to life... Digs his way out of his own grave, and geos back to his old neighborhood and gets robbed by these two kids, ironically with the same gun he was shot with."

*The Cool* was described as a dark examination of life's pleasures, but Fiasco was careful not to glamorize any aspect fo the story. He believes that what people think is "cool" will ultimately dominated every choice they make, positive or negative. "I always put myself as a storyteller first. I talk about the same concepts as Young Jeezy, but I deglamorize it and put it on cinematic level that leaves it open to interpretation. So in essence, the story is of all of us. The Cool, The Streets, and The Game--those characters represent all of us... In high school I was a nerd, and I haven't changed. Nerds, those with or without glasses, are the coolest people on this planet. The stuff that they do and the things that they talk about and outlook they have on life... This is the theory that runs my existence as a rapper... If you want to effect change on society, you have to make it cool to be uncool, you gotta make it hip to be square. Because it is the things that have been made hip that destroy us and that we will be blamed for... I want the cool things to become uncool, and the world will be less destructive."

*The Cool* also includes some tracks that are not directly related to this story. In "Superstar," Fiasco raps about becoming famous and dealing with too much attention, including the lyrics "A fresh, cool young Lu, trying to cash his microphone check, 2, 1, 2 wanna believe my own hype, but it's too untrue, the world brought me to my knees." In "Hello, Goodbye," he compares recording artists to slaves being owned by a music industry that promotes "the faith that being a slave is so great."

One *Rolling Stone* reviewer said that in *The Cool*, "bleak raps clash with the smoothed-out vibe of the music, maybe even more than they're supposed to, and some of the tracks fall short... Fiasco speaks in the voice of the ultimate con man--a drug dealer, a slave trader, a politician, and a rapper... It's a scary sound." However, other critics found plenty to praise in Fiasco's second album, including its soft, jazzy R&B feel and the tough lyrics that attacked hip-hops materialistic culture. *Entertainment Weekly* credited Fiasco's mass appeal to his "versatile beats, melodic pop hooks, and articulate lyrics."

*The Cool* proved to be a big hit with fans and with critics. It received four Grammy nominations: the album was nominated for Best Rap Album; "Paris, Tokyo" was nominated for Best Rap Solo performance; and "Superstar" (with Matthew Santos) was nominated for Best Rap Song and Best Rap/Sung Collaboration. The album also appeared on several Billboard music charts, ranking No. 14 on the Billboard 200 and No. 4 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. The track "Superstar" appeared on Billboard's Pop 100, Hot Rap Tracks, and Top 40 Mainstream.

#### Next Projects

After the release of *The Cool*, Fiasco formed a hip-hop supergroup known as CRS (Child Rebel Soldier) with Kanye West and Pharrell. CRS released the single "Us Placers," and all three artists appeared on West's Glow in the Dark tour in 2008. In 2009, Fiasco was honored as one of the USA Network's Character Approved award winners. The award included a $10,000 donation to a charity chosen by each winner. Fiasco gave his donation to Action Against Hunger, an international network committed to helping malnourished children and families, saying, "I love to feed people, especially those in need." Fiasco was also nominated for the 2009 Urban Music Award, for Best Hip Hop Act.

Fiasco plans to release at least three more albums before retiring as a recording artist. When creating new music, he prefers to focus on quality over quantity. Fiasco described his musical style as "'simple complexity.' I'm a big jazz fan. You might have the same three instruments but the beast, the rhythms, and everything they're doing is really, really complex. So I always take that approach when I make rap records." His Muslim faith also influences the subject matter including in his raps. "[Islam] affects my music as far as the stuff I don't talk about. I don't degrade women in my records. I try not to use profanity in my records or put anything negative in my records. I always try to put a positive message or solution in my records," Fiasco pointed out. "What you put out into the world comes back to you. You actually change the world with what you do. I want to put some good in the world."

### Home and Family

Fiasco considers Chicago to be his full-time home, although he has no permanent place to live there. "I'm kind of... just living out of a suitcase. I'm so busy... I'm kind of a drifter. No place to really call home. I'd like to live in Paris. I'd like to see what Paris is talking about."

### Hobbies and Other Interests

When he is not rapping, Fiasco says he is usually writing. He would like to someday finish the novel he has been working on for years. "A lot of stuff I want to say musically, it has a limit. You can't compress and process certain things in 16 bars, or a song. It needs to be in a book, or it needs to be in a dissertation, or a speech, or a movie."

Fiasco collects Japanese toys and robots, is fascinated by quantum mechanics and chaos theory, and enjoys reading the works of German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. He enjoys listening to all kinds of music, especially jazz. His favorite recording is Robert Glasper's jazz piano album *G&B*. His favorite song is "Somebody to Love" by Queen, and he says there are several Queen albums that he can sing word for word.

Fiasco also devotes much of his time his various business ventures. In 2005, he founded Righteous Kung-Fu, a company that designs fashions, sneakers, toys, video games, comic books, and graphics for album covers and skateboard decks. He has endorsement contracts with Reebok and has designed logos for some Reebok shoes, including the "OG." Fiasco has sponsored a skateboard team and also has endorsements with skateboard outfitter DGK.

As a devout practicing Muslim, Fiasco does not drink alcohol, smoke, use drugs, or go to clubs or bars. He also doesn't skateboard any more, having given it up after a 2007 street-skating accident that he says might have killed him if he hadn't been wearing a helmet.