lupe fiasco
Wasalu Muhammad Jaco, better known as Lupe Fiasco, was born on February 16, 1982 in Chicago, Illinois. His father, a member of the Black Panther Party, raised Lupe and his eight siblings as Muslims while engaging them in a wide variety of activities. As Lupe stated in an interview with Entertainment Weekly -- "one day, we're listening to N.W.A; the next day, we're listening to 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."
Lupe Fiasco has stated on MTV's Rap Fix and Myspace's TheHookUp that he is a Muslim, and that Islam "plays a part in my life and everything I do, to a certain extent... I don’t like putting my religion out there, I don’t like wearing it like that, because I don’t want people to look at me as the poster child for Islam. I’m not. I don’t want them to look at my flaws and be like, ‘oh, that’s the flaws of Islam’. Lupe Fiasco has always been a proud Muslim and when asked about what he would say in face of criticism for being open about being Muslim, Lupe had this to say, “…as a Muslim you just supposed to advise. You not posed to criticize. You speak your peace and you keep it moving. Like, mostly I catch Muslims who come up to me who can’t relate to their father or can’t relate to a different struggle and be like yo I’m glad-thank you, thank you Aki for doing Muhammad Walks, which is a song I did on my first mixtape, you know, to Jesus Walks and flipped it and made it a lil bit more universal and talked about Islam. And like, people-Muslims, young Muslim kids and stuff like that-was walking up like "yo thank you for doing that record yo”. More |
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Back in 2010, in an interview with Rolling Out, Lupe shared his thoughts on the Ground Zero mosque controversy.
As a devout Muslim, how do you feel about the Ground Zero mosque controversy? I'm taking President Obama's stance. Everyone has the right to worship where they please, but you do have to question the wisdom of it when you look at the reaction that it caused. I'm Muslim, so I understand the importance of practicing the faith. But that is something that is sensitive to Americans. I don't trust polls, but there was such an overwhelming sentiment that maybe it's not the best of idea. I think the people who are building it should take that under consideration. Would they be setting themselves up for vandals? Because now it's become a target. But on the other side, I think it's a great opportunity because Islam is in the forefront. This mosque situation is a good chance to spread what Islam is really about. People can give commentary on how much of a peaceful religion it is. I look at the situation as a win-win. Just by you talking to me about the controversy, I get to spread the fact that Islam is a wonderful religion. The majority of Muslims are not even in the Middle East. the majority of Muslims are in South East Asia. The point of Islam is to promote peace. But there are a lot of emotions in New York. I've visited Ground Zero so I understand that it's a sensitive subject. - Lupe Fiasco The acts of Sept. 11 were committed by the extremist group al-Qaida. Why have a lot of Americans presumed that most Muslims are like al-Qaida? I think it's miseducation. I think people get caught up in whoever America is at war with. We have to demonize the opposition, whether it be the Japanese in World War II, the Communist Party during the Cold War, or even the Black Panther party at one point in time. Most Americans started by demonizing al-Qaida, rightfully so. But eventually, the whole religion went with it. I think that was an unfortunate circumstance. It puts good Muslims at odds with the world. But with darkness, there should be light. There is now [an] opportunity for us to talk and have discourse about Islam. The majority of the world is sympathetic to Islam. You can go to certain countries and there are Halal McDonald's. But now the U.S. media has made al-Qaida the face of Islam. Hopefully, the truth will come out in due time. - Lupe Fiasco |
In an interview with The Daily Beast, Lupe sits down and promotes his album, Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album Pt. 1, talks about Obama vs. Romney, Muslim Rage and more.
Al-Jazeera tracks Lupe's online campaign to counter the violent protests in the Middle East sparked by the Innocence of Muslims trailer.
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