A division of the hacker group Anonymous claims to have forced Lupe Fiasco’s label to settle on a release date for the rapper’s new album. Anonymous’s Operation Free Lupe is “mission accomplished”, they declared, after Atlantic Records revealed that the LP Tetsuo & Youth will be released on 20 January 2015.
On 15 October, the popular Twitter account @TheAnonMessage presented an ultimatum regarding Fiasco’s long-delayed fifth studio album. “@AtlanticRecords: You have 24 hours to present a statement announcing the immediate release of [Tetsuo & Youth],” they wrote. “If you do not comply, we will launch a direct attack against your website, your associates, and your executives ... Blatantly censoring @LupeFiasco is inexcusable.”
Approximately 19 hours later, Atlantic Records’ Twitter account tweeted the 20 January date, releasing the information without fanfare or any acknowledgement of the Anonymous threat. But Fiasco himself seemed to tip his hat to the hackers: “V”, he tweeted, which was interpreted as a “subliminal shoutout” to one of Anonymous’s canonical texts: Alan Moore’s graphic novel V for Vendetta.
While @TheAnonMessage expressed a measure of disappointment (“Damn, we wanted to test that website crasher,” they wrote), they were also quick to declare victory. “At this time it can be concluded that we have proved our point,” they wrote in a press release. “We wish music that is educating the masses to keep being released. We will fight for that.”
The outspoken Fiasco, with his controversial performances, conspiracy theories and criticism of Barack Obama, has become many hackers’ hip-hop hero. When Tetsuo & Youth was not released, as promised, in early 2014, they saw this as evidence of corporate censorship: Fiasco as a silenced revolutionary. “[Atlantic Records] easily put trash music out to the masses and blatantly censor anything that will make people actually think,” tweeted @TheAnonMessage. “When people are fed basic messages, they become as such.” Accordingly, the group has also expressed its intention to defend some of Fiasco’s peers: “conscious” rappers like Talib Kweli, Mos Def and Common. “This is music we will fight for,” they wrote.
“Alright, we’ve had our fun,” they added. “Back to [covering] #Ferguson.”
Although Fiasco’s second album, The Cool, reached No 7 on the UK album charts, Lasers peaked at No25.
