Lupe Fiasco performs at the VH1 2007 Hip Hop Honors. Photograph: Jason DeCrow/AP
Have you heard about Fiascogate? If not, let me bring you up to speed.
Earlier this month, Lupe Fiasco performed at the VH1 Hip Hop Honors. Along with Pharrell Williams, Common and Busta Rhymes, Fiasco was on hand to help honour hip-hop stalwarts A Tribe Called Quest by taking part in a joint performance of Electric Relaxation, a track from their seminal 1993 album, Midnight Marauders.
Midnight Marauders is widely considered one of the, if not the, most important and influential hip-hop albums ever made. When it came to Lupe's time on the mic, however, he forgot the words. But, hey, everyone makes mistakes at work, right? And mistakes are forgivable.
But then hip-hop magazine Vibe published an interview with Fiasco in which he explains just how little ATCQ meant to him as a rapper and how he hadn't even heard of Midnight Marauders until fairly recently. Fiascogate had begun.
A blog called Fiascogate has been set up and is dedicated to the annihilation of Fiasco's character. Nah Right, the popular hip-hop blog, also weighed in, attacking Fiasco. Few were impressed by his disinterest in ATCQ, or his excuse that he only agreed to perform a tribute to them at Q-Tip's request.
Nursing some seriously injured pride, Lupe tapped out a heated response: "I DID NOT GROW UP ON ATCQ!!! **THE LITTLE GHETTO KID FROM THE MEAN STREETS OF THE WESTSIDE OF CHICAGO GREW UP ON SPICE 1, 8-BALL & MJG, NWA AND SNOOP DOGG...**I WASNT A BACKPACKER RAP ENTHUSIAST!!!...I NEVER CLAIMED TO BE...I GREW UP ON GANGSTA RAP!!!**HAVE I LISTENED TO MM IN ITS ENTIRETY?...NO!!!...(Sorry Quest)...**GET OFF YOUR HIGH HORSES AND YOUR SACRED COWS...SOME OF YA'LL MAKE ME SICK..."
Fiasco's claim that he has more in common with NWA than ATCQ seems peculiar given that his music sounds influenced by them, both thematically and stylistically. There's also the little matter of his annoyance over being placed in the "backpack" rapper category, as if producing socially redeeming rap music is suddenly something to be embarrassed about. This is the man currently boasting he would never Dumb It Down?
It might not be too late for Fiasco to repair the damage this whole saga has done to his reputation with an apology. Instead he's threatening to sue Vibe magazine for regurgitating their interview with him at an inopportune time.
But should he apologise? And if so, for what? For forgetting the lyrics to Electric Relaxation, or for telling the truth about why? I admire Fiasco for holding his hands up and admitting the truth, but I feel the nature of his reaction, his aggressive assertion that A Tribe Called Quest didn't matter to him as a "little ghetto kid", lets him down. It gives the impression that this is more about justifying his own ignorance of a such an important chapter in rap history than destroying the myth of "sacred cows" in music.
At least one thing's for sure, Fiasco should do himself a favour and give Midnight Marauders a listen.
