Lupe Fiasco Incident: Lupe Fiasco was escorted off stage at StartUp RockOn’s inauguration celebration Sunday night. The rapper made critical remarks about President Barack Obama, at an event that celebrated the President’s second term.
Starting with his anti-war song “Words I Never Said,” Lupe delivered what is best described as a rambling rant. The song contains the words “Limbaugh is a racist, Glenn Beck is a racist, Gaza Strip was getting burned, Obama didn’t say shit/ That’s why I ain’t vote for him.” After Lupe repeated those words for about 30 minutes, organizers then cued the rapper to move on to the next song. When he didn’t comply, Lupe was approached by security guards and taken off stage.
Concert organizers maintained the incident did not escalate because of Lupe’s comments “Lupe Fiasco was not ‘kicked off stage’ for an ‘anti-Obama rant.’ We are staunch supporters of free speech, and free political speech. This was not about his opinions. Instead, after a bizarrely repetitive, jarring performance that left the crowd vocally dissatisfied, organizers decided to move on to the next act.”
Lupe has a history of making controversial remarks about President Obama. In 2011, the rapper spoke to CBS News, alleging, “In my fight against terrorism, to me, the biggest terrorist is Obama in the United States of America.”
The rapper continued that he tries to abstain from supporting any candidate–by not voting. “I don’t vote. I don’t get involved in the political process because it’s meaningless, to be honest. I’m a real big believer if I’m gonna vouch for someone, then I’m gonna stand behind everything that they do,” he explained.
Lupe’s apathy goes beyond his own lack of political participation. The CBS reporter then asked him what would happen if no one voted. Lupe replied, “Who knows. Let’s try it out and see what happens.”
While Lupe won’t likely be watching, Kelly Clarkson, James Taylor and Beyonce will be among performers singing for President Obama at his second term inauguration today.
http://youtu.be/6ScQl5_GQao
