By: Taren Vaughan
Did Lupe Fiasco get kicked off stage during his inaugural concert performance for bashing President Obama? Lupe Fiasco arrived in the game and caught the attention of many Hip-Hop heads with his rap skills and has been viewed as one of the few rappers that spits real lyrics. And he has no problem speaking out about things that he feels very passionate about, even if it is during a performance for an inaugural concert in honor of the president. The second inauguration of President Barack Obama has had his supporters anticipating its arrival ever since he was re-elected for another four year term back in November of last year. And the excitement grew even more yesterday as he was officially sworn in right before 12 noon. Aside from those who make it a point to cast a negative light on President Obama’s inauguration, most people are looking forward to seeing President Obama get sworn in for a second time and all of the musical performances that will be taking place in honor of his special and historic day. Of the lists of artists that were set to perform at one of the events, Lupe Fiasco was one of them. And he had some things to get off his chest and used his performance time to criticize President Obama over political decisions that he has made during at the StartUp RockOn inaugural concert. Lupe’s rant was cut short as he was asked to leave the stage by the individuals over the event. After he refused to do a different song like he was asked, security got involved. Those who saw the concert, including The Cable writer Josh Rogin, recalled what happened during the rapper’s portion of the concert and the moment when he was booted off stage after doing an anti-war song for about half an hour:
Lupe refused to move to the next song so a team of security guards came on stage and told him to go.
— Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) January 21, 2013
So Lupe played one anti-war song for 30 min and said he didn’t vote for Obama and eventually was told to move on to the next song.
— Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) January 21, 2013
Lupe Fiasco just got thrown off stage here at the Hamilton Live after he went on an anti-Obama diatribe mid set.
— Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) January 21, 2013
Others in the media took to their Twitter accounts to speak on the incident too:
Things going terribly wrong at @lupefiasco performance during #SURO. Kicked off stage, bashing obama.
— Matt Dornic(@mdornic) January 21, 2013
In which Lupe Fiasco gets removed from stage for bashing Obama #suro #getyourlifetogether instagr.am/p/UvAYSmCvaS/
— Kelli jo (@Kelli_jo_) January 21, 2013
Co-founder of the event Hypervocal released a statement from their website, claiming that Lupe Fiasco was not kicked off stage for bashing President Obama but for his performance itself that the crowd openly showed their displeasure about:
“Lupe Fiasco performed at this private event, and as you may have read, he left the stage earlier than we had planned. But 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 Fiasco has openly criticized President Barack Obama before but the fact that he did it during one of the most important days of his presidency left many people disturbed.
Peep the clip of the incident during Lupe Fiasco’s musical rant and interrupted performance below:
He’s such a little female. No wonder his albums go wood.
Ugh…he’s such an attention whore. He can feel however he wants about Obama but to say all that during Inauguration just proves he wanted the attention. He can’t sell albums, so why not?
Over this dude.
Over this dude. Freedom of speech but I don’t have to support his music either. #shrugs
He’s such an a-shole. That’s why all of his albums are flopping now. People are tired of his big mouth.
He’s mad because he feels like Obama didn’t do anything about the youth violence in Chicago. But honestly, what is Obama supposed to do? He should be an example to young black men, but if their parents and communities aren’t explaining to them who the real role models are, what is Obama supposed to do? Parents have to be the ones to step up in Chicago.
Agrees, Chicago is crazy always have been… But there’s only so much that people can do… And the problem goes deeper than that and I don’t really care to get into..
I also agree that parents need to step up to the plate as well.. Only downside, even with that being said, parents or shall I say the parent (just to clarafy) can only do so much… A lot of those kids don’t have fathers in their lives and that’s another issue that we face as well, no role models for these kids…
Organized crime/ gang affiliates, pull the attention of these kids… Idk, there’s just so many factors that come into play.
And absolutely… He should’ve been an example for these kids and a better role model… I understand freedom of speech but there’s a time and a place for everything and that just wasn’t the time nor the place..
#TRUTH
The lack of respect for Obama is really getting on my last nerve. I can promise you I will never support anything Lupe does ever again.
So, am I the only one questioning whether he was sober during this performance? I definitely exited the video when I saw him rapping to himself without a mic all over the stage. Freedom of speech is cool and all, but as the saying goes, if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem. This was the wrong place, the wrong time, and the wrong approach. Next…