Lupe Fiasco Causes One, Calls Out Obama at Pre-Inaugural Concert

As reported by Reason 24/7 News—your best source for everything that's happening, as it happens! Follow it on Twitter at @reason247

This is a truncated version of rapper Lupe Fiasco's performance from a pre-Inauguration show last night in D.C. The juice on Fiasco's performance was pulled after he went in to a rap that called President Obama out for various policies. 

What were organizers thinking? As the Daily Caller notes,

During an interview with CBS in 2011, he called the president a terrorist. Lupe said, "My fight against terrorism, to me, the biggest terrorist is Obama and the United States of America. I'm trying to fight the terrorism that's actually causing the other forms of terrorism."

More here.

Comments

[Shirley Knott]

“You’re” best source?
sigh

[Jordan]

Just read it in a Russian accent.

[KPres]

Good thing they fired Lucy so we wouldn’t have to see this kind of shit anymore.

[Ronny Paulino]

I was wondering what happened to her.

[SIV]

You’ll find her barefoot in the snow selling apples or pencils.

[Groovus Maximus]

Matches, actually.

[SIV]

Those too.

[AlmightyJB]

I thought that was Jon Stewart?

[deified]

First-hand account:

http://www.reddit.com/r/politi…..ty/c80tpek

[Rights-Minimalist Autocrat]

The story also says he played one song for 30 minutes. Unless the crowd was Phish fans or Deadheads, that could have had something to do with it.

[Jordan]

If only something like this would happen at the real coronation. Props to him, though. At least he’s not a mindless bootlicker like the rest of the entertainment industry.

[alittlesense]

So Lupe was a fiasco?

[SugarFree]

“Speaking truth to power” isn’t such a noble act when you become The Power, eh Barry?

[Francisco d Anconia]

I’ve noticed those speaking truth to power get shut down rather quickly by the benevolent, tolerant left. Keepers of the First Amendment.

[Enough About Palin]

Josey Wales: When I get to likin’ someone, they ain’t around long.

Lone Watie: I notice when you get to DISlikin’ someone they ain’t around for long neither.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Seriously. If this happened under Bush during, say, a Kanye rant the left would be in hysterics. Like that dolt O’Donnell.

[tarran]

As someone who volunteers for an organization that organizes events for startups, I am busting a gut at how badly this is blowing up;

The startup scene is dominated by organizations that essentially set up events that are the equivalent of TED talks, they are billed as connecting startups with investors and consultants. Some provide value, others are giant EXPLETIVE DELETED.

Startup Rockon is definitely in the latter camp, so I am enjoying the negative publicity they are experiencing.

[Mike Laursen]

Like this self- congratulatory brainiac”” event? http://www.mercurynews.com/bay…..-at-google

[lap83]

That’s pretty funny. However, why can’t celebs ever be sane?

[EDG reppin' LBC]

They live in a world disconnected from reality. Mundane acts like going to the grocery store, doing laundry, or fixing the faucet in the guest bathroom do not exist in that world. They are surrounded by a bunch of people who’s sole existence is to make sure the celeb stays famous, and more importantly rich. They need the celeb to keep signing those checks.

[Jumbie]

My brother actually met Tim Matheson (Animal House) in a grocery store once and they had a pleasant conversation.

[Zeb]

They should have gotten Big Boi. He seems a lot more together.

[lap83]

That’s pretty funny. However, why can’t celebs ever be sane?

[lap83]

That’s pretty funny. However, why can’t celebs ever be sane?

[lap83]

What the hell

[Drake]

Bunglers gonna bungle.

[The Late P Brooks]

What a bummer. I’m getting black screen with a “This operating system is not supported” message.

FUCK YOU, FLASH

[SugarFree]

I was told he was going to save everyone of us. [shakes head]

[Hugh Akston]

He did save us, SugarFree. He sacrificed himself to save the multiverse from the Anti-Monitor.

[darius404]

Please. Everyone knows if that happened no one would remember him.

[$park?]

This is officially reaching levels beyond bizarre. I JUST watched Flash Gordon on Saturday. I think I’m starting to get an idea what happened on Dec 21, 2012.

[Killazontherun]

We are trapped in a purgatory between the old world and our final destination until we realize what is really going on. Didn’t I see that show somewhere before?

[Cavpitalist]

It wasn’t purgatory!!!1!!

[The Late P Brooks]

DISSENT IS NOT TREASON

[Killazontherun]

DISSENT IS NOT RACIST TREASON

[Warty]

DELICIOUS.

[Sevo]

OT:
Greek freeloaders getting *real* pissed that someone’s cutting off the free stuff.
Fortunately, they can’t build bombs well, either.
http://www.sfgate.com/world/ar…..210230.php

[JEP]

I watched Lupe do an interview with Bill O’Reilly where he made similar arguments.

I immediately went on YouTube to see what his music was like, then bought all his albums. “Words I Never Said” on the album Lasers is all about the war on terror and the mainstream media feeding people propaganda.

[JEP]

He’s not a libertarian, but he definitely points out the flaws in the system and doesn’t trust the people in power to do the right thing.

[Anonymous Coward]

Barry just botched the oath of office. Again.

[Drake]

Did he omit “Constitution”?

[NeonCat]

He sure as shit would never leave out “I”.

[Anonymous Coward]

He sword to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of…. full stop.

Additional note: Barry is busy singing paeans to “collective” action. You couldn’t have beaten the Nazis by yourself. Or trained all of the math and science teachers we’ll need (to vote for him.)

We’re All In This Together

[Brandybuck]

Really? That’s going to play right into the sovrun’s conspiracy theories.

“Proof right there! He’s the president of the U.S., not the U.S. of A.!!!11!”

[Anonymous Coward]

Why can’t he just be a well-heeled idiot?

[Loki]

Because well heeled idiots don’t get to order drone strikes.

[Brandybuck]

Well Bush was a well-heeled idiot, but every stumble of his tongue was judged evidence in the Grand Unified Sovrun Conspiracy Theory.

[Ted S.]

High School Musical? What kid of a fucking monster are you?

Try this musical accompaniment.

[Proprietist]

Good thing he caught himself before he accidentally said “the Islamic Caliphate.”

[Loki]

Did he omit “Constitution”?

I’m sure he threw up in his mouth a little when he got to that word.

[GroundTruth]

Proving once again that Team Blue loves and supports free speech and the presentation of a diversity of views*.

(* So long as you agree with the officially sanctioned view.)

[nicole]

Semi OT: Just looked at my Twitter feed and everyone seems to be watching the inauguration. Really? I can’t imagine what would possess me to do such a thing. Especially on my day off.

[Anonymous Coward]

Some of us want to watch Barry extol openly what has been apparent for the whole of the 20th century. That the federal America has dispensed with the task of doing justice for all and now is in the business of false philanthropy by which they reuce free people into subservience.

[nicole]

Yeah, that’s not why these people are watching. But I hope you’re having fun!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

He mentioned he wants to tackle the deficit.

At what point is he told to quit it for we all know no such thing will happen.

[Andrew S.]

Racist! It’s a day of service, not a day off!

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

I’m serving the next generation by making a buck.

[db]

I’m serving the previous generation, those on welfare and food stamps, the elites in charge of distributing USAID in various foreign countries, and a few million federal, state, and local government employees by working while they take.

How’s that for service?

[Brandybuck]

I’m in D.C. this week, so it’s nearly impossible to avoid it. It sort of reminds me of the V remake, where all the aliens stop what their doing and stare blissfully at the sky as Anna broadcasts her bliss to them.

[Hugh Akston]

No wonder you’re so bitter. The coronation inauguration is like the Oscars or the Superbowl. It’s the sort of bread and circuses ceremony of your social betters that allows pathetic proles like you to drag yourself out of your filthy hovel every day with a cruel semblance of purpose.

[nicole]

At least the Superbowl involves a game.

Sigh.

[Hugh Akston]

What do you think the last 12 months have been?

[Enough About Palin]

A horse race isn’t a game.

[nicole]

Only 12?

[KPres]

It sure feels like I got played.

[Enough About Palin]

“filthy hovel”

For some reason my brain scanned that as filthy love-hole.

[Redmanfms]

For some reason my brain scanned that as filthy love-hole.

This why there aren’t more female libertarians.

/Ken

[Francisco d Anconia]

I turned on teh TeeVee and he was speaking. I made it through three lines before I had to turn it off.

[Ted S.]

I watched Raquel Welch in Fathom. Not a great movie, and it was panned-and-scanned, but ~27-year-old Welch (Raquel, not Matt) is worth watching.

[Killazontherun]

You’ve never seen those pics of ex-pat Matt with the flowing, flaxen hair? Taylor Hanson in a fit of envy tried to have him killed.

[The Late P Brooks]

Barry just botched the oath of office. Again.

He means well.

Stop nitpicking, you hater.

[The Late P Brooks]

Barry is busy singing paeans to “collective” action.

Four more years of this, and EVERY day will be a “National Day of Servitude”.

“Put your back into it, Citizen!”

[John]

We can spend our summers working in the fields so the corn crop will be sufficient to make enough clean ethanol to run the buses throughout the winter.

[OldMexican]

During an interview with CBS in 2011, he called the president a terrorist. Lupe said, “My fight against terrorism, to me, the biggest terrorist is Obama and the United States of America. I’m trying to fight the terrorism that’s actually causing the other forms of terrorism.”

He sounds like someone who reads LewRockwell.com regularly, or Antiwar.com

The SPLC will probably label him a one-man hate group only because he dared sully the image of the Second Coming.

[Sudden]

Meh, he’s more likely hardcore leftist Greenie. We can make common cause with him for the limited purpose of railing against the continuation of American Empire, but beware that he may be perfectly willing to use force and coercion to effect his political goals.

[BakedPenguin]

You’re probably right. But he distrusts authority and is willing to keep his eyes open and actually see what’s going on. I’m sure he filters events through his worldview, but he doesn’t pretend drones are good just because TEAM and FYTW.

[wareagle]

he distrusts authority

they all talk about distrusting authority. Until they ARE the authority.

[Enough About Palin]

Is this guy Lupe related to Little Lupe the prawn actress? Because damn, that chick is hawt!

[An0nB0t]

At least Bush ducked the shoe; Obama’s going to get clocked square in the head before his term’s up.

[Suthenboy]

I would pay good money to see that.

[Ted S.]

And I can’t wait to see people react completely opposite to the way they reacted when the shoe was thrown at Bush.

[Hugh Akston]

Fiasco is way off base, Obama is no terrorist. Terrorists use violence (or the threat thereof) to achieve political ends. How much clearer can that be?

[Enough About Palin]

+ 1 drone strike

[Brandybuck]

I’m was in the D.C. metro area this weekend, and through this week. The Mall, as well as my hotel, filled up with people going to the inauguration and related festivities. It dawned on me that they aren’t here as tourists, or to be a part of an event, or even as voters to see their man sworn in, they are here to *worship* Obama.

So of course Lupe criticizing the President can’t be tolerated. It’s one thing for (example) Stephen Colbert to call out Bush during a presidential dinner (because Bush was clearly the Anti-Christ), but for Lupe to call out Obama the night before his inauguration is outright Blasphemy (because to many Obama *is* the Christ!).

[OldMexican]

Re: Brandybuck,

they are here to *worship* Obama

Well, I heard he’s the Second Coming…

[MissMalevolent]

He’s never liked Obama…but that’s cause he thinks that Obama is part of the machine and is “the man” which is to say, that Lupe is as far left as you can go without circling back to common sense. And he’s a Jew-hater.

He’d probably think everyone on this site was a racist white person. Or in my case a self-hating black person.

So, don’t let his hatred of Obama be his saving grace…he’s still a whackadoodle.

[wareagle]

no more whackadoodle than the typical leftist. He says a few things that appeal to libertarians – like pointing droning and such – but given the opportunity, he would have no trouble forcing you into compliance with his belief system.

Can’t speak to whether race is a factor for him. In my experience, leftists will use race if it helps them achieve control, and they are just as willing to control brown and black as they are white. Race helps to separate, making it easier to conquer.

[Sudden]

The lyrics of his song posted there begin with “Rush Limbaugh is a racist, Glenn Beck is a racist”. Need I say more?

[hcoguybrush]

Actually this is the whole first part of the song:
I really think the war on terror is a bunch of bullshit
Just a poor excuse for you to use up all your bullets
How much money does it take to really make a full clip
9/11 building 7 did they really pull it
Uhh, And a bunch of other cover ups
Your childs future was the first to go with budget cuts
If you think that hurts then, wait here comes the uppercut
The school was garbage in the first place, that’s on the up and up
Keep you at the bottom but tease you with the uppercrust
You get it then they move it so you never keeping up enough
If you turn on TV all you see’s a bunch of “what the fucks”
Dude is dating so and so blabbering bout such and such
And that ain’t Jersey Shore, homie that’s the news
And these the same people that supposed to be telling us the truth

So yeah not a libertartian but still asking more questions about the establishment then basically all popular hip hop artists combined.

[gaijin]

Points well taken…someone here once said “No matter what position you take on an issue, there is some asshole somewhere who mostly agrees with it.”

[Enough About Palin]

whackadoodle? Is that like cornball?

[Ted S.]

No; it’s akin to labradoodle.

[highnumber]

MissMalevolent,
Where’d you get the idea that Lupe Fiasco is a racist Jew-hater? I haven’t heard anything like that about him and he doesn’t throw off that kind of vibe at all.

[Killazontherun]

He takes one side in the Israelis-Palestinian conflict, she takes another. I don’t get it why someone who doesn’t have anything to gain or lose like a US Senator, for instance, would do that. Absolute apathy to a conflict that doesn’t involve you seems to me the only rational opinion.

[Killazontherun]

someone who doesn’t have anything to gain or lose unlike a US Senator

[MissMalevolent]

The reason why I do it, is, I don’t believe that I should heap hate on a group of people for defending themselves. Regardless if they look like the bullies of the Middle East.

[MissMalevolent]

He’s Muslim. His harshest criticism is always going to be against Israel.

[The Late P Brooks]

What were organizers thinking?

Mister Fiasco is not by some strange quirk of circumstance black, is he?

Maybe they mistakenly assumed that was all they needed to know.

[Loki]

Drone strike on Lup Fiasco’s house in 3… 2… 1…

[Paul.]

Lupe Fiasco will become an un-word.

[Stormy Dragon]

So anyone gonna bother to go back to 2003, so we can get all the mashups of TEAM BLUE criticizing Lupe’s lack of manner while decrying the backlash against the Dixie Chicks and TEAM RED calling for the Dixie Chicks to be deported while decrying the intolerance for dissent against Obama?

[Loki]

So what you’re saying is TEAM tardos are hypocrits. This is truly an earth shattering insight. Someone should definitely get the word out along with the revelation that the sky is blue and water is wet.

[Stormy Dragon]

I still enjoy rubbing their faces in it.

[AlmightyJB]

Whatever happened to the Dixie Chicks? Not that I really care.

[Killazontherun]

Their new Team Blue fans stayed true to them for two weeks and then they discovered the Decemberist and moved on.

[Stormy Dragon]

Their only subsequent album when multi-platinum, they had two successful tours once they realized they could make more money in Canada and the Northeast then in the south, and in 2008 they went on hiatus, although they occasionally show up performing with other acts from time to time.

[Paul.]

But that was different, y’all.

[Guy Laguy]

I’m sure the founders would have frowned on the shenanigans at these inaugurations. They’ve turned into coronations.

[Sudden]

At least Andrew Jackson had the goddamned common decency to get everyone drunk at his.

[Anonymous Coward]

I’m uncertain how anyone take Barry’s plea that we must get spending under control when he throws himself a day-long party full of food and drink and entertaiment that costs the taxpayers roughly $170 million?

[Guy Laguy]

I’m sure the founders would have frowned on the shenanigans at these inaugurations. They’ve turned into coronations.

[Paul.]

When it’s the second term, it’s more like Jubilee.

[Innocent Bystander]

Best inaugural comment today

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXEPpU29GuU

[Paul.]

Guess they thought that since Lupe Fiasco was a socially conscious (sometimes) Black Rapper, he’d be On Board(tm).

My respect for Fiasco just went up a couple of notches, and it was already pretty high.

One of my favorite Fiasco joints: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gl83mI69nX4

[Paul.]

What I love about that track is you can hear the Jay Z influence. That is, if you’re into that kind of thing. C’mon white folks, swing wid me!

[Paul.]

“So Lupe played one anti-war song for 30 min and said he didn’t vote for Obama,” he continued, “and eventually was told to move on to the next song?Lupe refused to move to the next song so a team of security guards came on stage and told him to go.”

That must have been a fucking blast. I can see the nervous, pantsuit-wearing hyphenated name organizer with a headset on, screaming into it to try to regain control of the situation.

“I don’t care if he’s an urban rapper, I want him off stage now… I will not have Obama’s special day ruined!”

[Paul.]

“Things going terribly wrong right at @lupefiasco performance during#SURO. Kicked off stage, bashing obama?”

[Tulpa (LAOL-PA)]

Freedom of speech doesn’t imply the right to an audience. The organizers said the audience was vocally unhappy at the goings-on, and that’s believable (one song for 30 minutes?!).

If it were a case of squelching anti-Obama opinions, he wouldn’t have made it for 30 minutes.