Lupe Fiasco’s Food & Liquor producer Prolyfic unleashed an extensive open letter to Lupe Fiasco yesterday (July 25) referring to his former friend’s career as an “utter disappointment.”
Prolyfic, a former in-house producer on Fiasco’s 1st & 15th label, posted the “letter” through over 40 Twitter posts, the Chicago producer criticized Fiasco for not releasing more music. He believes that move has caused Lupe to begin lagging behind his peers in popularity.
“This nigga Lupe Fiasco really be on some scared of failure ass shit. He is his own worst enemy and he’s fucking up royally,” said Prolyfic, who produced 4 tracks off Food & Liquor.”I mean where do I begin? How does such a talented individual like Lupe Fiasco become such an utter disappointment? And it’s his own doing. First you penalize your fans for wanting your music, make a short mixtape, then when your material gets leaked you throw a temper tantrum.”
Last year Fiasco released his Enemy of the State mixtape which was supposed to be followed by another tape called Friends of the People. However once a track from his third album leaked (“I’m Beaming”), Lupe canceled the mixtape out of frustration.
“What kind of artist penalizes fans for someone leaking they music?!?! You should be happy people want your music, Prolyfic argued. “In a state where everyone is rising to success by giving away free music (Drake, Wayne, Gucci Etc.), Lupe Fiasco chooses to hoard his music. Which results in what? People forgetting about you! Which is why Lupe Fiasco did not make any lists of anything when he should be top 3!”
Prolyfic summed up his feelings by challenging Fiasco to seek out his earlier producers and format his lyrical approach to older tracks like “Failure.” If he can’t, Prolfic advised his former friend to retire.
“Just go away if you don’t want the pressures of pleasing people. And if you gon’ be here, be here! Get off the high school reject Wasalu shit and get back on the writing for the Black Album shit,” he demanded. “Call up GBall get in the attic and finish that mixtape. Put that shit out. Call up P and tell him u want a hit record. Call up Soundtrakk., get in the lab and go see him. That nigga got some cold ass beats waiting for you but you never hear them.”
“Call up Mr. Jones and tell him you back on yo’ Westside of Chicago ‘Failure’ shit and let to Craig Kallman know. Get ya’ fucking thumb out ya’ ass and be the artist we all stood behind you knowing you could be. And once it finally sink in to you and you get back where you should be, I want you to apologize to your fans for making them wait.”
A petition was launched by fans in support of the release of Fiasco’s third album, Lasers. The LP’s release has been delayed for unspecified reasons by Atlantic Records. To date, the petition has been signed by thousands of fans.
“Some people feel they need it to come out a certain way, and some people don’t feel that way. It’s all a difference of opinion,” Fiasco explained to DJ Semtex regarding the label issues with Lasers. “I think it’s beyond us now…I think now the fans are kind of speaking above both of us. They like ‘whatever y’all doing, y’all need to wrap this up because this is what we want.’ Even for me it’s kind of a wake up, and for the building it’s definitely a wake-up.”
At press time, Lupe Fiasco has not responded directly to Prolyfic’s demands. Instead, the Chicago rapper stated his recent “BMF Freestyle” was a thank you to his fans, and stressed respect for the choices of others.
“BMF is a gift to the fans who started the We Want Lasers movement; a token of my appreciation,” Lupe explained on Twitter. “One cannot dictate what is comfortable for someone else. One man’s pillow is another man’s bag of rocks. The key is to honor every man’s choice.”
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Would it be an understatement to say Prolyfic has an ax to grind with Lupe Fiasco? Despite their likely being some unresolved personal issues between them, no one can deny that there is some truth in Prolyfic’s words.
All artists should be allowed growing pains and missteps as they mature and find themselves (like the Tribe incident, in Lupe’s case). Prolyfic is 100% correct about Lupe’s almost adversarial relationship with fans since he canceled the Friends of the People mixtape last year over the leaked “I’m Beaming” track. It was almost as if he blamed them for the leak and “punished” them but not releasing any further music.
But it appears that phase is over. Based on his comments to DJ Semtex, I think Lupe now realizes how much his fans appreciate him. Before, there was likely a fear with the leaks that his music was just a disposable download to be forgotten within a day or two. What the We Want Lasers movement has shown Lupe is that he has fans that are willing to move beyond lip service and devote time and energy to helping him achieve his vision. As an artist, you can’t ask for much more.
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