Lupe Fiasco Denies Comments on Drake and Kendrick Lamar

Lupe Fiasco recently addressed speculation that he was criticizing Drake and Kendrick Lamar during a conversation about hip-hop gatekeeping.

On Sunday, July 21, Lupe participated in an X Spaces discussion with fans about the state of hip-hop. In the conversation, the Chicago-based rapper shared his thoughts on the idea of gatekeeping within the genre.

“If you want to determine who is in and who is out, a process which I don’t agree with and think is nonsense, you should have a degree,” Lupe stated. “You should have a PhD in hip-hop. If you don’t have that, I don’t think you are qualified to make decisions about hip-hop. Just because you can rap and have sold a bunch of records, I don’t think you have the right to make those decisions. It’s getting to the point where people are making choices that hurt others and benefit undeserving ones, based on the opinions of some random person on a podcast.”

He elaborated, “These decisions should be made by people who deeply understand what they’re talking about and could potentially write books on the subject. However, I’m biased because I don’t support the gatekeeping process anyway. I don’t think we should be deciding who can enter and leave the culture.”

Lupe was quick to clarify later that his comments did not indicate any animosity towards Kendrick Lamar and Drake. “I’ve never said I don’t like Kendrick Lamar,” he emphasized, while praising K-Dot’s artistic talent. “Even if I don’t like all his songs or listen to them frequently—the same goes for Drake—I respect their impact on the culture. For me, it’s about us first.”

He also voiced admiration for the team around Kendrick at Top Dawg Entertainment.

On Monday, July 22, Lupe went on X, formerly known as Twitter, to dispel misconceptions after a user commented that he was discussing Drake and Kendrick Lamar in the gatekeeping conversation. “I never said that,” Lupe tweeted back. “We were not talking about any specific artist during that part. People who didn’t listen to the full conversation took a snippet and ran with it, claiming we were talking about Drake and Kendrick.”

Lupe also clarified his stance on needing a PhD to be a gatekeeper in hip-hop. “Thanks, but I never really said that either,” he corrected. “I said IF you want to be the person deciding who is allowed in hip-hop, then you should have a PhD in Hip-Hop. If the person you’re excluding knows more about hip-hop than you, then that’s not fair.”

Last week, Lupe made headlines for suggesting that Drake purchase Dame Dash’s one-third share of Jay-Z’s Reasonable Doubt album. This suggestion came around the same time Lupe released his new album, Samurai.

Source: X Spaces, Twitter