Lupe Fiasco “Officially Not Releasing Music Anymore,” “Albums Cancelled”
By Evan Minsker.
Last night, Lupe Fiasco posted a new track to SoundCloud called “N.E.R.D.,” which features the instrumental from J. Cole’s new track “Everybody Dies.” The song features this line: “Artists gettin’ robbed for their publishing/By dirty Jewish execs who think that it’s alms from the covenant.” After spending the night sparring with fans on Twitter, arguing that the line wasn’t anti-Semitic, he made a broad announcement this morning: “Yo Lupe fans it's been fun and I hope you've had fun. I'm officially not releasing anymore music. Albums cancelled.” He also set his Twitter account to private.
Lupe also said that “N.E.R.D.” had been removed from SoundCloud for “hate speech,” but the song still appears to be streaming here. Find the track embedded below, as well as screenshots of Lupe's tweets.
It’s worth noting that in 2012, Lupe tweeted a series of messages claiming that Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album Pt. 1 would be his final album. (It wasn’t.) In early 2015, he quit Twitter and has since returned.
Over the years, he’s gone back and forth with fans after discussing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on Twitter, on stage, and in his lyrics.
Earlier this year, Lupe announced that he would release three albums in 2016. Two months ago, he pushed back the release dates for those records due to “clearances and mixing issues.” He recently had a live show assist from Bill Murray and public feud with Kid Cudi.
This story originally appeared on Pitchfork.
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