Happy Inauguration Day, Mr. President:
Rapper Lupe Fiasco was kicked off the stage during a party celebrating President Barack Obama’s second inauguration on Sunday night after performing a song that both criticized the president and indulged in 9-11 conspiracy theories.
Footage posted online by Now This News shows Fiasco, the headliner at the Start Up Rock On private event, performing “Words I Never Said,” which he released as a single two years ago. The song includes these lyrics, which can be heard in the video:
And these the same people supposedly telling us the truth
Limbaugh is a racist, Glenn Beck is a racist
Gaza Strip was getting bombed, Obama didn’t say shit
That’s why I ain’t vote for him, next one either
I’m part of the problem
My problem is, I’m peacefulThe song also includes the lyrics, “How much money does it take to really make a full clip? 9-11, Building 7, did they really pull it?”
Ok. An OWS fellow-traveler, demonstratively barebacking his fav hobbyhorses into the ground — BFD, etc. But apparently Fiasco forgot to make the agit-prop entertaining:
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 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
Organizers initially sent out the following tweet after cutting Fiasco’s performance short:
Disappointed that an artist took opportunity to use an event celebrating innovation/startups to make a political statement. #StartUpRockOn
— hypervocal (@hypervocal) January 21, 2013
A full statement was subsequently released:
StartUp RockOn is all about startups helping startups. At Sunday night’s Inauguration Celebration at the Hamilton Live, organizers set out to honor innovative visionaries with grants, accolades and a party worthy of the success we achieved at the RNC and DNC this summer.
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.
Watch rapper Lupe Fiasco’s abridged performance from last night after the jump and decide for yourself — was it his anti-Obama sentiments and truther tinfoilery or the “bizarrely repetitive, jarring performance” that compelled organizers to give Fiasco the bum’s rush?
Update: DListed with a mercifully cynical reality check:
Rapper Lupe Fiasco has been on the Fuck Obama train for a while now and he’s known for not holding back his thoughts on the President. Lupe Fiasco has called Obama a “terrorist” who “killed children” by ordering drone attacks. So who ever booked Lupe’s ass for the StartUp RockOn Inauguration Celebration at Hamilton Live in DC last night either doesn’t know how Google works or knew what they were doing and wanted some easy publicity.
If it hadn’t been anti-Obama, they wouldn’t have kicked him off the stage.
More from DListed:
Yeah. I’m leaning towards Team Tedium here — maybe the political angle would have more weight if they’d pulled him after, oh, say, 3 minutes. But even Medea Benjamin would be hardpressed to refrain from hitting the gong after half an hour.
Lupe who? Who he?
Forbes on the business of being Brand Lupe (if you don’t know, now you know).
Jay-Z says the Occupy movement is “Un-American”.