I Guess I'll Start the Blog off with this...HERE GOES

I wanted to start this blog off with something different, and so I've been reading through posts that Lupe made HIMSELF on his Official Atlantic Records Messageboard. They date back all the way to 2005, way before I even knew who Lupe was. And I found a bunch of messages, 13 pages to be exact, of replies he made to different people. He would answer fan questions and just talk on the messageboard as a real member would do and not as the typical artist would i.e. "Thanks for all the support, I love you, if it weren't for you fans, I wouldn't be here...blah blah blah," We all know that message that their assistants assistants probably wrote. But i actually found bunches of messages that I liked and wanted everybody who hasn't already seen them to read.

This message, he left to somebody who said they wanted to get into rap music and he gave them what he called a "Hip-Hop Starter Kit..." (Yeah its kinda long, but read it anyway)

"what up manda...alright here goes your hip-hop starter kit...ready?...Nas's "It Was Written" good classic hip-hop lyrically profound with a genius blending of violence and conciousness with exceptional story-telling...4 stars....next is Mos Def's "Black On Both Sides" one of my personal favorites overtly concious lyrics set to a mellow musical backdrop which meanders to the edges of musical experimentation in hip-hop and back again without missing a beat. Mossy Mos even uses punk as an inspiration for one of the records. Evokes old-school sentiments but with state-of-the-art rhyming skills Q-U-ality!!!...4 stars...Outkast's "Aquemini" certified classic
exquisitely displaying what southern hip-hop is capable of...genius!!!...4 stars...Snoop Dogg's "DoggyStyle" produced by DR. DRE is the West Coast at its finest hour rather explicit for some peoples taste but is definitely a fine representation of California flavored hip-hop Beeyatch!!!...3&3/4 stars(lyrical content on certain records suspicious)...8-Ball & MJG's "On The Outside Looking In" and "On Top Of The Word" back to the south Memphis to be exact for some fist-class Mackin' and Cadillacin' got to get both of them but listen in moderation the pimpin' is way strong. These were among my childhood favorites....4 stars a peice...ANYTHING FROM RAKIM I REPEAT ANYTHING FROM RAKIM!!! If u want to see a true master of the art at work Rakim is the person to approach...his lyrics and cadence have achieved a level of "complex simplicity" kind of like when Bruce Leroy finally got "The Glow" in the feature film "The Last Dragon"(get that as well if u dont have it...great movie!) he is truly one of the pioneers of hip-hop & also one of its most profound poets..."5" stars and a planet...finally fellow Chicagoan and label mate Twista's 1997 release "Adrenaline Rush" again rather explicit and violent but the execution and raw energy of the album will do nothing short of amaze you...classic to the highest degree...I still am intrigued by it it today...4 stars...I think that is an excellent introductory list for you to get started...with representatives from various schools of hip-hop as well as different regions and periods of time are featured within it and it should(with the proper respect given to any artform no matter its content...not agreeance but respect) give u a fine perspective of what hip-hop was, is and is becoming...peace out...FNF UP!!!"

And this one...(talking about where his name came from, but more importantly the idea behind Fiasco)

picked it up in high school...was always called "Lu" picked up the "Pe" from one of my latino homeys didnt really know what "fiasco" meant which is "a failure" but when I found out I was like u know what I'm just goin to keep it so It can remind me to look before u leap and that everything can just fail for u at any moment so dont get caught up too much in what your doing right now and focus on whats really important in life and beyond...or something like that..

I thought it was interesting...