Complex: As far as putting out stuff to the fans, why not just go on the mixtape circuit and give your fans something to go on?
Lupe Fiasco: I think it burns you out. I had this conversation with Kanye when we were doing the CRS project: I don’t like to do a bunch of records just to do it. I want every record to have a purpose and mean something. I don’t want to do it to satisfy some perceived demand. If you give into everybody’s demands, then what are you left with? I always came into the music business saying, “It’s 50% me and it’s 50% y’all.” So let me make my 50% and then you can have it. I didn’t want to get caught up in the “put out a mixtape every month” because I think it cheapens you as an artist. I ain’t even gonna front, I think it cheapens your work.
People are happy, fans are cool, some people aren’t cool. But I’m not doing it for the Internet dudes on the message boards who don’t like nothing. Who are always comparing you to somebody else. I’m not doing this for you to have one more piece to play in your game of “this rapper is better than this rapper.” I’m not in competition with nobody. I want to make good music for my fans who want it, who enjoy it, who learn something from it. And that’s what it is.
And in this instance, Lasers has been done for two and a half years. I was ready to give it to you two and a half years ago. The reason I did Enemy of the State was out of desperation. Releasing these records now is out of desperation. This isn’t out of my feeling like, “Oh man, I got to satisfy my fans.” And this isn’t coming from some artsy place. These are acts of desperation. I don’t want to do desperate acts, I want to make music because I want to make music.
Complex: You keep referring to it as Lasers, but on the Internet now people are saying the record could be called Food and Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album. Is that not a real title?
Lupe Fiasco: When I said that I was going to do an album called The Great American Rap Album, I did it. Lasers is one project.
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