Lupe Fiasco’s headlining efficiency at Johannesburg’s nineteenth annual Again To The Metropolis Competition attracts 1000’s for a celebration of Hip-Hop tradition
With over 25 years within the sport, Lupe Fiasco’s affect as one in every of rap’s most important wordsmiths has stretched throughout the globe.
Over the weekend, Lupe traveled to Johannesburg, South Africa, to headline the nineteenth annual Again To The Metropolis music pageant, igniting the group with a scorching scorching set stuffed with traditional information like “Kick, Push” and “Famous person”, plus songs from his current catalogue like “SOS” and “Excessive Be aware”.
Whereas staying within the South African capital metropolis, Lupe related with the native hip-hop and rap neighborhood, visiting the South African Hip-Hop Museum and collaborating in a dialog with Osmic Menoe, the founding father of Again To The Metropolis, in addition to the South African Hip-Hop Awards.
Lupe additionally took a visit out to Soweto to the Nelson Mandela Apartheid Museum, After one other sit down with native DJ and radio host, Nick Archibald of 5FM & The 5 drive group, he made a visit out to Soweto to go to the Nelson Mandela Apartheid Museum, capping off a culturally important journey to Johannesburg.
Over the summer time, Lupe Fiasco launched ‘Samurai DX’, the deluxe version of his critically acclaimed 2024 album ‘Samurai‘.
The brand new enlargement options two songs from the ‘Samurai’ periods, the self-produced current single “SOS” and the Soundtrakk-helmed “Excessive Be aware”, plus remixes of authentic album highlights “Samurai”, “Palaces”, and “Bigfoot”.
That includes vocals by Troy Taylor, the brand new remixes add a special perspective to Lupe’s rhymes, altering up the type with out sacrificing the soul.
The report’s second half, and the vinyl model’s Aspect B, consists of instrumental variations of the DX’s 5 vocal tracks.
‘Samurai DX’ continues Lupe’s exploration of the boundaries of hip-hop as an artform, because the legendary Chicago rapper is aware of a rap album might be as exquisitely crafted and delicately designed as nice artwork.
Increasing the story of what Lupe Fiasco calls one in every of his “most private initiatives thus far,” ‘Samurai DX’ is on the market in digital and bodily codecs through 1st & fifteenth / Thirty Tigers.
Produced in full by longtime collaborator Soundtrakk, 2024’s ‘Samurai’ earned widespread important acclaim, with reward from many main media shops and extra for its cerebral lyricism and heat sonic palette.
Lupe’s ninth studio album, ‘Samurai’ was the second full album collaboration between Lupe and Soundtrakk, following 2022’s ‘DRILL MUSIC IN ZION‘.
The 8-track ‘Samurai’ is dwelling to singles such because the title observe, “Samurai”, praised by many main media shops plus a masterclass in issue, “Cake”, with dense bars and shifting cadences that requires elite ability, and Lupe demolishes it with champion-grade efficiency.
Different highlights embody the orchestral, road freestyle-esque “No. 1 Headband” and the experimental “Mumble Rap.”
Just lately, Lupe Fiasco has stored busy with performances with the legendary Cypress Hill and underground heroes Environment on their “Dank Daze of Summer time Tour”, in addition to a particular efficiency on the Massachusetts Institute of Expertise, the place he’s a visiting professor educating “Rap Principle and Follow”, in Could.
His MIT live performance fashioned a part of “GHOTIING MIT: Public Artwork”, an revolutionary mission by the Checklist Visible Arts Heart that turns campus installations into reside sonic experiences.
On-site at 9 distinct artworks, Lupe recorded new songs, capturing ambient discipline sounds and composing lyrics that reply in actual time to every piece.
Earlier this 12 months, he additional cemented his educational credentials by becoming a member of the college of the distinguished Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins College.
