Lupe Fiasco Removed From Stage at Inaugural Party
Lupe Fiasco was booted off an inaugural party stage last night in Washington after dedicating his 30-minute set to the song “Words I Never Said,” Politico reports. The rapper, performing at an event hosted by StartUp RockOn, repeated the lyrics, “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,” for an usually long time and said he didn’t vote for Obama. He was told to move to the next song, but refused and was escorted off the stage.
Q&A: Lupe Fiasco on Tupac, Album Leaks and Leaving the Game
In a statement to HyperVocal.com, StartUp RockOn maintained that they did not kick Fiasco off the stage for any anti-Obama sentiments. “We are staunch supporters of free speech, and free political speech. This was not about his opinions,” they wrote. “Instead, after a bizarrely repetitive, jarring performance that left the crowd vocally dissatisfied, organizers decided to move on to the next act.”
In 2011, Fiasco called Obama “the biggest terrorist . . . in the United States of America,” and later appeared on The O’Reilly Factor to discuss his views on the president.
Watch the incident unfold in the video below.