Lupe Fiasco gives some important insight into royalty swindles for you up and coming artists.
With his upcoming fifth studio album Tetsuo & Youth nearing its release, Lupe Fiasco was in Los Angeles for a West Coast run of promo. In a recent interview, the Chicago rapper opened up on his early career moves almost signing to Roc-A-Fella Records in 2002. Being around JAY Z during the Black Album creation process, he gained studio knowledge and decided to start 1st & 15th Entertainment with friend Chilly Chill for their own movement.
Contrary to popular belief of his “backpacker” perception, he went to detail meeting Kanye West though industry events, that led to them collaborating with the “Touch the Sky” in 2006. Being a product of the streets, Lupe was initially skeptical of the track, but made one the wiser career decisions for a new artist in the game at the time. What caught our eye in the sit-down was his breakdown of royalty swindles from the majors.
He recently received some criticism from fans cutting down his initial 25-track offering into half. Lupe went to breakdown the “cap-rule,” which sees his royalties cut after 11 records sent for an album. He briefly talked doing 19 songs for his 2007-classic The Cool and cited the debut Illmatic album from Nas only having 10-tracks; which has made the Queens rapper wealthy.
It’s very apparent he wants to give more retail material initially planned, but we understand his business decision and expect to hear the best quality presentation when the album arrives. We’re still hopeful those tracks that don’t get released through the major still surface soon.
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