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Lupe Fiasco escorted off stage after anti-Obama comments
By Rachel Weiner, Published: MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 8:25 AM ET
Rapper Lupe Fiasco was escorted off stage by security during a performance at StartUp RockOn’s inauguration celebration Sunday night.
Even at an event celebrating President Obama’s second term, Lupe didn’t hesitate to criticize the president, announcing that he did not vote for him. Thirty minutes into the anti-war song, Lupe was approached by guards and taken off stage.
Lupe Fiasco just got thrown off stage here at the Hamilton Live after he went on an anti-Obama diatribe mid set.
-- Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) January 21, 2013
Things going terribly wrong at @lupefiasco performance during #SURO. Kicked off stage, bashing obama.
-- Matt Dornic(@mdornic) January 21, 2013
According to Foreign Policy’s Josh Rogin, Fiasco was told to move on to the next song and refused.
Organizers say the Chicago rapper’s political views had nothing to do with the decision.
“Lupe Fiasco performed at this private event, and as you may have read, he left the stage earlier than we had planned,” StartUp RockOn said in a statement. “But Lupe Fiasco was not ‘kicked off stage’ for an ‘anti-Obama rant.’ We are staunch supporters of free speech, and free political speech. This was not about his opinions. Instead, after a bizarrely repetitive, jarring performance that left the crowd vocally dissatisfied, organizers decided to move on to the next act.”
But Hypervocal, one of the group’s sponsors, tweeted unhappiness that politics entered into the event:
Disappointed that an artist took opportunity to use an event celebrating innovation/startups to make a political statement. #StartUpRockOn
-- hypervocal (@hypervocal) January 21, 2013
It shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise. In 2011, Lupe called Obama “the biggest terrorist.” On his latest album, he explained that claim, referring to drone strikes in Afghanistan. Last year he described the president as “someone who is a great speaker, but kills little children.”
_________________ The Hawk wrote: There is not a damned thing wrong with people who are bull shitters.
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