Lupe Fiasco Debates Joe Budden About Ire With Atlantic Records

The animosity that Lupe Fiasco has with certain Atlantic Records executives is real. The rapper hasn’t been shy about voicing his displeasure with a select few from his label, and in a recent Instagram Live chat with Joe Budden, Lupe revisited his enmity toward Atlantic. He clarified that he wasn’t at odds with everyone, especially because his “picture [is] still up there on the wall.”

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“You bring 14 Grammy nominations and a Grammy into the building and you sell three, four, five million records,” Lupe said. The rapper also shared the story of his mega-hit single “Kick, Push,” stating that Atlantic made some shady moves in order to delay the release of the record. “Kick, Push” samples singer Celeste Legaspi’s track “Bolero Medley” that was released in 1982, and according to Lupe, his record label found the Filipina singer and purchased the rights to her song just so they had some rights over his single.

“You know what they did? They flew down to the Philippines to find the woman who we sampled the record from,” Lupe told Budden. “[They] bought the entire record from her. They actually own the song ‘Kick, Push’ is sampled from. That’s what they did.” Budden wasn’t letting Lupe Fiasco off that easily and told him that it wasn’t as if Atlantic didn’t put the machine behind Lupe to make sure he was a success. Listen to clips of their Instagram Live chat below.