Rapper Lupe Fiasco lived up to his surname at a
pre-inauguration performance at the Hamilton Live Theatre Sunday night. The
outspoken artist, who has criticized President Barack Obama for his views on
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, unleashed a diatribe against the recently
sworn-in president halfway through a performance.
"[Rush] Limbaugh is a racist, Glenn Beck is a racist,
Gaza Strip was getting bombed, Obama didn't say s**t. That's why I ain't vote
for him, next one either," Fiasco rapped on stage.
Fans at the concert to hear Fiasco weren't pleased with his
verse, however. Soon after the crowd began to grow restless with the rapper's
views, Fiasco was escorted off-stage by security . Organizers of the event
released the following statement about Sunday's concert:
Lupe Fiasco performed at this private event, and as you may
have read, he left the stage earlier than we had planned. 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. Lupe Fiasco
repeated the one song for more than 40 minutes.
Fiasco's rep didn't immediately respond to Hollywood.com's
request for comment. In 2011, Fiasco spoke to CBS News about his stance on the
President, telling Shira Lazar, "In my fight against terrorism, to me, the
biggest terrorist is Obama, and the United States of America … I'm trying to
fight the terrorism that's actually causing the other forms of terrorism. You
know, the root cause of terrorism is the stuff that the U.S. government allows
to happen, and the foreign policies that we have in place in different
countries that inspire people to become terrorists. And it's easy for us
because it's just some oil."
As for the inauguration fiasco, we'd bet the rapper's harsh
words have mellowed for Obama following the president's.
