Lupe Quotes & Sayings

When I started making my own music, I was more about recreating what I was hearing. I noticed that I had some control over what I was saying, and the effects that it's going to have on people. I wanted to focus more on the positive side of things, which are more in tune with my morals and ethics. — Lupe Fiasco

As a self-described Guadalupe girl, Lupe was sensitive to Guadalupe being overshadowed by the "Mary Monster." Lupe not only meant that Mary was the most dominant of the Catholic Church's "stable" of virgins; Lupe believed that the Virgin Mary was also "a domineering virgin. — John Irving

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. — Lupe Fiasco

Joe Louis was one of my closest friends ... I'm a great boxing fan. I used to go to the American Legion Stadium in Hollywood, every Friday night for 15 years. Down the aisle would come Lupe Velez, Johnny Weismuller, Mae West. All at ringside. — Mickey Rooney

360 deals are the new things of the industry. It's not about selling records; it's about selling T-shirts, getting a piece of your publishing, getting a piece of your touring, and all these other kind of properties. — Lupe Fiasco

The men can have a moral compass that is just unshakeable, they can have ethics that run to the core. — Lupe Fiasco

Sometimes I wish I never found the Internet. Sometimes I regret getting a laptop and Wi-Fi for logging into the Internet because it is such a distraction. If you have any addictive personality, the Internet will magnify it. — Lupe Fiasco

I always saw two sides of life. I saw the dudes who would be the gangsta, big-time guys on the block, but would also be dedicated fathers. It was kind of weird to see that dual story that everybody has. — Lupe Fiasco

Fear is such a weak emotion that's why I despise it — Lupe Fiasco

For me, I never wore my religion on my sleeve, you know what I'm saying? I never put myself out there as Lupe Fiasco, he's Muslim, he's from Chicago, he likes to ride a skateboard. — Lupe Fiasco

You always wrestle with depression, you always wrestle with those things, because the events and the experiences are still there, and the things that take place are still happening. — Lupe Fiasco

The biggest budget is the military budget. For what? We're fighting two wars in very small countries that have no nuclear weapons, that have no capabilities to destroy anything. They probably couldn't even get to America. — Lupe Fiasco

Takes a long time to happen so fast ...
To realize that your future is somebody else's past — Lupe Fiasco

I long to play a judge. I long to play a lesbian woman. I long to play a councilman, someone with some chutzpah. — Lupe Ontiveros

No es buen momento para un terremoto," Lupe used to say. "It's not a good moment for an earthquake. — John Irving

For me, I walk a line of fame and infamy. I walk the line of celebrity and non-celebrity. — Lupe Fiasco

I have a lot of fans in the Tea Party, and they disagree with me vehemently. But they're fans, so we meet and connect and talk, so I'm open to everything. — Lupe Fiasco

Sand camouflage army men
CCF sponsorin, world conquerin, telephone monitorin
Louis Vuitton modelin, pornographic actress honorin
String theory ponderin, bullimic vomitin
Catholic priest fondlin, pre-emptive bombin and Osama and no bombin them
They breakin in my car again, deforestation and overloggin and
Hennessy and Hypnotic swallowin, hydroponic coughin and
All the world's ills, sittin on chrome 24-inch wheels, like that — Lupe Fiasco

I think that all the silence is worse than all the violence — Lupe Fiasco

Every life is good. This [luxury] doesn't make life. It's a lifestyle. It's a style of life. Style is what you are, but everybody has life. And everybody's life should be good. Some of the happiest people in the world have nothing. Nothing. And they find happiness in being in the world. They wear the world with a smile. — Lupe Fiasco

With 'Hip-Hop Saved My Life,' I attempted to make 'Kick, Push,' but for rappers. To give a real basic play-by-play of the life of a rapper before he makes it - if he ever makes it, because you can get stuck in that and be trying to make it for the rest of your life. — Lupe Fiasco

I think it is important that you have people from all different vanguards, from all different walks of society and different viewpoints to be focused on the struggle for equality and democracy. We need as many champions for the cause and as many events as possible to help keep this in focus. — Lupe Fiasco

Flor and Juan Diego and Lupe were the Iowan's projects; Edward Bonshaw saw them through the eyes of a born reformer, but he did not love them less for looking upon them in this fashion. — John Irving

I don't mind payin' for the police and for streets and sanitation, or road work, bridges, trains, food subsidies and welfare. But I don't wanna pay for bombs to fight proxy wars in the middle of nowhere against enemies in the night. — Lupe Fiasco

There's already been black presidents who've been corrupt, so it doesn't strike me that having a black man in office means he's going to be the Messiah. — Lupe Fiasco

Before my father would open up a karate school in a particular neighborhood, he'd clean up the block - kick all the drug dealers and gang bangers off the block. My father was very clear: 'I've got guns too, and I'll kill you just as much as a rival gang would.' And he meant it. He was a man of many facets and complexities. — Lupe Fiasco

The party lines don't change, that's what makes them a party and you'd be a fool to think that just because there's a black man in there it's not gonna change the real foundation of the system. Especially when you look at his largest contributor to his campaign, AIG, one of the culprits in the economic meltdown itself. — Lupe Fiasco

I pay my taxes, but I've never voted and I never will vote as long as the system works the way it does. Even when Obama was running, I wanted to see a woman run! I'd rather see a woman in the White House as opposed to Obama. — Lupe Fiasco

The deaf community is hungry to see itself in the most positive way. — Lupe Ontiveros

I don't hate the music, but I hate the process. When I look at it, I don't see song titles and artwork, I see the fight - I see the emotions, the blood, sweat and tears. There are a couple of songs on there that I love; but 'Lasers' is a little bit of what you love, a little bit of what you like, and a lot of what you had to do. — Lupe Fiasco

I grew up in the 'hood around prostitutes, drug dealers, killers, and gangbangers, but I also grew up juxtaposed: On the doorknob outside of our apartment, there was blood from some guy who got shot; but inside, there was National Geographic magazines and encyclopedias and a little library bookshelf situation. — Lupe Fiasco

I just downloaded '1984' for my iPod, but I've read that before. It just hearkens back to the 'romance' of my high-school days. I really liked the space I was in when I was reading it. — Lupe Fiasco

There weren't so many transvestite prostitutes in Oaxaca in those days; Flor really stood out, and not only because she was tall. She was almost beautiful; what was beautiful about her truly wasn't affected by the softest-looking trace of a mustache on her upper lip, though Lupe noticed it. — John Irving

It's really about taking something inherently negative, and starting with the word loser, starting with something that's negative, and changing it into something that's positive, redefining it, but doing it in a certain way, how - like I would say when I look out at the world and you see it's dark and it's just overbearing and every day is depressed, depressed, depressed. What it took was to change my perspective a little bit. Not to change the world, to change my perspective. — Lupe Fiasco

If you are what you say you are
A superstar
Then have no fear
The camera's is here
and the microphones and they wanna know
Oh oh oh oh yeah
If you are what you say you are
Then have no fear — Lupe Fiasco

Time is up for my little caravan kingdom. It's time for a window that does not look into concrete. — Leanne Hall

The murder rate in Chicago is skyrocketing, and you see who's doing it and perpetrating it - they all look like Chief Keef. When it comes to the point that, you know, that kids who are doing the killings, and they're kids 13 to 19 years old, and you can replicate that in New Orleans, you can replicate that in Oakland. All the kids look the same. — Lupe Fiasco

You can't control it once you turn it into the label, so there's the expectation that it'll leak a week before the album comes out. That's the world we live in. — Lupe Fiasco

When you start creating opinion, and you start creating difference of opinion, you're doing something. People are actually sitting down and critiquing. A lot of the stuff people hate, they really don't. They only look at the outer shell. They don't really get into it. — Lupe Fiasco

It definitely wasn't like, 'Hey, I'm going to steal that, and nobody's going to know.' The original 'T.R.O.Y.' came out in 1992, and it was like a 20th anniversary kind of thing. All of those intentions were there for it to be resurrecting a classic for a new generation. I tried to honor it. — Lupe Fiasco

My problem is I'm peaceful, and I believe in the people. — Lupe Fiasco

You know, my goal, once I leave the music business, is like, 'Man, Lupe didn't lead us astray.' It comes directly from Islam: leading people astray is the worst thing you could do. Especially in perpetuity; like, your music continues to go on and live without you. That risk is too great for me; I'm gonna keep it positive. — Lupe Fiasco

This nation was founded by rebels and revolutionaries, and its flags were carried across the battlefields by people who were very, very against the status quo and who questioned and criticized. — Lupe Fiasco

It's a funny line when you're walking - the creativity, the subjectivity versus the objectivity, creativity versus the business, and recognizing that you are in the music business, so there are certain things that you have to acquiesce to on the business side and certain creative decisions that you have to make for the purposes of serving the business side of it. — Lupe Fiasco

There is no line of demarcation between the amateurs and the pros; everyone is using the same tactics and playing in the same arenas. The only thing that separates them is radio, but the artist doesn't control who goes to radio and who doesn't. — Lupe Fiasco

That should be the measure of success for everyone. It's not money, it's not fame, it's not celebrity; my index of success is happiness. — Lupe Fiasco

In my fight against terrorism, to me, the biggest terrorist is Obama, and the United States of America. — Lupe Fiasco

My approach is I put God first; I say "God willing" all the time. The only way things will change is with God. So knowing that I can't really change anything, I'm just going to satire it. — Lupe Fiasco

I have yet to see someone attack Obama over his report card. A lot of people I talk to from both sides of the fence are like, 'Well, what about this economy? What about these incidents?' There are still no answers except time, but time is the answer for everything. — Lupe Fiasco

I have an understanding of Queen and the way Freddie Mercury did his harmonies. I know what tablas sound like, because my father played a lot of Ustad Ali Akbar Khan. — Lupe Fiasco

Vargas isn't supposed to be faithful to a woman he hasn't slept with! Vargas only wants to sleep with Dr. Gomez, Lupe. — John Irving

If you feel comfortable, and you feel happy, and successful at your job, then that's success. You define that as success, then that's success. Success is not a general thing. It's a personal thing. It's a personal attribute. — Lupe Fiasco

People say, 'If you don't vote, then you don't have a right to say anything. But nine times outta 10, I pay more taxes than they do - so even if I don't vote, I still have the right to speak out. — Lupe Fiasco

When you look out into the world and you turn on the news and it's just so dark, it's still there. But it's the battle, it's the struggle with that, and at the same time to recognize that happiness and love and all those things exist as well. — Lupe Fiasco

I don't like to degrade women, but I like pornography. — Lupe Fiasco

True terrorism, you know, weaponized fear. In defense of ourselves, we're fighting - actively fighting something else. But if you're going to fight terrorism, to me, you fight the root causes of terrorism. — Lupe Fiasco

When you understand that your tax dollars pay for those tear gas canisters that were being fired into the crowd, and when you see that, and to know that a little bit of your fingerprint, your American DNA is a part of that, as well as those stealth bombers and that bomb that's lodged in the side of the school that has "Made in USA" on it in Gaza, and all of the unmanned drones that are blowing up weddings and things of that nature, to know that you pay for that, you really have - you don't have to do it now, but you need to think about that. — Lupe Fiasco

The truth is limitless in its range, if you drop the T and look at it in reverse it could hurt. — Lupe Fiasco

We have to make the physical music a little more valuable instead of just having a download link and a bunch of songs you downloaded from some torrent site. People try to make the music value-less, and I don't think we're going to stop that train, but the one thing that they can't devalue are things that are in the outside world. — Lupe Fiasco

Just be yourself and one day you will find someone who loves you for everything you are, flaws or no flaws. — Lupe Fiasco

My greatest enemy at one point was myself, and so now once I got over the fear of myself I don't fear any man. I never have. — Lupe Fiasco

What starts in clouded minds finishes in the rain — Lupe Fiasco

Lupe began to recite a list of reasons. "One: love of dogs," she started. "Two: to be stars - in a circus, we might be famous. Three: because the parrot man will come visit us, and our future - " She stopped for a second. "His future, anyway," Lupe said, pointing to her brother. "His future is in the parrot man's hands - I just know it is, circus or no circus. — John Irving

The biggest terrorist is Obama. — Lupe Fiasco

The best fight I ever saw without question, I was very fortunate to be a judge in the fight, between the then current WBC 122 pound champion Wilfredo Gomez, and the reigning WBC 118 pound champion Lupe Pintor. It was absolutely beyond belief. — Harold Lederman

Sometimes I do feel hopeless when I look out and scream out through my music, and I scream out through these interviews, and I scream out to people to kind of get their attention back on the things that are meaningful. There's people dying on the streets of Chicago - young people, young men and women who are losing their lives. — Lupe Fiasco

It was, 'If you don't do 'The Show Goes On,' your album's not coming out.' I had nothing to do with that record - nothing. I was literally told how I should rap on it. But I'm a bastard, 'cos I'll turn around and put it back in your face. — Lupe Fiasco

I don't think that politics are as complex as people like to make them seem or out to be. — Lupe Fiasco

I never want to be an artistic bully, and put myself above anyone else ... or be more prestigious than anyone else. You like what you like, and you have to take that as you want it. — Lupe Fiasco

I know how Lupe Velez felt. You fight just so long and then you begin to worry about being washed up. You fear there's one way to go and that's down. — Carole Landis

I don't really care about the GOPs or the Democratic Party. My point is the people, giving the people truth. — Lupe Fiasco

My mother and my father taught me to look at the actual problem, not the face of it, not the veneer of it. So for me, I was never - I was impressed that it - racially, I was impressed, right, but now in America it's about economics, and it's been about economics, and honestly, everything's been about economics since I don't want to say the beginning of time, but it's been about economics for a long while. — Lupe Fiasco

Why kill you when I can just not teach you and get the same results? — Lupe Fiasco

I've given every maid I've portrayed soul and heart. — Lupe Ontiveros

You ain't got to change the whole world. You just alter it a little bit and you redefine it into something beautiful. — Lupe Fiasco

I can't play any instrument for the life of me, but I know what I want to hear. — Lupe Fiasco

Lupe's language was incomprehensible - what came out of her mouth didn't even sound like Spanish. — John Irving

If you start thinking about who's going to read it [you're writing], or what grade will you get, or is it going to win that award, or are you going to get into this graduate program, you're blocking the light, and the light is that guidance and love we get when we open up our hearts and are guided by our higher selves, or God, or the Buddha Lupe [Buddha and the Virgin of Guadalupe fused together, as they are in the tattoo on Sandra's right arm], or whatever you believe in, or love. — Sandra Cisneros

Oh yeah, I'm literally walking through my house now looking down and there are maybe, like, 15 pairs on the floor. For real. Real talk. It's just simplicity. They're something I wear every day. Before I got a deal with them, I was wearing some type of Vans all the time. I would just order them by the box, like, 10 at a time. — Lupe Fiasco

The world brought me to my knees, what have you brung you? — Lupe Fiasco

First of all, you are not really that supreme. — Lupe Fiasco

Success is a very dangerous thing and I think we have to be very careful about when we dictate what success is for somebody else. Because you don't know what it's like. — Lupe Fiasco

Faced with the way the system does you in the 'hood sometimes, if you don't literally get out, your chances are slim. You'll definitely die mentally. You'll pretty much die physically. — Lupe Fiasco

I'm not in competition with nobody. I want to make good music for my fans who want it, who enjoy it, who learn something from it. And that's what it is. — Lupe Fiasco

If you want to relate me to the newer cats, let's go. Let's go line for line and bar for bar. If it's all about spitting and metaphors and MCing and lyrics and entendres, I will eat 99 percent of you dudes up. — Lupe Fiasco

If they burn a book, have no worries. The book will feel NO pain so neither should you! True destruction of the Qur'an cannot be done with fire; it is destroyed when we fail to remember & practice its lessons in our daily lives. If this occurs, then it is ANOTHER fire that you should truly be concerned about! — Lupe Fiasco

Obama came in and gave $700 billion to the bankers off the top as opposed to giving $700 billion to the poor. — Lupe Fiasco

Just listening to Pac, ain't gon' make it stop
A rebel in your thoughts, ain't gon' make it halt
If you don't become an actor, you'll never be a factor — Lupe Fiasco

They say the streets is a demon in a dress,
Wit dollar signs in her eyes and semen on her breath — Lupe Fiasco

Barack is at a level where he can't - no matter how much he wants to or how much we want him to - he's not going to come take out our garbage, so to speak. He can't be the garbage man and the president. He can't be the mayor and the alderman. He can't fill all those roles. So I always push for local, local activity on the political scene. — Lupe Fiasco

The only person who really impressed me with making new music is Cudi. Everyone else seems to be jumping on the same music, the producer-made stuff, but the one person that's made new music to me is Cudi. — Lupe Fiasco

We weren't raised Muslim - we were born Muslim. I didn't go to a Muslim school, but it was just the theme song. It was ambient. — Lupe Fiasco

I'm just trying to do the opposite of left, as long as there's the opposite of death, ya know
Yes, ya test and I just might bring the opposite of life, til' there's no one the opposite of right — Lupe Fiasco

Some stuff I don't even put out. I'll just be home, happy, creating something for myself, and then ball it up and throw it in the trash. It's less about trying to prove something or get on somebody's list or make a fan happy or make a hater mad or convert a non-believer. That's not the case for me anymore. — Lupe Fiasco

It's a massive undertaking putting an album together ... It's not light weight at all. — Lupe Fiasco

We've done shows - we'll be in Dublin, and it will be nonstop pandemonium to the point where you think the crowd is going to implode, because they're making so much noise and they're so excited. — Lupe Fiasco

I do this for the sake of myself. It's a selfish process. I don't really have any expectations from anyone for your comments or your reviews or your previews. — Lupe Fiasco

At the ballet classes I took when I first came to New York, I would see great dancers like Cynthia Gregory and Lupe Serrano. I would look at them and study what they could do, and what I couldn't do. And then I'd think maybe they should try what I could do. — Twyla Tharp

How can land be owned by another man. Warns one can not steal what was given as a gift. Is the sky owned by birds and the rivers owned by fish. — Lupe Fiasco

My whole team, it wasn't about putting the album out, it was about getting off the record company and going independent or going to another label. To the point we were like, 'Listen, just take 'Lasers.' You can have whatever percentage off the next ten records I do for the rest of my life. I just do not want to be here anymore.' — Lupe Fiasco