AVC: "Spray Paint And Ink Pens" from the Touch The Sky mix-tape has a science-fiction feel. Are you a fan of science fiction and comic books?
LF: Yeah, I'm a big fan of science fiction, animation, and things of that nature. Other worlds and that type of stuff.
AVC: What stuff in particular? Anything recent that's really rocked your world?
LF: Not really. I saw Sky Captain And The World of Tomorrow. That was fresh. But it's more like the classic stuff. I'm a big robot fan, so I love robots. Like Gigantor, and a bunch of other little things.
AVC: Are you a big Star Wars guy?
LF: No. I like it, but I'm not a fanatic. I can sit and watch it, but I'm not into it like that. I know a lot of people who are fanatics. I'm not even a big comic-book fanatic. I'm more a Japanimation fanatic, like Japanese comic books and stuff like that, the cartoons.
AVC: Are you comfortable being considered a role model?
LF: I guess. I step outside of myself and look back at the music that I make, and I'm comfortable with it, and with somebody following it. I like when little kids come up to me and they're three and four years old, and they're reciting "Kick, Push." As opposed to them coming up and saying, "I'm going to shoot you." To see that, I'm happy.
AVC: Do you think rappers are role models whether or not they embrace the title?
LF: Positive role models? No. But role models? Yeah. Everybody that's on TV has a voice. Unless you live in a box, and it's soundproof, and there's no windows or anything in it, you're a role model. As long as people can see you and participate in what you do, you lead them. You affect them in some way. So I think rappers, singers, actors, whoever, dancers, when they're on that screen, they touch 30 million people at this time, 10 million at this time, 100 million people at this juncture. You have to take even more responsibility for what you say, and what you do, and how you're going to affect people.
AVC: How did "Conflict Diamonds" come about?
LF: "Conflict Diamonds" began as a freestyle about seven days after Kanye released the original version of "Diamonds (From Sierra Leone)." I went to his people and told them I wanted to do a freestyle, because I had a song "Muhammad Walks," and I wanted to do it with Kanye, as a remix to "Jesus Walks," and they turned it down. So I just put it out on the mix-tapes. So the same thing happened with "Diamonds," where I went to them first and said "I want to do this song, I want to freestyle over "Diamonds," and asked if it was cool. And they said, "Yeah, sure, go ahead." I made "Conflict Diamonds." We released it overseas, and it took off.
AVC: Why did they turn down the "Muhammad Walks" idea?
LF: I think they didn't deem it as necessary. At that time, I wasn't popping. People played it on the radio. DJs got hold of it, and I think Common had a remix and someone else had a remix of "Jesus Walks," and they mixed it all together, so it was like one big super song. I don't know exactly, to tell the truth.
AVC: Do you consider yourself a political person?
LF: No. Social. I don't like politics. Politics is one or the other. A lot of people walk the line. To take one side means you disregard some of the real valid issues on the other side. I don't like doing that. I don't want to participate. I call myself more social than political.
AVC: Your album was plagued by rampant bootlegging. Do you think that's flattering, like, "Wow, people are so eager to hear my music that they're willing to go the pirate route," or is it just maddening?
LF: It was flattering. On the end of the people who were downloading it, it was cool. It was more of a shock to try and find out who was downloading it, or where the leak was coming from. To see the response it got from people was great. Even though it hurt in other areas, it was still good to know there was a movement of people out there who were interested in what we were doing.
AVC: How did bootlegging affect the composition of the album?
LF: Not too much. When it leaked, we were probably 60 percent done with the recording process, and we had 40 percent left to go. That 40 percent entailed the collaborations and a few other little records that didn't make the leak. We still had a big mass of songs to pull from, and it was only about seven songs in the leak that were going to make the final album. So we just continued with the recording process. People thought we went back and changed and did things that were new. No, we just picked up where we left off.
AVC: Do you think the bootlegging hurt the first week's sales?
LF: Yeah. I know that for a fact. When it leaked, it got real reviews from The Village Voice, and it was getting nice, nice, nice reviews. It was the Voice and a bunch of other stuff. People were going out to the record stores and asking if they had the new Lupe. They were like "No." They got so many requests, they would report back to the distribution centers, they call them one-stops. They would report back to the one-stops. We did a little tour of the East Coast and went to a one-stop in D.C., and they said, "You peaked two months ago." If we had came out within two weeks of when the album leaked the first time, we would have done double then what we're doing now.
AVC: Is that frustrating?
LF: It's a trade-off. To know you have a movement of people who are actually interested in what you're doing, and to get massive reviews for it is cool, because it gives you credibility as an artist. Which is one thing people thought we were lacking, because people only heard "Touch The Sky," "Kick, Push," and some mix-tapes, and they were really unaware. And then they got to hear a body of work, and they were ready. The trade-off was the first week's sales two months later.
AVC: Jay-Z executive-produced this album. What did that entail?
LF: He did a lot of stuff behind the scenes. He orchestrated the Mike Shinoda Linkin Park record. He smoothed over the Pharrell record. Just him being attached to the project opened up a lot of doors. It was real simple. I would record eight songs, then go to New York and play them for him, and he would thumbs-up/thumbs-down. Then it would be like, "Okay, let's go do some more."
AVC: Was it intimidating, working with an icon of his stature?
LF: Nah. Not at all. That mystique is gone. When I first met Jay-Z, it was like that, and then, when you know him five, six years and you're around him and you know how he works and things of that nature, it's not really intimidating anymore. When I went to do "Daydreamin'" with Jill Scott, I was like, hyped. "Jill Scott is in the studio!" She was like, "Whoa, calm down and tell me what you want me to do." [Laughs.] It was "Stop. This is business."
AVC: You have to address those people as peers, not necessarily as, "Oh! I'm such a fan of your work!"
LF: Yeah, I had to eliminate that. She told me, "You have to stop and tell me what you want me to do." Every other note or run or style I wanted her to do on the record, I had to stop and tell her to do it.
AVC: How did the Kanye West "Touch The Sky" thing come about?
LF: I've been knowing Kanye for years. We helped each other out before he had his deal. We were helping him take meetings with different people. We worked on some songs at Arista, and he called me and said he had this record that he wanted me to jump on, and it was "Touch The Sky." It was that simple. We went to the studio and recorded it.
AVC: Did you have any idea that it was going to be huge?
LF: No. I knew it was a dope record. It was one of the records that was getting the best response overall from people who listened to the whole album. It was one of the records that was getting a good response, but I didn't know it was going to be like that.
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