Outspoken rapper and activist Lupe Fiasco was removed from stage by security personnel at an Inauguration celebration for President Obama last night after performing the first verse of his anti-censorship anthem "Words I Never Said" (which contains some stridently anti-Obama lyrics. The whole incident was recorded in not quite-real-time via the twitter timeline of @LupeFiascoStore, which reported as follows:
So Lupe just performed the first verse of "Words I Never Said" for 30 minutes straight. He had to be removed from the stage.... for performing. Im at a loss for words...20 min straight... **they cut his mic off**. Raps with no mic for 5-10 more minutes, People booing and everything. They cut the power to the stage. All those people... stunned! Security had to remove the homie from the stage.He did the entire set, all the music from all the songs he was going to play were played... but he only did that verse. He stopped and had water once, and then he started the verse again...and again... and again... and again... No arrests... they just removed him from the stage. Nothing violent or negative was done. Just an #EpicShow!Take this Day serious. #MLKDay.
A highlights reel of the entire episode--including closed caption transcription of the anti-Obama verses for the rapping impaired--was captured on video, which can be seen below.
Considering that a) by hi-jacking this event, Lupe is basically doing in real life what he did in mini-movie form in the video for "Words I Never Said" and b) he has never minced his feelings about the POTUS, going so far as to call him a terrorist and then defending that statement to, of all Obama-boosters, Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly--nobody should really be shocked by this turn of events. In fact, as Rapper Big Pooh pointed out (also via twitter) the most questionable actions here may be those of the person who thought it made sense to book Lupe for this event. In any case, there will be doubtless be much more said about this high-profile protest amidst the ongoing commentary from all sides on today's public inauguration and related festivities on the mall in DC--stay tuned!
spotted at LE
