It might be a safe bet that Lupe Fiasco probably won't be exchanging Christmas cards with the execs at Atlantic Records this year. During a recent interview Lupe Fiasco didn't hold back when discussing his relationship with his record label.

“Bad, to keep it a thousand,” he told Torae on "The Tor Guide” when asked about his relationship with the label. “I can’t wait to get off. Even with that said, I’m coming with the biggest records of my career over the next two albums just to set myself up for that post-Atlantic Records career. I’ve had a very interesting run for various reasons. I don’t even think about it anymore. I just go ahead. I rock with my homies at the label who are my homies...but that executive level don’t fuck with your boy too heavy. And it’s good, it is what it is.”

Lupe attributes the rocky relationship to his contract status.

“I don’t have a 360 deal,” he explained. “Since they can’t eat off my merchandise or my publishing or my touring they treat me like a third-class citizen up there. I paid the price for that.I got my deal in like 2005, so that was when they were still trying to make that thing happen. By the time I got to my second album, The Cool, they really had it in place. I didn’t want to have to do it. They tried to negotiate it with me, it’s just, the money wasn’t right. It just wasn’t right. And we were like, ‘Nah.’ Then they were like, ‘Well, if you don’t sign this 360 deal we can’t guarantee we’re gonna promote your records.’ I was like above a Wiz Khalifa or B.O.B., like, ‘You gon’ be down in the basement.’ It’s like, ‘Alright.’ We just roll with it. Then we come with the hits, we come with our Grammy nominations. We still keep it going in the midst of that.”








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