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Lupe Fiasco on his new art project and looking at rap ‘in a deep academic way’
Rapper turned MIT professor is unveiling a project of ‘en plein air rapping’, which is about outdoors-inspired music
En plein air rapping, as Fiasco calls it – after the school of painting that was popularized by Impressionists like Monet and Renoir – involves going to a promising location and fishing for lyrics and beats. The nine-track effort (seven of which are currently available) is a cohesive collection of music with a distinct jazz flavor that feels like a throwback to the Native Tongues era of hip-hop. Photograph: Karl RayElsewhere, Fiasco plays with the everydayness of the MIT campus, as when rapping about a giant steel sculpture made by Alexander Calder: “Tourists on their summer trips give it OKs like the number six / Walk around alongside or up under it / Or ignore it / Like can’t see the trees, cause the forests / Or adore it / And explore it.” As the rapper shared, the mundanity is very much the point.
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