Obama inauguration organizers apparently never listened to Lupe Fiasco before

Last night, during the StartUp RockOn inaugural event in Washington DC, Lupe Fiasco was asked to “move on to the next song” or “leave the stage” after delivering an “anti-Obama diatribe” during his set.

His crime? Performing his hit 2011 song, “Words I Never Said.”

Granted, Lupe Fiasco played this key verse, and did it on repeat for 30 minutes straight,” (a looping fiasco, if you will) but you know:

And these the same people that supposed to be telling us the truth
Limbaugh is a racist, Glenn Beck is a racist
Gaza strip was getting bombed, Obama didn’t say shit
That’s why I ain’t vote for him, next one either
I’ma part of the problem, my problem is I’m peaceful
And I believe in the people.

The result was that the organizers were very disappointed that someone would turn a political event political, and sent a couple of burly security guards to escort him down after about 20 minutes of his performance.

Disappointed that an artist took opportunity to use an event celebrating innovation/startups to make a political statement. #StartUpRockOn

— hypervocal (@hypervocal) January 21, 2013

Look. Whoever invited Lupe Fiasco to perform is the person they should be disappointed in. Because – and this is key – the song is a year and a half old. And was all over the f***ing radio. At the time, no one seemed to have a problem with it during its original tenure, including the part of the song where he calls Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck racists, and the part of the song where he insinuates that 9/11 is an inside job. And while Reddit is utterly convinced that this will absolutely end Lupe Fiasco’s career, they neglect to note that Anonymous and the Occupy Wall Street movement both adopted “Words I Never Said” as an anthem when they were taking on corporate American from their MacBooks in the closing half of 2011. And if you missed all that, I mean, he called Obama (and the United States) the “biggest terrorist” during an interview with CBS news.

In other words, if you didn’t know Lupe Fiasco, who regards himself as a”conscious hip hop artist” wasn’t necessarily on your side, it’s your responsibility if your dumb ass invites him to a political event and thinks he won’t perform one of his most well-received songs, and the one that put him on the map as a sort-of progressive troubadour. I mean, here, people, is the reason you don’t book the Pogues for your corporate shareholders meeting.