Wasalu Jaco p.k.a. Lupe Fiasco is a rapper, producer, entrepreneur, philanthropist, (martial) artist, (and more), and is spending the 2022-2023 school year at MIT as an MLK Visiting Scholar. He was kind enough to take some time to talk about his goals for the upcoming year, where he envisions rap going and its interplay with academia and institutions, and the fundamentals of his craft. Talking with Lupe was incredibly on many levels, and I look forward to connecting with him again at the end of the year and re-examining this discussion then.
—– Topics —– 00:00
– Rap is a Lossless Data Compression Algorithm 2:20
– Lupe’s Upcoming Year at MIT – Class and Research 6:20
– Evolution & Rap Mechanics 31:35
– Teaching Rap and Rap Technology 48:04
– Explicit and Implicit Benefits Between Rap and Hard Sciences 1:00:20
– Merging Rap and Institutions 1:05:52
– Rap Degree from MIT 1:10:40
– Importance of Rap at MIT, not Berklee 1:22:34
– Fundamental Laws of Rap 1:27:13
– Rap as a Lossless Data Compression Algorithm 1:31:28
– Rapping with Emojis 1:42:55
– Lupe’s Language Fluidity 1:53:24
– Reassess Your Constraints to Be Better than Lupe 2:02:12
– Makings of a Rap Grandmaster 2:11:05
– Citation and Conservatory Mechanisms for Rap 2:17:20
– Cuz I Love It 2:28:10 – Part 2 – Graduation 2023
Speak On It!