Internet už skôr obehlo Lupeho vyhlásenie, podľa ktorého nikdy nebol fanúšikom a ani nepočúval A Tribe Called Quest, konkrétne ich ´93 klasiku Midnight Marauders, a vraj to ani nemal v úmysle. O to väčšie bolo prekvapenie, keď bol vybraný pre minulo-víkendové VH1's Hip Hop Honors, kde sa mala skladať pocta práve ATCQ. Počas live interpretácie skladby "Electric Relaxation" sa Lupemu podarilo skomoliť 2 z 8 veršov, v originálnej skladbe rapované Phifeom, čo samozrejme v dnešnej Amerike nemôže ostať nepovšimnuté, a výsledok - z Lupeho sa v priebehu hodín stál jeden z najnenávidenejších emcees, minimnálne na amerických blogoch. Podobné trapasy sa už podarili i Kid Rockovi pri Jay-Zho 99 Problems v 2004 alebo Nasovi pri vzdávaní holdu 2Pacovi pred 2 rokmi, tých to však nevyšlo tak draho. Lupe na svoju obranu tvrdil, že skrátka nepozná tvorbu ATCQ a text, ktorý mu bol dodaný pred vystúpením, bol chybný ("When it was initially offered to me, I turned it down because I felt it was out of place for me to be honoring them because while I was fully aware of their impact in hip-hop, I wasn't really aware of their music like that . . . but guess who wanted me to be apart of it . . . hmmmm . . . how about . . . Q-Tip!!! . . ."). Navyše, k spolupráci ho vraj prizval sám Q-Tip, ktorý to však následne odmietol, tvrdiac, že k Lupemu došli až po tom, čo z rozličných dôvodov vypadli Mos Def, Lil Wayne alebo Kanye ("I'm not trying to make this any bigger than it is. But I just want to clear up one thing. . . We never hunted him down and begged him to be a part of the show or anything like that. His name was pitched to us by VH1, and we said, ok cool. The only time I spoke to Lupe about the Hip Hop Honors performance was on a conference call, which ­we did with the other artists too, like Busta and Common, to plan the performance." When VH1 brought his name up, based on what he had said about us before, I thought it was ironic and it kind of humored me. All that stuff he said about never listening to a Tribe album before and having no interest in doing so, it doesn't make sense to me. VH1 asks who you want to honor you, and we came up with Mos Def, who at the last minute cancelled, Common, Kanye, but then his schedule changed, and Busta…Actually, it was [Lil'] Wayne, Kanye, Common and Mos. And then they was like, What about Talib or Lupe or somebody like that? And I was like, 'Oh, Lupe would be cool.' I was like thinking of the irony, because I read something that somebody sent me that he said he never heard a Tribe Called Quest record and never heard Midnight Marauders, nor had any intention [of hearing it]. So when his name came up I was like, 'Okay, Lupe.' I never called him and told him I wanted him to do it. I didn't beg him to do it. It went just like that. Then we all spoke on the phone with VH1, in a creative conversation, and everybody seemed cool. I got there the day of [the performance] and [I was] told that Lupe had some problems with the lyrics. So then I went to his trailer, just trying to extend myself, and I was like, 'So I understand that you never heard a Tribe Called Quest joint?' He smiled and said, 'Well that's not true. My sister used to listen to it. I didn't really [listen to it], but my sister had the album with all the faces on it").

Okrem tisícok ton nenávisti valiacej sa z netu si Lupe už odniesol kritiku i od kolegov z fachu, Questlove ho za spomínané vyhlásenie kritizoval už skôr, najnovšie sa pripojil Phonte z Little Brother ("You fuckin up, my nig. Straight up and down, What's even more amazing is the same cats on this site defending your arrogance and ignorance on this topic . . .you forgetting the lyrics to a classic song from a classic group on national television while paying tribute to them, the 2nd plane has officially hit the tower. I'm an artist so I understand how we all go through our times of arrogance and flat out niggotry, but seriously, now is not the time for this. You had a fuck up and there's really no one to blame but yourself"). Lupe si rozhodne nepomohol ani vyhlásením spred mesiaca v rozhovore pre Vibe, keď označil MC Hammera za pre neho omnoho vplyvnejšieho umelca než ATCQ ("[Tribe] didn't sell 10 million records, so why would people think they had a blanket on the world like that? MC Hammer was way more popular to me than Tribe Called Quest.") Bránil sa i tvrdením o malichernosti fans ("Because there's kids in Harlem who right now would never ever listen to Midnight Marauders, I don't give a fuck what you do, they'll never listen to Q-Tip and they want to be rappers and they want to talk about positive things. So why would you shoot them down? It's like, 'Oh, you ain't never listened to Midnight Marauders? You ain't expanding your horizons? Oh, you ain't real' cause they did that shit to me! 'Oh Lupe, that's fucked up man, I don't fuck with you now, I'm not buying your next album' and be dead serious! It made me feel like, 'You dirty bastards. Like how dare you.' Those hip hop elitists who think [Tribe] hold the crown and the copyright to hip hop, I listen to 8Ball & MJG and I think they're better than you [Tribe].")

Q-Tip si zachováva chladnú hlavu, odmieta akýkoľvek beef s Lupem, dokonca i prijíma jeho názor na ATCQ, i keď je určite cítiť rozčarovanie z jeho prístupu. ("I don't have any beef with Lupe Fiasco, Tribe doesn't [have any beef with Lupe]. We are appreciative of his performance. No big deal, people mess up lyrics"). Na Lupeho ďalšie vyhlásenie o mladíckom obdive Spice 1 a 8Ball & MJG odpovedal, že sa jedná o časovo rovnaké obdobie ako Midnight Marauders a všetci títo umelci poznali texty ATCQ naspamäť, a naopak. ("I applaud him for his honesty, But I will say that Spice 1 and Geto Boys were making records at the same time we was. And when we used to do shows with them, Spice 1 and all those dudes would be knowing Tribe lyrics, and vice versa. So contrary to I guess maybe somebody like Lupe, people listen to other types of music. People don't say I have no interest in listening to different types of music. But that's his opinion and he's entitled to it.") Nakoniec sa Q-Tip telefonicky spojil s "mladým talentovaným levom", ako Lupeho sám nazýva, a dokonca sa bavili i o možnosti spoločného turné do budúcna. ("I called him and I said, 'You know, I just wanted to speak to you man-to-man so you know that I don't have no beef with you, And he was like, 'They attacking me.' He explained himself to me, and I listened. We spoke about doing a tour together actually.") Q-Tip sa i tak momentálne venuje príprave novej sólovky The Renaissance chystanej na začiatok budúceho roka, zároveň opäť odmietol úvahy o ATCQ reunione, aspoň pokiaľ sa nezlepší Phifeov zdravotný stav.

Čo dodať na záver? Nič to nemení na samotnom fakte, že Lupe platí k najväčším talentom súčasnosti, najmä lyricky, ale i tak sa jedná o čierny moment pre tento žáner, už samotné vyhlásenia o nezáujme o tvorbu ATCQ zaskočili, i keď každý má predsa len právo na vkus, ak sa to budeme snažiť (maximálne) zmierniť, aj počas vystúpenia sa každému emceemu podarí raz za čas niečo popliesť, ale kombinácia tohto všetkého, v súvislosti s postavami ako ATCQ a následná Lupeho nepochopiteľná tvrdohlavosť a odmietanie aspoň skloniť hlavu a uznať chybu, to mu určite uberá mnoho "Cool" bodov.

zdroj: hiphopdx, Vibe