I was turned on to Lupe Fiasco when I was participating in a training for youth educators on utilizing Hip Hop in the classroom. The training was incredible. The teachers were excellent! I was able to use some of the techniques in the middle school that I was coordinating an after-school program for at-risk youth. The kids loved it. The funny part is I think I got more from the training, than the kids I brought the stuff back to. But that is not anything new for me. Lupe Fiasco Superstar was one of the songs we dissected and praised.
“To intervene and provide effective affordable assistance, the Hip-Hop Education Center (HHEC) was formed to fully promulgate and explore the potential of Hip-Hop pedagogy. Officially launched in June 2010 under the auspices of the Metropolitan Center for Urban Education at New York University, and a generous donation from the Nathan Cummings Foundation.
The mission of the HHEC is to cultivate and support Hip-Hop scholars, teaching artists, cultural workers and activists, and social entrepreneurs to professionalize the field of Hip-Hop Education and inform the larger education sector. It achieves this through research and evaluation of programs, development of standards and best practices, documentation and archiving, community outreach and programming, leadership and teacher training, teacher placement, policy and advocacy development, and social enterprising.”
I find Lupe to be an inspiring writer and has the gift of being able to write and perform often hard-core songs with a light, Top 40 appeal and sound. Lupe Fiasco Superstar is an excellent example of this.
One of the last nights of the week-long training, the group of instructors decided they were all going to check out Lupe Fiasco, since he was in town performing not too far away. I passed. I wish I had taken their advice and gone to the show. Enjoy!