Following the release of Lupe Fiasco’s “Around My Way (Freedom Ain’t Free)” it seems that everything was going smoothly for Lupe, until straight away Pete Rock, who originally created the track “T.R.O.Y. (They Reminisce Over You)” which “Around My Way” samples/copies somewhat from, began a Twitter rant blasting the Chicago rapper and his team for doing such a thing. Apparently left in “shock”, Lupe was on WGCI’s The Morning Riot in which he discusses the situation going on, claiming he has no intention in disrespecting the old school methods…
Instead Lupe Fiasco explained that his team reached out to Rock to get his blessing, quoted to saying: “That was a little unexpected, seeing as we already reached out to him to get his blessing and all that. We went and did it, especially because of what it means to him and what it represents to him and how deep, how personal the record is for him. At the same time, too, with Heavy D passing and all that stuff, we tried to be as sensitive as possible with it and make sure that we represent it correctly. But there are so many remakes of ‘T.R.O.Y.’ out there. That’s what was surprising.”
He went on to discuss that he will not get personally involved with the situation, pointing to the fact his manager Chill was the one who decided it to be okay to sample “T.R.O.Y.”.
“Nah. The friends and family is dealing with that. They’re the ones who put that together, so I’m kind of like a third party in it. But the people who initially reached out to him from my camp to his camp, I guess they was on the phone last night trying to figure out what was going on. It was a shock to me and it’s best for me to fall back.”
Checkout the full interview below in video-form:
Personal opinion, I do understand Pete Rock’s anger & disappointment. At the same time this is publicity for Lupe Fiasco via the record labels/music industry, whether it is right or wrong this will be taken and featured for more public pleasure. End of the day we are all talking about it as well as for a proper Lupe fan: enjoy the songs for the lyrics, message and flow which are on point and attractive in meaning.
But let us know your thoughts on how you perceive this situation: does it bother you? And is Chill not in jail still??
