Lupe Fiasco

It is the last few days of black history month and I wanted to post a piece done last week on a drawing in pencil of Lupe Fiasco. There are figures not often honored for their achievements within the black community and rapper Lupe Fiasco is among them. He is a hip-hop artist known for his 2006 release of Kick Push that paid respects to skateboarding where it became an anthem for skateboarders. Before Lupe hailed skateboarding, the group the Beastie boys paid respects to it rising in the hip hop scene known as rap in the 1980s. Releasing their album Licensed To Kill (1987), they showed themselves having an interest in skateboarding throughout their music. The artist born Wasalu Muhammad Jaco hailing from Chicago was known for his controversial lyrics considered socially conscious rap criticizing former President Obama referring him to be a terrorist due to his handling of foreign policies. The rapper became blackballed but continue recording and releasing music. Since the release of Kick Push, more rappers from Pharrell Williams, Lil Wayne, and Wiz Khalifa paid respects to the culture. More black youth I started seeing get into skateboarding since the song's release and it was not seen as it was seen as a sport mostly white youth engaged. In earlier years there were people of color into Skateboarding but not as many as now. Lupe is known for attaining success in hip co-founding a company known as Righteous Kung Fu that designs sneakers, clothing, toys, and video games in 2005 before the release of the album Food and Liquor featuring the song Kick Push. He also owns a skateboarding team DGK Skateboards. The drawing honors him as a historical figure who paid homage to skateboarding which became an anthem for skateboarders but has caused a growing phenomenon amongst youth of color.