# How did Lupe Fiasco go from science to rap? *From rocket science to a record deal: the guest's career path* - URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/oyiipehuiha/s/4/ - Date: 2021-04-26 · Kind: discussion · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Lupe Fiasco | Stardom, Semiotics & Soul-searching | MindTrap#56 | Mufti Abu Layth al-Maliki MALM (14:35–19:02) - Status: a view quoted in order to be discussed, not a position held - Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYiiPEhuiHA&t=875s - Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/oyiipehuiha/ **Topics:** Guest conversations; Personal stories and reflections **Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** The guest says he wanted to be a rocket scientist but struggled with maths, and signed a record deal straight out of high school. ## Longer summary Mufti Abu Layth asks whether he could see his career coming. The guest says he meant to be a scientist, going to an aviation camp, launching model rockets with his father and doing robotics, but that he was never good at maths. He says he also told stories and did martial arts, and that he had a real professional opportunity in rap while still in high school, graduating in 2000 and signing his first record deal later that year. He says he fell into what he found himself doing every day, writing raps and thinking about words. ## Sources and names cited - Lupe Fiasco (guest) ## Transcript (machine tier, 14:35–19:02) [14:35] [Music] that's the myth story that may not all be true but that's it that's it people circulate it circulate it yeah i mean and you know you've gone on to have an incredibly distinguished career uh as an artist i mean you've worked alongside uh some of the greatest names in that industry um kanye west jay-z you've gone on to be nominated for many awards and achieved awards it was this something you know going back to you were saying your teenage years your childhood was this something you could [15:13] see as a trajectory or was it now in in hindsight how do you how do you how did this play out was it like i gotta stop laughing i'll find you i like i got to stop laughing just so i'm just so serious um this is actually like a fiasco like my name speaks to it right like but i was supposed to do like you know science i want to be like a rocket engineer you know like a rocket scientist like for real you know like wow um went to kind of like like it's not necessarily aviation school yeah but like kind of like [15:51] you know pre like if you're interested in becoming a scientist and you're 10 or you're nine here's a program you know kind of like a space camp so i was going to like this aviation camp um to learn like aerodynamics and like stuff like that you know really basic primal stuff um but all into like you know and on the weekends with my dad i'm like flying rockets you know like the little yeah okay homemade kind of rocket with the little engines and you shoot them up and the parachute comes up so we're in the park like shooting those up and like for for science projects um i got like rockets literally like with different [16:30] you know this payload goes here this is where this is like these little things show and tail type stuff um and then like robotics and stuff like that so that's what my my my young mind was right like i'm going to be a scientist i'm going to do robotics but the one thing that i didn't that that people failed to mention about science is math and at math i am a doofus when it comes to math so i can understand that the theory i can understand some of the mechanics um but i can't the math just loses me right um and i was just never good at math and it was like i don't know if i i'm gonna [17:10] i don't know if i'll be able to accomplish that i might have been able to kind of overcome it but in the midst of that you get into like oh i can also tell stories you know and i'm also into you know this and there's also the martial arts and there's also this and there's also that and when i kind of landed on you know rap uh i got my i got my i got like my quote unquote first kind of real professional look at rap when i was still in high school you know so it was like before i'd even had time to think about like okay college where am i gonna go what is my career gonna be i already had like rap as a real serious professional opportunity um and i took it you know [17:48] and i kind of got my first record deal i think like in like i graduated in the year 2000 and i think i had my first record deal later that year like i remember like going to summer school to finish a course and then coming back to pick up my diploma in the summertime and then getting on a plane and going to miami you know to like do some rapper stuff right that sounds real cool that does i'm just here to get my degree but i've got a plane to catch i gotta be in miami [18:22] so i'm like i saw them so this is um this is not like oh man 20 years ago so some of it may be cloudy but that's kind of the general like ideas like i wanted to be in this very technical path um and you know had to you know my dad my dad was build things was an engineer all the stuff so i felt like i had the chops and it was in the family but also in the family was music also in the family was martial arts also was in the family was this this this opening businesses being an entrepreneur stuff like that um so i kind of like fell into what made sense to me and what i what i found myself doing every day you know i found myself coming home writing raps like every day thinking [19:01] about rap thinking about words thinking about this think about that thinking about telling stories and so it just opportunity came where it was like do you want to do this for a living and it was like yes and so the rest is history you know well do you you know you said about words and because you your rap is concept rap you're a conscious rapper you know you're not just and you were you were very um i mean you were very clear on that as well from what i understand that you know you didn't want to just take your music down a particular road of just you know what everybody else was doing whether it's just ## Cite Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment oYiiPEhuiHA/s/4. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/oyiipehuiha/s/4/ Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. 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