Lupe Fiasco may have been invited to perform at President Obama’s inaugural concert, but that doesn’t mean he supports the current administration. In fact, he used the stage as a platform to rail Obama and proceeded to perform a long (30-minutes plus) anti-war song.
Fiasco, who has been vocal about his displeasure with Obama’s time in office, told audiences he didn’t vote for him this time around, which earned the singer some jeers from the crowd. He was quickly told to move on with his show and refused, causing security to rush the stage and usher him off.
StartUp RockOn, the group which organized the event, released a statement about the incident and were adamant about the fact that it was not an attempt to stifle Fiasco’s opinons, but rather to keep the audience happy.
StartUp RockOn is all about startups helping startups. At Sunday night’s Inauguration Celebration at the Hamilton Live, organizers set out to honor innovative visionaries with grants, accolades and a party worthy of the success we achieved at the RNC and DNC this summer. Lupe Fiasco performed at this private event, and as you may have read, he left the stage earlier than we had planned. But Lupe Fiasco was not “kicked off stage” for an “anti-Obama rant.” We are staunch supporters of free speech, and free political speech. This was not about his opinions. Instead, after a bizarrely repetitive, jarring performance that left the crowd vocally dissatisfied, organizers decided to move on to the next act. Lupe Fiasco repeated the one song for more than 40 minutes.