Lupe Fiasco News From Billboard.Com

...e release of "It's Over Now." The song is featured on the 17-year old’s "Bang Pt. 2" mixtape, due April 1, and its video has already been watched nearly 200,000 times on YouTube.

Last but not least, Lupe Fiasco pays tribute to Jonylah Watkins, the 6-month old baby who was shot to death in Chicago on March 11, with "Jonylah Forever." As a native of Chicago, Fiasco is an outspoken critic against the city's pre...

Alicia Keys and Blackberry, Taylor Swift and Diet Coke, Justin Timberlake and Bud Light Platinum. Add Lupe Fiasco to the growing list of artists gaining creative director titles at companies in recent months.

The Chicago-raised rapper, currently climbing the Hot 100 with latest single "Battle Scars," is investin...

...verses of the song without any musical accompaniment.

There's another break in the set where much to the surprise of the audience (and Curren$y as well, judging from his reaction) as he invites Lupe Fiasco and Mickey Factz up to the stage. "I'm not announcing nobody, but goddamnit if motherf**kin Lupe Fiasco and Mickey Factz comin' to my sh*t, at least let them up here!" he said. Neither performed -- ap...

The Weeknd's Abel Tesfaye had a message for his doctor recently when he was advised to cut his fall tour short a few dates: "Fuck that." With heavy anticipation for the Nov. 13 release of "Trilogy" (Republic), a compilation of his three mixtapes ("House of Balloons," "Thursday" and "Echoes of Silence") plus three all-new bonus tracks -- not to mention three sold-out gigs in New York City before wrapping up the tour in his hometown of Toronto -- it's no surprise that Tesfaye wanted to keep the party going Thursday night (Oct.  25) at Terminal 5 despite putting his voice at risk. And with an hour-long set full of fan favorites ("Wicked Games," "High For This," "Next" and encore "Outside") that demand abrupt, full-throttle falsetto, Tesfaye's voice was in fine form, effortlessly leaping across octaves with plenty of room for soulful melisma. He also appeared to have overcome some of the stage fright that kept him largely stationary during some of his first-ever gigs earlier this year at Coachella and New York's Bowery Ballroom, the latter of which found Tesfaye's voice notably strained. Set-wise, Tesfaye stuck to the hits -- despite teasing a snippet of new single "Valerie" on YouTube earlier this week and dropping another unreleased track, "Enemy" (which does not appear on "Trilogy") Thursday night. He did incorporate a few new elements to songs like "The Birds, Pt. 1 and 2," which was reimagined as a virtual duet with a video of a woman in a blonde bob wig lip-syncing to Tesfaye's warped vocals. He also let the crowd take over for vocal duties at many points during "Crew Love," his Drake collaboration from 2011 and his biggest hit to date. But with "Wicked Games" already charting on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip Hop Songs chart, a featured vocal on Wiz Khalifa's "Remember You" and his touring clout rapidly growing (selling out two nights at Terminal 5 less than six months after filling Bowery Ballroom is no easy feat), Tesfaye seemed to be ready to embrace a new level of mainstream success.

Lupe Fiasco scores his second straight No. 1 on R&B/Hip-Hop Albums as his "Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album Pt. 1" bows atop the list with 89,000 sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan. It's his fourt...

...The new Billboard 200 chart's top 10 will be revealed on the morning of Wednesday, Oct. 3.

But, Mumford & Sons isn't the only big-named act with a new release this week, as Green Day, No Doubt, Lupe Fiasco and deadmau5 are all on course for top 10 arrivals next week.

Mumford & Sons Selling Huge, Heading For No. 1 

Green Day's latest, "Uno!," may move around 150,000 -- good enough for a No....

Lupe Fiasco tackles an array of social issues -- all while hanging out in his native Chicago and inviting some two-dimensional friends onto his stoop -- in the music video for "Around My Way [Freedom Ain't Free],...

After reciting a poem on "The Dreamer," the opening track from Common's new album "The Dreamer/The Believer," Dr. Maya Angelou reportedly expressed disappointment over the rapper's use of the N-word on the track. On Monday (Dec. 19), however, the legendary poet called in to BET's "106 & Park" to speak with Common and clear up the disagreement.

"I don't think the word 'disappointment' quite makes it. I was surprised," says Angelou about Common's language on the track. "I know that Common is brilliant -- he may, in fact, be close enough to be called a genius, I'm not sure. I know we're all in process, and young artists are in process."

After Ludacris released a track on his new mixtape, "1.21 Gigawatts: Back To The First Time," that supposedly disses Big Sean and Drake, Big Sean has said that he has no problem with the veteran MC. Ludacris' track "Bada Boom" apparently addresses Drake's June 2010 interview with AllHipHop, in which the rapper gives credit to Big Sean for inventing the punchline-heavy "hashtag" style of rapping. "I trace it back to Big Sean. That's the first guy I heard utilize that flow throughout the duration of a verse," he said. "I hate that rappers picked that flow up. I wish they had left that for people that know how to use it. [They go like] 'It's a parade! MACY'S'. At that point, you never want to use it." The problem with Drake's words? Ludacris rhymes on his 2010 single "My Chick Bad," "Comin' down the street like a parade/Macy's."

...-turned-rapper Watsky re-enter Billboard's Social 50 chart, perking up at No. 48. He released "A New Kind of Sexy" for free download on Aug. 12 via Bandcamp.com, while five days later he uploaded his Lupe Fiasco mini-mix "Show Goes On" to YouTube.

On Aug. 14 he also participated in the viral web serious "Epic Rap Battles of History," which features historical figures battle-rapping against each o...