Matthew Santos is an American rock and folk singer-songwriter, musician and painter. Santos joined Fiasco on his world tour in 2008, including appearances on MTV's TRL and Spring Break, Jimmy Kimmel Live, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson and a debut talk show performance on David Letterman's first live show after the 2007 Writer's Guild of America Strike.

In 2007, Santos opened the mtvU Woodie Awards with Lupe Fiasco and performed at the 2008 mtv's Video Music Awards. In addition, Santos performed at Glastonbury Festival, Bonnaroo Festival, the Las Vegas Vegoose Music Festival, Lollapalooza Chicago, South by Southwest, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Summerfest, and Chicago's Around the Coyote Arts Festival.

In 2009, Santos was featured in the single "Chaconne" by Twin Cities hip-hop artist Dessa, a member of Doomtree. That summer, he was also featured in Chicago magazine as one of the city's top singles.

In 2010, Santos released his newest album, "This Burning Ship of Fools."

Discography

Albums

As a Crow Flies

Matters of the Bittersweet

{|class="wikitable" !# !Title |- |1 |Shadows in a Shoebox |- |2 |Uncertainties |- |3 |Humming Bird |- |4 |Love Sick Fool |- |5 |Waiting for the Day |- |6 |Daughter of the Sun |- |7 |My Remedy |- |8 |Old Man Winter |- |9 |Unnameable |- |10 |Drop a Coin |- |11 |Lady Luna |- |12 |Matters of the Bittersweet |}

Singles

Featured singles

Guest appearances

References

External links

Category:1982 births Category:American folk singers Category:American male singers Category:American pop singers Category:American rock singers Category:Musicians from Chicago, Illinois Category:Musicians from Minnesota Category:English-language singers Category:Living people Category:People from Minneapolis, Minnesota Category:Atlantic Records artists Category:American musicians of Filipino descent Category:American musicians of Spanish descent Category:American people of Danish descent Category:American people of Filipino descent

Wasalu Muhammad Jaco (born February 16, 1982), better known by his stage name Lupe Fiasco ( ), is an American rapper, artist, producer and CEO of 1st and 15th Entertainment. He rose to fame in 2006 following the success of his critically acclaimed debut album, Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor. He also performs as the frontman of post punk band Japanese Cartoon under his real name. Despite his unstable upbringing, Fiasco states that he was well-educated as a child, asserting that "I grew up in the hood around prostitutes, drug dealers, killers, and gangbangers, but I also grew up juxtaposed: On the doorknob outside of our apartment, there was blood from some guy who got shot; but inside, there was National Geographic magazines and encyclopedias and a little library bookshelf situation. And we didn't have cable, so we didn't have the luxury of having our brains washed by MTV. We watched public television — cooking shows and stuff like that."

He initially disliked hip hop music for its use of vulgarity, and preferred to listen to jazz; Fiasco idolized clarinet player Benny Goodman. He began rapping when he was in the eighth grade, and upon hearing Nas' 1996 album, It Was Written, began to pursue hip hop.

While at Thornton Township High School, he discovered a love for theatre, and he ran the lights and sound for most of his high school's productions. He also was a member of the chess team and the Knowledge Bowl Decathlon Team.

1999–2005: Career beginnings

At age 19, Fiasco was in a group called Da Pak, which was influenced by other California gangsta rappers like Spice 1 and Ice Cube. They signed to Epic Records and released one single before splitting up. During his short tenure at Arista, he did meet Jay-Z, who was the president of Def Jam Recordings at the time. Jay-Z referred to him as a "breath of fresh air", saying that he reminded him of a younger version of himself. Jay-Z would go on and help him get a record deal at Atlantic Records. While he was working on the music for his new album, he released his critically acclaimed mixtape series Fahrenheit 1/15 over the internet. The mixtape gained notoriety by word-of-mouth, and Fiasco's remix of Kanye West's "Jesus Walks" entitled "Muhammad Walks", became very popular in the Muslim community. These events greatly affected Fiasco and the subsequent themes discussed on the album. The album was released in December 2007 in United States. The first single and video from the album, "Superstar", featuring Matthew Santos, was released the first week of November 2007. Baseball's Hanley Ramirez, Troy Tulowitzki, Ryan Zimmerman, Gerald Laird and Ryan Braun have used "Superstar" as their at-bat song.

, 2009]]

Lupe Fiasco has a bonus track on iTunes for the soundtrack to called "Solar Midnight" which he produced himself. In a post on his Myspace blog, Fiasco addressed concerns by fans who believed that he had "sold out" by making a song for the soundtrack, saying "I'm not SELLING OUT by doing a song for NEW MOON...People thought I 'SOLD OUT' when I did 'Kick, Push'".

On August 10, Lupe Fiasco released a snippet of a song "Go to Sleep," on his official Twitter page. a vanity record label under Atlantic. Although Fiasco was initially to serve as vice-president, he became CEO after Patton was convicted on drug charges. Fiasco and singer Matthew Santos were two of the most recognizable signed artists. In November 2009, Fiasco announced he would get "rid of the entire First and Fifteenth Record Label. Me and Sarah Green are the only artists on the label, like I got rid of the whole label. It was just such a ‘this isn’t right for you right now. This isn’t gonna work for you right now. You need to be focused on you. Do you really want that, do you really have the capacity to do it?’

In 2005, he founded "Righteous Kung-Fu", a company that designs fashions, sneakers, toys, video games, comic books, and graphics for album covers and skateboard decks. He has also sponsored a skateboard team and has endorsements from DGK Skateboards.

In January 2006, Fiasco signed with major footwear and apparel corporation Reebok becoming part of the "O.G" marketing campaign, where rap artists such as Lil Wayne and Mike Jones designed their own personal colorway of the Reebok "O.G" model. Fiasco also runs his own fashion label under the name "Trilly & Truly". Together with Le Messie of FALSE from Singapore he also runs a collaborative clothing line called "Fallacy Of Rome".

In 2009, Fiasco performed in The People Speak, a documentary feature film that employs musical performances of the letters, diaries, and speeches of everyday Americans, based on historian Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States.

On January 7, 2010, Fiasco joined musician Kenna, actress Jessica Biel, and other celebrities and activists for an expedition to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro called Summit on the Summit to raise awareness of the billions of people worldwide who lack access to sanitary drinking water.

On January 20, 2010, Fiasco released a track called "Resurrection" with Kenna in response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake. The song, part of a compilation released through the charity Music for Relief, aimed to encourage donations for immediate relief and long-term recovery following the devastating disaster.

Discography

See also

References

External links

Category:1982 births Category:African American Muslims Category:African American rappers Category:American hip hop record producers Category:Atlantic Records artists Category:Rappers from Chicago, Illinois Category:Living people