"Never have I ever" (also known as "I've Never...", "I Never", or "Ten Fingers") is a popular party game that typically involves drinking. The verbal game^[1] is started with the players getting into a circle. Then, the first player says a simple statement starting with "Never have I ever". Anyone who has done what the first player has not must drink.^[2] Play then continues around the circle, and the next person makes a statement.^[3].^[4] There is an alternative form of the game in which the players drink indefinitely. An additional rule - uncommon, but beneficial to the game - is that if there is no one taking a drink, then the one who said the particular "I have never..." must take a drink. This rule often forces the players to strategise more and makes for less disposable/pointless suggestions. A further variation holds that whenever only one person is drinking, that person must give a detailed account of why they are drinking.

Games such as never have I ever "reveal interesting things about the participants and help build friendships", according to one American college student.^[5] Players often admit to things that they previously had not. As with Truth or Dare, the game is often sexual in nature. In some variations, the game may be incorporated into other drinking games, usually Kings.^[5]

The game has been portrayed in many television shows and films, such as Being Erica, One Tree Hill, Lost, The L Word, Family Guy, Skins, Big Brother, Frasier, Veronica Mars, 90210, Gossip Girl, Greek, Outsourced, Beerfest, ER, Loving Annabelle, Degrassi: The Next Generation, The Boat That Rocked, The Real World: Las Vegas (2011), How I Met Your Mother, Game of Thrones, The Lying Game, American Reunion, and many others.

This game is also demonstrated in the song "Ten Fingers" by San Francisco hip hop artist and poet, George Watsky.

See also[link]

• Purity test

References[link]

v t e Drinking games Word games 21 Fuzzy Duck Ibble Dibble Never have I ever Pong games Baseball Beer pong Beer pong with paddles Slam Table games Beer die Blackout Boat race Chandeliers Flip cup Moose Quarters Three Man Card games Around the World Asshole Horserace Kings Pyramid Ride the bus Dice games Biscuit Liar's dice Three Man 7/11/2x Binge drinking games Beer mile Boot of beer Centurion Edward Fortyhands Funneling Keg stand Power hour Shotgunning Wizard Staff Yard of ale Miscellaneous Beerdarts Buffalo Detonator Fingers (drinking game) Ice luge Icing Pennying Stump Book:Drinking games Category:Drinking games

Paul Douglas
United States Senator from Illinois
In office January 3, 1949 – January 3, 1967
Preceded by	Charles W. Brooks
Succeeded by	Charles H. Percy
Personal details
Born	Paul Howard Douglas (1892-03-26)March 26, 1892 Salem, Massachusetts
Died	September 24, 1976(1976-09-24) (aged 84) Washington, D.C.
Nationality	American
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Dorothy Wolff Douglas, divorced Emily Taft Douglas, deceased
Alma mater	Bowdoin College Columbia University Harvard University
Profession	Economist
Religion	Quaker
Military service
Service/branch	United States Marine Corps
Rank	Lieutenant Colonel
Battles/wars	World War II
Awards	Bronze Star Purple Heart (2)

Paul Howard Douglas (March 26, 1892 – September 24, 1976) was an American politician and economist. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a U.S. Senator from Illinois for eighteen years, from 1949 to 1967. During his Senate career, he was a prominent member of the Liberal coalition.^[1]

Born in Massachusetts and raised in Maine, Douglas graduated from Bowdoin College and Columbia University. He served as a professor of economics at several schools, most notably the University of Chicago, and earned a reputation as a reformer while a member of the Chicago City Council (1939–1942). During World War II, he served in the U.S. Marine Corps, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel and becoming known as a war hero.

He was married to Emily Taft Douglas, a U.S. Representative from Illinois's At-large district (1945–1947).

Early years[link]

Douglas was born on March 26, 1892 in the small town of Salem, Massachusetts. When he was four, his mother died of natural causes and his father remarried. His father was an abusive husband and his stepmother, unable to obtain a divorce, left her husband and took Douglas and his older brother to Onawa, Maine in Piscataquis County, where her brother and uncle had built a resort in the woods.

Academia and family life[link]

Douglas graduated from Bowdoin College with a Phi Beta Kappa key in 1913. He then moved on to Columbia University, where he earned a master's degree in 1915 and a Ph.D. in economics in 1921. In 1915, he married Dorothy Wolff, a graduate of Bryn Mawr College who also earned a Ph.D. at Columbia University.

From 1915 to 1920, the Douglases moved six times. Paul studied at Harvard University; taught at the University of Illinois and at Oregon's Reed College, served as a mediator of labor disputes for the Emergency Fleet Corporation of Pennsylvania and taught at University of Washington. When working for the Emergency Fleet Corporation he read John Woolman's journals. When teaching in Seattle, he joined the Religious Society of Friends.

In 1919, Douglas took a job teaching economics at the University of Chicago. Although Douglas enjoyed his job, his wife was unable to obtain a job at the university due to anti-nepotism rules. When she obtained a job at Smith College, in Massachusetts, she persuaded her husband to move the family there. He would then start teaching at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Douglas soon decided that the marriage situation was untenable^{[citation needed]} and, in 1930, the couple divorced, with Dorothy taking custody of their four children and Douglas returning to Chicago. The following year, Douglas met and married Emily Taft Douglas, daughter of sculptor Lorado Taft and distant cousin of former President William Howard Taft. Emily was a political activist, former actress, and subsequent one-term congresswoman at-large from Illinois (1945–47).

Douglas was listed as a supporter of banking reforms suggested by University of Chicago economists in 1933 that were later referred to as the "Chicago plan".^[2] In 1939, he coauthored with five other notable economists a draft proposal titled A Program for Monetary Reform. The Chicago plan and A Program for Monetary Reform generated much interest and discussion among lawmakers, but the suggested reforms did not result in any new legislation.

Douglas is probably best-known to economics students as the co-author of the 1928 article with Charles Cobb that first laid out the Cobb-Douglas production function.

Government service and city politics[link]

As the 1920s drew to a close, Douglas got more involved in politics. He served as an economic advisor to Republican Governor Gifford Pinchot of Pennsylvania and Democratic Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt of New York. Along with Chicago lawyer Harold L. Ickes, he launched a campaign against public utility tycoon Samuel Insull's stock market manipulations.^{[citation needed]} Working with the state legislature, he helped draft laws regulating utilities and establishing old-age pensions and unemployment insurance. By the early 1930s, he was vice chairman of the League for Independent Political Action, a member of the Farmer-Labor Party's national committee, and treasurer of the American Commonwealth Political Federation.

A registered Independent, Douglas felt that the Democratic Party was too corrupt and the Republican Party was too reactionary, views that he expressed in a 1932 book, The Coming of a New Party, in which he called for the creation of a party similar to the British Labour Party.^{[citation needed]} That year, he voted for Socialist candidate Norman Thomas for President of the United States.

After Roosevelt's victory in the election, Douglas, at the recommendation of his friend Harold Ickes, was appointed to serve on the Consumers' Advisory Board of the National Recovery Administration. In 1935, however, the Supreme Court ruled that the Administration was unconstitutional and it was abolished.

That year, Douglas made his first foray into electoral politics, campaigning for the endorsement of the local Republican Party for mayor of Chicago. Although the party endorsed someone else, Douglas continued to work with them to get their candidate elected to the city council from the 5th Ward. A strong Socialist candidate split the reform vote, however, and Democrat James Cusack, a member of the Cook County political machine, was elected.

Four years later, in 1939, Cusack came up for re-election, and Douglas joined a group of reform-minded Independents in attempting to select a suitable challenger. The group decided that Douglas was the best candidate for the position and he was summarily drafted. During the election, Mayor Ed Kelly, a leader of the machine who was in a tough fight for re-election, attempted to shore up his reputation by lending his support to Douglas' campaign. With Kelly's help, and his own dogged campaigning, Douglas managed a narrow victory over Cusack in a runoff election.

A reformer on a council full of machine politicians and grafters, Douglas usually found himself in the minority. His attempts to reform the public education system and lower public transportation fares were met with derision and he typically ended up on the losing end of 49-1 votes. "I have three degrees", Douglas once said after a particularly close-fought rout. "I have been associated with intelligent and intellectual people for many years. Some of these aldermen haven't gone through the fifth grade. But they're the smartest bunch of bastards I ever saw grouped together."^{[citation needed]}

In 1942, Douglas officially joined the Democratic Party and ran for its nomination for the United States Senate. He had the support of a cadre of left-wing activists, but the machine supported the state's at-large Congressman Raymond S. McKeough for the nomination. On the day of the primary, Douglas carried 99 of the state's 102 counties, but McKeough's strong support in Cook County allowed him to win a slim majority. He would go on to lose in the general election to incumbent Republican Senator C. Wayland Brooks.

Military service[link]

As alderman, Douglas had worked with Chicago Daily News publisher Frank Knox in fighting corruption in Chicago. Knox, who had been Republican vice-presidential nominee in 1936, had become Secretary of the Navy, thus responsible for both the navy and the Marine Corps.

Shortly after losing the primary, Douglas resigned from the Chicago City Council and, with the aid of Knox enlisted in the United States Marine Corps as a private at the age of 50. As a member of the 57th Street Meeting of the Quakers, Douglas recognized that joining the Marines was contrary to the traditional testimony of that group against war and offered to resign his membership; the meeting refused to release him.^[3] Promoted to corporal, then to sergeant, Douglas was kept stateside, writing training manuals, and giving inspirational speeches to troops. He was told he was "too old to go overseas 'as an enlisted man'".^{[citation needed]} With the aid of Knox, and of Knox assistant Adlai Stevenson, Douglas was commissioned as an officer, and was subsequently sent to the Pacific theater of operations with the 1st Marine Division.

On the second day of the Battle of Peleliu, Captain Douglas finally saw action when his unit waded into the fray. He earned a Bronze Star for carrying ammunition to the front lines under enemy fire and earned his first Purple Heart when he was grazed by shrapnel while carrying flamethrower ammunition to the front lines.^[4] In that six week battle, while investigating some random fire shootings, Douglas was shot at as he uncovered a two-foot-wide cave. He then killed the Japanese soldier inside at which point he wondered whether his enemy might be an economics professor from the University of Tokyo.^[5]

A few months later, during the Battle of Okinawa, Douglas earned his second Purple Heart. A volunteer rifleman in an infantry platoon, he was helping to carry wounded from 3rd Battalion 5th Marines along the Naha-Shuri line when a burst of machine gun fire tore through his left arm, severing the main nerve and leaving it permanently disabled.^[4]

After a thirteen-month stay in the National Naval Medical Center at Bethesda, Maryland, Douglas was given an honorable discharge as a Lieutenant Colonel with full disability pay.

Campaign for the Senate[link]

While Douglas had been serving in the Marines, his wife, Emily, had been nominated to run against isolationist Republican Congressman Stephen A. Day, who had succeeded Raymond McKeough. Although she had defeated Day in the 1944 election, a Republican upsurge had unseated her in 1946, the same year that Douglas left the Marines.

Deciding to enter politics once again, Douglas let it be generally known that he wished to seek the office of Governor of Illinois in 1948. Cook County machine boss Jacob Arvey, however, had a different plan. At the time, several scandals had broken out over the machine's activities, and Arvey decided that Douglas, a scholar and war hero with a reputation for incorruptibility, would be the perfect nominee to run against Senator Brooks. Since Brooks was hugely popular in the state and had a large campaign warchest, Arvey decided that there was no danger of Douglas winning.^{[citation needed]}. The top 2/3 of the Illinois Democratic slate for the 1948 election then became Paul Douglas for senator and Adlai Stevenson for governor.

At the outset of the campaign, Douglas' chances looked slim. As a delegate to the 1948 Democratic National Convention, he had tried to draft General Dwight D. Eisenhower for President, calling President Harry S. Truman "incompetent."^{[citation needed]}

Douglas, however, proved to be a tenacious campaigner. He stumped across the state in a Jeep station wagon for the Marshall Plan, civil rights, repeal of the Taft-Hartley Act, more public housing, and more social security programs. During six months of non-stop campaigning, he traveled more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) around the state and delivered more than 1,100 speeches. When Senator Brooks refused to debate him, Douglas debated an empty chair, switching from seat to seat as he provided both his own answers and Brooks'.

On Election Day, Douglas won an upset victory, taking 55 percent of the vote and defeating the incumbent by a margin of more than 407,000 votes. Stevenson won the race for governor by a wide margin, but there was no coattails effect from president to senator to governor; President Truman, campaigning for re-election, won the state by a slim 33,600 votes.

United States Senator[link]

Douglas (3rd from left) in the Oval Office (1949)

As a member of the Senate, Douglas soon earned a reputation as an unconventional liberal, concerned as much with fiscal discipline as with passing the Fair Deal. He was a passionate crusader for civil rights (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. described him as "the greatest of all the Senators"^{[citation needed]}) and earned fame as an opponent of pork barrel spending. Early in his first term, he grabbed headlines when, magnifying glass and atlas in hand, he strode to the Senate floor and, referring to a pork barrel project for the dredging of a river in Maine, defied anyone to find the river in the atlas. When Maine's Owen Brewster objected, and pointed out the millions of dollars in pork going to Illinois, Douglas offered to cut his state's share by 40%.

Appointed to chair the Joint Economic Committee, Douglas led a series of hard-hitting investigations into fiscal mismanagement in government and appeared on the cover of Time.^{[citation needed]} A profile of him in that issue was entitled "The Making of a Maverick."^[6]

As the 1952 presidential election approached, a groundswell of support arose for a Douglas candidacy for President. The National Editorial Association ranked him the second-most-qualified man, after Truman, to receive the Democratic presidential nomination, and a poll of 46 Democratic insiders revealed him to be a favorite for the nomination if Truman stepped aside.

Douglas, however, refused to be considered as a candidate for President, and instead backed the candidacy of Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee, a folksy, coonskin cap-wearing populist who had become famous for his televised investigations into organized crime. Douglas stumped across the country for Kefauver and stood next to him at the 1952 Democratic National Convention when Kefauver was defeated by Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson. Four years later, in 1956, he remained publicly neutral, feeling that openly opposing Stevenson's drive for the nomination and supporting Kefauver would damage his standing with his state party.^{[citation needed]}

In addition to his battles for equal rights for African Americans and less pork barrel spending, Douglas was also known for his fights for environmental protection, public housing, and truth in lending laws. He opposed real estate redlining, but was forced to allow a 1949 provision in a public housing bill making it possible for suburbs to reject low-income housing. He also authored the Consumer Credit Protection Act, a bill that forced lenders to state the terms of a loan in plain language and restricted the ability of lenders to discriminate on the basis of gender, race, or income. Although the bill was not passed during his term of office, it became law in 1968.

Defeat and retirement[link]

During the 1966 election, Douglas, then 74, ran for a fourth term in office against Republican Charles H. Percy, a wealthy businessman. A confluence of events, including Douglas' age, unhappiness within the Democratic Party^{[citation needed]} over his support for the Vietnam War and open housing laws, as well as sympathy for Percy over the recent, unsolved murder of his daughter, caused Douglas to lose the election in an upset.

After losing his seat in the Senate, Douglas taught at the New School, chaired a commission on housing, and wrote books, including an autobiography, In the Fullness of Time.

In the early 1970s, he suffered a stroke and withdrew from public life. On September 24, 1976, he died at his home. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered in Jackson Park near the University of Chicago.

Memorial[link]

A memorial marker at the Marine Corps training base at Parris Island reads:

See also[link]

	Biography portal
	World War II portal
	United States Marine Corps portal

• Douglas, A Program for Monetary Reform (1939)

Notes[link]

References[link]

Cobb, Charles W. and Paul H. Douglas. "A Theory of Production." American Economic Review 18: Suppl.(1928). pp 139-156.

External links[link]

• Paul Douglas at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• [www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/spcl/phdouglas.html Biographical Essay from University of Chicago]

v t e United States Senators from Illinois Class 2 Thomas McLean Baker Robinson McRoberts Semple S. Douglas Browning Richardson Yates Logan Davis Cullom Lewis McCormick Deneen Lewis Slattery Brooks P. Douglas Percy Simon Durbin Class 3 Edwards McLean Kane Ewing Young Breese Shields Trumbull Oglesby Logan Farwell Palmer Mason Hopkins Lorimer Sherman McKinley Glenn Dieterich Lucas Dirksen Smith Stevenson III Dixon Moseley Braun Fitzgerald Obama Burris Kirk

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (March 2010)

Marvin Sapp
Marvin Sapp performs during "The Experience with Marvin Sapp" at the Harold Washington Cultural Center in Chicago (photo by Raymond Boyd).
Background information
Birth name	Marvin Louis Sapp
Born	(1967-01-28) January 28, 1967 (age 45)
Origin	United States of America
Genres	Gospel, Contemporary Christian, Inspirational/Worship
Years active	1996-present
Website	http://www.marvinsappmusic.com

Pastor Marvin Louis Sapp (born on January 28, 1967) is an American Gospel music singer-songwriter who recorded with the group Commissioned during the 1990s before beginning a record-breaking solo career. Sapp is also the Founder and Senior pastor of Lighthouse Full Life Center Church, located in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Early years[link]

Sapp was born and raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and began singing in church at age four. He spent his teenage years singing with a number of Gospel groups and ensembles before being invited by Gospel singer Fred Hammond to sing with Commissioned in 1991 after Keith Staten left. Marvin Sapp appears on the group's albums Number 7, Matters of the Heart, and Irreplaceable Love. Sapp left in 1996 and was replaced by Marcus R. Cole.

Solo career[link]

In 1996, Sapp decided to establish himself as a contemporary gospel solo artist and has recorded seven albums. Sapp first achieved crossover fame with the release of "Never Would Have Made It" from the album Thirsty in 2007. It peaked at #14 on the U.S. Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, #82 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, and also at #1 on the Billboard Hot Gospel Songs chart. Thirsty debuted at #28 on the U.S. Billboard 200, #4 on the U.S. Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, and also #1 on the U.S. Billboard Top Gospel Albums. It has been certified gold by the RIAA due to the album selling over 500,000 copies, making it Sapp's best selling album of his solo career, and has so far sold over 712,000 copies.^[1] In 2009, Sapp won all seven Gospel Stellar Awards that he was nominated for.

Sapp recorded Thirsty 's follow-up album, Here I Am, on October 16, 2009 at Resurrection Life Church in Wyoming, Michigan and released it on March 16, 2010. With its release, Sapp became the all-time highest charting gospel artist in Billboard's 54-year history of tracking album sales.^[2] By selling approximately 76,000 copies of Here I Am its first week out, the album debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200 chart, making Here I Am the highest charting album ever by a gospel artist.^[1] Here I Am's lead single, "The Best in Me," which was co-written by the album's producer, Aaron Lindsey (Israel Houghton), peaked at #14 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, #1 on Billboard's Gospel Songs chart^[3] and reached #20 (with a bullet) on Billboard's Urban AC chart. On January 15, 2011, Marvin Sapp topped the list of winners during the 26th Annual Stellar Gospel Music Awards ^[4]

Personal life[link]

Sapp is the widower of MaLinda Sapp, a professor and psychologist, who served as the Administrative Pastor at Lighthouse Full Life Center Church. MaLinda Sapp died September 9, 2010, from complications of colon cancer.^[5] Sapp has three children: Marvin II, Mikaila, and Madisson. On March 21, 2009, Sapp was initiated into the Grand Rapids Alumni Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. Sapp likes to appear in a church in Douglas, Georgia, called Hightower Memorial Temple. Sapp also has been awarded doctorate degrees from two non-accredited institutions, a Doctor of Divinity Degree from Aenon Bible College and the Doctor of Ministry Degree from Friends International Christian University.

Discography[link]

Solo albums[link]

Singles[link]

Solo music awards[link]

BET Awards[link]

GMA Dove Awards[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official Website
• Fusemix.com | MARVIN SAPP BRINGS HOME TOP HONORS AT 26th ANNUAL STELLAR GOSPEL MUSIC AWARDS

Lupe Fiasco
Lupe Fiasco at WGCI Radio, Chicago, Illinois.
Background information
Birth name	Wasalu Muhammad Jaco
Born	(1982-02-16) February 16, 1982 (age 30) Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Origin	Chicago, Illinois
Genres	Hip hop
Occupations	Rapper, producer, songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, keyboard
Years active	2006–present
Labels	Atlantic
Associated acts	Child Rebel Soldier, Japanese Cartoon, Matthew Santos, B.o.B, Kanye West, All City Chess Club, Sway DaSafo, Pharrell
Website	www.lupefiasco.com

Wasalu Muhammad Jaco (born February 16, 1982), better known by his stage name Lupe Fiasco ( /ˈluːpeɪ/ LOO-pay), is an American rapper, record producer, and entrepreneur. He rose to fame in 2006 following the success of his debut album, Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor. He also performs as the frontman of rock band Japanese Cartoon under his real name. As an entrepreneur, Fiasco is the chief executive officer of 1st and 15th Entertainment.

Raised in Chicago, Fiasco developed an interest in hip hop after initially disliking the genre for its use of vulgarity. After adopting the name Lupe Fiasco and recording songs in his father's basement, 19-year-old Fiasco joined a group called Da Pak. The group disbanded shortly after its inception, and Fiasco soon met rapper Jay-Z who helped him sign a record deal with Atlantic Records. In 2006, Fiasco released his debut album Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor on the label, which received three Grammy nominations. He released his second album, Lupe Fiasco's The Cool, in December 2007. The lead single "Superstar" peaked at number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. He released Lasers on March 8, 2011 after a two-year delay. The album's lead single "The Show Goes On" peaked at number 9 on the chart, thus becoming his most successful single since "Superstar".

In addition to music, Fiasco has pursued other business ventures, including fashion. He runs two clothing lines, Righteous Kung-Fu and Trilly & Truly; he has designed sneakers for Reebok. He has been involved with charitable activities, including the Summit on the Summit expedition, and in 2010 he recorded a benefit single for victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Fiasco is also noted for his anti-establishment views, which he has expressed in both interviews and his music.

Life and career[link]

1982–98: Early life[link]

Fiasco was born Wasalu Muhammad Jaco on February 16, 1982 in Chicago, Illinois.^[2][3] Born of West African descent,^[4] he was one of nine children of Shirley, a gourmet chef, and Gregory, an engineer.^[1][3] His father, a member of the Black Panther Party, was a prolific African drummer, karate teacher, operating plant engineer, and owner of karate schools and army surplus stores.^[5][6][7] Fiasco was raised Muslim on the West Side of Chicago on Madison Terrace housing project.^[6][8] At the age of three, Fiasco began taking martial arts classes.^[1] His parents divorced when he was five, and he went on to live with his mother, but his father still remained an important part of his life. He described his father's influence over the family by saying, "After school, my father would come and get us and take us out into the world—one day, we're listening to N.W.A, the next day we're listening to Ravi Shankar, the next day, he's teaching us how to shoot an AK-47, the next day, we're at karate class, the next day, we're in Chinatown...".^[6]

In sixth grade, he went to live with his father full-time in Harvey, Illinois.^[9] His father lived next door to a crack house and taught Fiasco to use guns to defend himself from drug dealers.^[1] Despite his unstable upbringing, Fiasco states that he was well-educated as a child, asserting that his parents exposed him to a diverse array of subjects and that reading was highly encouraged in his household.^[1] As a teenager, Fiasco participated in Academic Decathlon competitions.^[3] His mother described him by saying, "He was a great spirited child. Smart, a bit complex; he kind of was a loner; he didn't hang with a lot of people...He always had the glasses. Always had a book bag over his shoulder and some type of a writing tablet."^[3] Fiasco initially disliked hip hop music for its use of vulgarity, and preferred to listen to jazz; he idolized clarinet player Benny Goodman.^[1][8] His struggle to learn to play an instrument led him to create poetry instead, which led to his interest in the lyrical aspects of music.^[10]

He began rapping his poems in the eighth grade, and upon hearing Nas' 1996 album, It Was Written, began to pursue hip hop.^[7] While attending Thornton Township High School, Fiasco met gang member Bishop G. The two became friends due to their shared interest in music.^[3] Fiasco's father allowed him and Bishop to make mixtapes in his basement, and the two gained notoriety at the school for their music. However, they were kicked off stage during their first performance because their eclectic musical style was not embraced by the hip hop community.^[3] Early in his career, he went by stage names Little Lu and Lu tha Underdog.^[11] Growing up, Fiasco was given the nickname "Lu", the last part of his first name, by his mother. "Lupe" is an extension of this nickname, which he borrowed from a friend from high school. "Fiasco" is a reference to The Firm song "Firm Fiasco"; the rapper "liked the way it looked on paper."^[12] He also said of his name, "You know how rappers always have names like MC Terrorist—like they're 'terrorizing' other rappers? I knew fiasco meant a great disaster or something like that, but I didn't realize that the person named Fiasco would be the disaster, and that you should be calling other MCs fiascos—not yourself...it kind of humbled me in a sense. It taught me like, 'Yo, stop rushing, or you're going to have some fiascos.'"^[11]

1999–2005: Career beginnings[link]

Lupe Fiasco performing at the Intonation Music Festival, 2006.

When Fiasco was 17, he began creating music as a solo artist in his father's basement, even though his parents were not keen on having their son be a rapper. He scoured flea markets and secondhand stores, where he was able to find an old mixing board and a record player, stacks of vinyl records, and mic stands.^[11] At age 19, Fiasco joined a group called Da Pak, which was influenced by other California gangsta rappers such as Spice 1 and Ice Cube. Da Pak signed to Epic Records and released one single before splitting up.^[2] Fiasco later described the experience, saying "We had a song out about cocaine, guns, and women, and I would go to a record store and look at it and think, 'What are you doing?' I felt like a hypocrite. I was acting like this rapper who would never be judged, and I had to destroy that guy. Because what Lupe Fiasco says on this microphone is going to come back to Wasalu Jaco. When the music cuts off, you have to go home and live with what you say."^[13]

After turning away from gangsta rap, he developed a greater appreciation of the lyricism of Jay-Z and Nas. His mother also gave him a record of the influential group The Watts Prophets, one of the first bands to use spoken words with music.^[14] Although he was without a group for the first time, Fiasco continued to record music. One of these first self-recorded tracks was "Could Have Been", which described the career options he could have pursued had he not begun rapping.^[15] He viewed the song as a turning point in his career that marked a drastic change in the subject matter of his music.^[15] "Could Have Been" was released as a demo tape and discovered by MTV despite the fact that no video was created for the song.^[15]

Fiasco later signed a solo deal with Arista Records, but was dropped when president and CEO L.A. Reid was fired.^[2] During his short tenure at Arista, he met 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.^[14] Jay-Z later helped him get a record deal at Atlantic Records.^[14] While Fiasco was working on his debut solo album, he released his mixtape series Fahrenheit 1/15 over the internet, which gained notoriety by word-of-mouth. At this time, Fiasco's remix of Kanye West's "Jesus Walks" entitled "Muhammad Walks", became very popular in the Muslim community.^[16]

He remixed another one of West's songs, "Diamonds from Sierra Leone", and renamed it as "Conflict Diamonds". With this remix, Fiasco wished to raise awareness of the conflict diamond business.^[17] This caught West's attention, and he asked Fiasco to perform on his song "Touch the Sky" off his album Late Registration. The song, which sampled Curtis Mayfield's "Move On Up", became a hit in the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number forty-two.^[18] After this success his first single "Kick, Push" was released earlier than expected. The song was a love story about two people sharing a passion for skateboarding, a topic generally not discussed in hip hop.^[19] Fiasco explained, "[Skateboarding culture is] just as deep as hip-hop. I'm not the greatest skateboarder, but I'm a damn good rapper, so I made a damn good skateboarding song."^[19] The single, and its accompanying music video, helped Fiasco get attention in the hip-hop community and was later nominated for two 2007 Grammy Awards.^[10][20] During this time, he had guest appearances on singles on Tha' Rayne's "Kiss Me" and "Didn't You Know" and also K Foxx's 2004 "This Life".

[edit] 2006–08: Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor and The Cool

Jay-Z assisted him in the production of what would become his debut album Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor.^[21] The title of the album is a reference to 'Food and Liquor' stores common in Chicago. He explains, "The store is where everything is at...Food to me represents growth and progression. You eat food and you get strength. You need it to live. Liquor is not a necessity; it is a want. It destroys you. It breaks you down. I can see why it's prohibited in Islam...I've always felt like liquor represents the bad, the food represents the good, and everyone is made up of a little of both."^[22] Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor was officially released on September 19, 2006. The album featured production from Jay-Z, Kanye West, Mike Shinoda, The Neptunes, Prolyfic, among others. The record spawned the singles "Kick, Push," "I Gotcha" and "Daydreamin'" featuring Jill Scott. The critically lauded album was later nominated for three Grammy Awards including Best Rap Album.^[3] Fiasco won "Best Urban/Alternative Performance" for "Daydreamin'".^[23] In the same year, he was voted by GQ magazine as the "Breakout Man of the Year."^[15] He also received four BET Hip Hop Award nominations, and it made it to number eight on Billboard 200 and number two on Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.^[24]

In 2007, Fiasco announced his second album, Lupe Fiasco's The Cool, a concept album that expands on the story of the track of the same name on his first album. While recording this album, Fiasco's father died of type II diabetes and his business partner, Charles "Chilly" Patton, was convicted of attempting to supply heroin to a drug ring and was eventually sentenced to 44 years in a correctional facility.^[5][26] These events greatly affected Fiasco and the subsequent themes discussed on the record.^[25] The disc was released in December 2007 in United States while the first single and video from the album, "Superstar" featuring Matthew Santos was released the first week of November 2007. Lupe Fiasco's The Cool, a concept album that expanded upon recurring themes in Food & Liquor, is about "a hustler who dies and comes back to life, only to get robbed by two little kids with the same gun that killed him."^[27] For the record, Fiasco decided not to work with well-known producers as he considered it to be "too expensive", noting the commercial failure of his Pharrell collaboration, "I Gotcha".^[27]

Fiasco performing in Commerce City, Colorado on July 19, 2008.

Lupe Fiasco's The Cool was very well received by critics and was referred to as "one of the year’s best hip-hop albums" by The New York Times.^[28] "Superstar", a semi-autobiographical account of his rise to fame, was released as the first single from the album, and peaked at number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100.^[15][29] Baseball's Hanley Ramirez, Troy Tulowitzki, Ryan Zimmerman, Gerald Laird and Ryan Braun have used "Superstar" as their at-bat song.^[30] The album's second single (released in the UK in April 2008) was "Paris, Tokyo" – a song based around Fiasco's experiences of touring the world between his first and second albums.^[15] Moreover, in 2007 it was revealed that Fiasco, Kanye West and Pharrell Williams had formed a group called Child Rebel Soldier.^[31][32] CRS initially released one single, entitled "US Placers" and featuring a Thom Yorke sample. In an interview with The Village Voice, Fiasco revealed that he was writing a novel about a window washer, aptly titled Reflections of a Window Washer.^[33] In 2008, Fiasco and his band 1500 or Nothin joined Kanye West's Glow in the Dark Tour which also featured Rihanna and N.E.R.D. The tour stopped in several cities, including his hometown of Chicago. In 2008, MTV named Fiasco the 7th Hottest MC in the Game^[34] and announced that he was remixing The Cool with French electro house act Justice.^[35]

[edit] 2009–present: Lasers and Food & Liquor 2

Lupe Fiasco performing at the Ottawa Bluesfest on July 17, 2011.

At a performance in New Zealand in February 2010, Fiasco performed new material from the then-titled We Are Lasers for the first time.^[36] He claimed that the album was complete and waiting for a release date from his label, Atlantic Records.^[36] However, Atlantic feared that the record lacked commercial singles, and presented Fiasco with songs the label wanted him to record.^[37] Fiasco declined, as he was told he would not have any ownership of the songs.^[37] He explained, "I don't think the label cares about an album...People just want their number-one record."^[37] For six months, the cause of the album's delay remained unclear to the public. In response, Fiasco's fans created an online petition demanding that Atlantic Records release Lasers. The petition garnered considerable attention on hip hop blog sites as well as over 16,000 signatures.^[37] Fiasco stated that the petition "brought [him] to tears", and in response to the petition, Fiasco released a song titled "B.M.F-Building Minds Faster" to thank his fans.^[37]

While waiting for Lasers to be released, Fiasco completed another album, titled Food and Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album.^[38] He is unsure if the Food and Liquor II will ever be released, though he released the song "Go To Sleep" from the record "out of desperation" to put out new music.^[38] He also pursued numerous side projects in the midst of the delay. In April 2010, Fiasco formed the hip hop collective All City Chess Club along with Pharrell, Asher Roth, B.o.B., The Cool Kids, Charles Hamilton, Blu, Diggy Simmons, Wale, J. Cole, & Dosage.^[39] The group has so far made one song, a remix of Fiasco's "I'm Beamin".^[40] Additionally, On July 16, 2010, Fiasco released his rock side-project Japanese Cartoon's debut EP In The Jaws Of The Lords Of Death. Japanese Cartoon was influenced by a variety of musical genres, with Fiasco saying, "I’ve always been a fan of all music...Hip hop is just something I actually know how to do but I always had aspirations to participate in other forms of music. Once I got to create some hip hop, it was like, 'Okay, what am I going to do now?' So my artistic side was like, 'Yo, let's do some rock music.'"^[38]

More than two and a half years after the album's completion, Lasers was released on March 8, 2011. The first single off of the record was "The Show Goes On", which samples "Float On" by Modest Mouse. "The Show Goes On" debuted at number 57 on the Billboard Hot 100.^[41] The lead single peaked at number 9 since then. The producers involved on the album include Alex Da Kidd, King David "The Future" and Jerry "Wonda" Duplessis, while featured artists include Skylar Grey, Trey Songz, and John Legend.^[15] Upon the album's release, Lasers debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart, with first-week sales of 204,000 copies.^[42][43] Despite the album's commercial success, Lasers received mixed reviews from most music critics.^[44] Writing for Allmusic, editor Andy Kellman gave the record three out of five stars and criticized its "lumbering, overwrought choruses", writing that "If there is one MC whose rhymes should not be dulled for the sake of chasing pop trends, it’s Lupe Fiasco".^[45] Lasers, however, was nominated Best Rap Album, with "The Show Goes On" nominated for Best Rap Performance, and Best Rap Song at the 54th Grammy Awards. Lupe Fiasco later involved himself at the Occupy Wall Street movement where he donated tents and released a poem in support of the protesters. He also released his "Friend of the People" mixtape on Thanksgiving Day. Fiasco has since announced the completion of his Food & Liquor 2 album, as well as work being put into a joint album with fellow Child Rebel Soldier & All City Chess Club member Pharrell.^[46]

Lyrical style[link]

Fiasco, along with rappers Common, Rhymefest, and Talib Kweli, has been credited as a pioneer of the conscious hip hop movement, which focuses on social issues.^[47] Subjects touched upon on Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor include absent parents, terrorism, Islam and religion, war, and prostitution.^[47] Fiasco attributes his interest in social issues to his highly cultured upbringing, as he describes his mother as "very intellectual" and his father as a "Renaissance man".^[47] He rejects the misogyny common in hip hop, which he discusses in the song "Hurt Me Soul".^[48] Despite this, Fiasco is strongly opposed to censorship in music: "If we're going to [censor things] that are offensive, then we are going to have to blind and deafen everyone. Come on, man. Let's focus on education and literacy and poverty."^[49]

Fiasco employs various lyrical techniques in his songwriting. The rapper views hip-hop as a medium conducive to storytelling, a primary element of his lyrics due to his background in theater.^[47] He wrote plays as a child, which had a strong effect on his songwriting approaches.^[47] Fiasco utilizes both metaphors and literal statements in his work, which he describes as "getting from point A to point B in as few words as possible".^[47] His use of metaphors is exemplified by the song "Gotta Eat" from Lupe Fiasco's The Cool, which is told from the perspective of a cheeseburger and addresses the poor nutrition in black communities in the United States.^[26]

Philanthropy and business ventures[link]

In 2001, Fiasco co-founded 1st & 15th Entertainment with Charles "Chilly" Patton. 1st & 15th is a vanity record label under Atlantic named after the traditional twice-monthly paycheck dates.^[14] Although Fiasco was initially to serve as vice-president, he became CEO after Patton was convicted on drug charges.^[50][51] Fiasco and singer Matthew Santos were two of the most recognizable signed artists. In November 2009, Fiasco announced he would discontinue the 1st & 15th 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?'"^[52]

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. Fiasco also runs a fashion line out of Righteous Kung-Fu called Trilly & Truly.^[53] He has sponsored a skateboard team and has endorsements from DGK Skateboards.^[54] 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.^[53]

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.^[55] On January 7, 2010, Fiasco joined musician Kenna, actress Jessica Biel, and other celebrities and activists for an expedition to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro called Summit on the Summit to raise awareness of the billions of people worldwide who lack access to sanitary drinking water.^[56] 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 disaster.^[57]

Political views[link]

Fiasco is noted for his anti-establishment views. In an interview with Stephen Colbert on the satirical news show The Colbert Report, Fiasco stated his credo on political philosophy: "You should criticize power even if you agree with it."^[58] In another interview in June 2011 on the CBS program What's Trending, Fiasco discussed the political content of his music, stating, "My fight against terrorism, to me, the biggest terrorist is Obama and the United States of America. I'm trying to fight the terrorism that's actually causing the other forms of terrorism. You know, the root cause of terrorism is the stuff the U.S. government allows to happen. The foreign policies that we have in place in different countries that inspire people to become terrorists."^[59] He additionally criticized Obama for his stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.^[60] Despite his strong political opinions, Fiasco does not vote in U.S. elections nor does he involve himself in U.S. politics as he believes they are "meaningless."^[58]

Discography[link]

• Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor (2006)
• Lupe Fiasco's The Cool (2007)
• Lasers (2011)
• Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album, Part 1 (2012)^[38][61]
• Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album, Part 2 (TBA)^[61]
• TBA (with Pharrell Williams) (2012)

See also[link]

• List of awards and nominations received by Lupe Fiasco

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Biography Today - Lupe Fiasco (2009). Omnigraphics. Detroit, Michigan. ISBN-978-0-7808-1052-5.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Lupe Fiasco

• Official website
• Lupe Fiasco on Twitter
• Lupe Fiasco at the Internet Movie Database
• The People Speak at the Internet Movie Database

Skylar Grey
Skylar Grey singing at the Tibet Talk For World Peace in July 2011
Background information
Birth name	Holly Brook Hafermann[1]
Also known as	Holly Brook[2]
Born	(1986-02-23) February 23, 1986 (age 26)
Origin	Mazomanie, Wisconsin, United States
Genres	Pop, soul, folk rock, rock, hip hop
Occupations	Singer, songwriter, record producer
Instruments	Vocals, piano, guitar
Years active	2004–present
Labels	KIDinaKORNER, Interscope, Machine Shop
Website	www.skylargreymusic.com

Holly Brook Hafermann (born February 23, 1986) better known by her stage name Skylar Grey, is an five-time Grammy-nominated American multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, and record producer. Grey was signed to Machine Shop Recordings under the name Holly Brook. She released her debut album as Holly Brook, Like Blood Like Honey, in 2006. She co-wrote the three versions of "Love the Way You Lie" (for Eminem and Rihanna) with Alex da Kid, who signed her to his Wonderland Music label. She was featured as a guest vocalist on Fort Minor's "Where'd You Go" and "Be Somebody", Diddy-Dirty Money's "Coming Home", Dr. Dre's "I Need a Doctor", Lupe Fiasco's "Words I Never Said" and Kaskade's "Room for Happiness".