During a performance of “Kick, Push II” at a recent show, Lupe Fiasco forgot the words to the track and playfully chided the audience for pirating his debut studio album, Food & Liquor.
“I forgot the words,” he admitted with a laugh, telling his DJ to and live drummer to run it back. He then revealed that he also forgot the second verse of the track, with the audience laughing along.
“That’s why I’m glad this was a bonus track on the album,” he said. “Because the album was meant to be over at ‘The Emperor’s Soundtrack,’ it was supposed to be done. Let’s put some more records on here because you dirty bastards who downloaded [it] illegally.”
Lupe Fiasco’s debut album, Food & Liquor, was released in September 2006 but leaked in April that same year. The leak was met with a positive response from critics and fans, but Fiasco was understandably frustrated by the leak and decided to add additional tracks.
“You fucked everything up, you fucked it all up, man,” he continued. “We supposed to be in stadiums right now, but you fucked it up! Because you were 12, you went on Limewire because you thought you were cute and you didn’t have any money. ‘Let me just download this n***a’s album, and just fuck his whole career up in ways we can’t even understand,’ right? So now, you get upset with me for forgetting the verses of songs that shouldn’t even fucking exist at venues that we shouldn’t even be at! Yes, I blame you!”
Despite trolling the audience, he maintained that it’s “okay,” and that he has love for his fans.
“We gon’ rock, we gon’ ride… So what I would like to do is rewind time,” he continued. “I would like to rewind time and go back to a time before… before Food & Liquor existed. Before some of you rotten bastards got on that young internet. But all is forgiven… it cost me a… Nevermind.”
The album was ultimately met with a positive response when it officially dropped, and debuted at No. 8 on the Billboard 200 chart, selling 81,000 copies in its first week. This is before streaming was accounted for on the charts, too, so it’s undoubtedly a respectable debut week for the record. It was later certified gold by the RIAA in 2021.
Lupe has additional Food & Liquor 20th anniversary shows slated for New York and Chicago in June.
