Rapper Lupe Fiasco Calls President Obama a Baby Killer

Added by Denise on July 30, 2012.
Saved under News, Politics, Pop-Culture
Tags: CIA, military, Obama Administration, united-states

Lupe Fiasco is known for being a politically conscious rapper. While other rappers are spittin’ nonsense about dimes, rims, and diamonds, Lupe is rhyming about politics and presidents. Lupe doesn’t dwell in a pretend world of rented Maybachs and Bentleys, he’s too aware for that. He deals in real life and real struggles, and writes about what he sees from his perspective, and  his interpretations.
Lupe has a lot to say about a lot of issues, but he’s saved some of his most unkind words for President Obama. In a radio interview with Philly’s Power 99, Lupe outright called Obama is a baby killer.
“One hand, you have someone who is a great speaker, but kills little children – our president,” he said. “I’m talking about ordering a drone attack. Ordering drone attacks that go and kill mothers, innocent bystanders, children. Militants too, but the collateral damage. You’re responsible for that, too.”
Lupe doesn’t accept the excuse that the children killed during drone attacks were not the intended targets.
“Drug dealers can say the same thing. I didn’t mean to kill all the people in the restaurant. I was just trying to get that one dude who killed my cousin. Just so happened that that little girl was there. Same thing.”
It is no secret that drone attacks have increased under President Obama, and as Conor Friedersdorf of The Atlantic points out, drone attacks raise questions that the Obama administration has refused to answer:

Should the criteria for being put on a kill list remain secret, or should there be consistent standards that are promulgated and debated? Does the Constitutional guarantee of due process and Article III treason provisions imply a judicial role when American citizens are placed on a kill list, or is the Obama Administration correct that intra-executive branch deliberations can satisfy the requirement of due process? Should the strikes be carried out by the U.S. military or the CIA? In determining how many of the people we kill are innocent civilians, should we presume that all dead males of military age were in fact enemies of the United States? 

And since law enforcement agencies are now buying drones as well, this should send a chill down the spine of every American, but especially black Americans, who are already being stopped and frisked in NYC without cause.
Before you say that Lupe is out of line, think about the intended role of a rapper, or any artist for that matter. Compare Lupe’s speaking truth to power to Jay-Z’s bragging about having “Obama on the text.”  Which is real hip-hop? Is hip-hop supposed to speak truth to power or cozy up to it? Or does anyone even care anymore?