With last year seeing the imprisonment of friend/co-executive Chilly, 2008 has started with more turmoil within Lupe Fiasco’s 1st and 15th crew. Lupe and (apparently, former) in-house producer Prolyfic have exchanged barbs about the other’s business practices in the OkayPlayer message boards.
A user on the forums started a thread that inquired why Prolyfic didn’t have any beats on Lupe’s latest album, The Cool, when he had produced standouts like “Just Might Be OK” and the Jay-Z-featured “Pressure” on 2006’s Food & Liquor. Prolyfic—who posts under the name “Prolyfic…yea that umm Pro”—responded, saying that while he doesn’t want to be responsible for Lupe losing anymore fans, that he “had a shitty shitty extremely contract along with everyone else who’s ever signed/is signed to that company. The only ppl that the structure of that company is set up to eat is Lupe and chilly everyone else is flat fucking broke.” He continued to say that the label didn’t meet his means contractually, and that an ensuing legal battle found him leaving the label with “nothing but [his] freedom.”
Lupe, who has been particularly active in the forums as of late, responded by starting a thread of his own, entitled “And In The Name of FNF And It’s Crew…” Posting as “FNF UP UP AND AWAY,” he says, “NEVER have we taken anything from of our artists or producers unfairly…If anything we give TOO much in the eyes of the industry and based on common industry standards & practices (and alot of times we are hurt by having this mentality: professionally, financially & personally).” He goes on to say that the label’s producers are all multiple-Grammy nominated, and that FNF implements a “Home First” system that emphasizes in-house producers over those from freelance beatmakers.
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Prolyfic responded, implying that Lupe didn’t have a direct hand in the label’s practices—something that Lupe’s OKP signature of “Co-Owner/VP Of Operations & Acting CEO of 1st&15t Ent.” conflicts with. “Did your publicist write this for you to say or what, bcuz it is a complete opposite fabrication of what the company does to it’s artist(s). … Have you ever read ANY of our contracts? When we was on the phone and you said, ‘This Pro shit is whatever,” did you realize that you was telling me that my son starving is “whatever?” Did you even have a motherfucking clue? Or did u just follow whatever chilly told you without finding out for yourself ?”
Neither Lupe or Prolyfic could be reached for comment.
OkayPlayer is an online community started by The Roots’ drummer ?uestlove in 1999. The site’s message boards are known for artists such as ?uest, Rhymefest, 9th Wonder and countless others post and interact with other users, and for their musically-inclined userbase. The site has also been critiqued by Lupe and others as a hub for “hip hop elitism,” which culminated when Lupe caught flack from users after admitting that he hadn’t listened to A Tribe Called Quest’s Midnight Marauders album. Said admission evolved after Lupe’s much-publicized flub during his performance of the album’s popular “Electric Relaxation” single during last year’s VH1’s Hip-Hop Honors.
