Lupe Fiasco Catches Flack From Former Producer

With last year seeing the imprisonment of friend/co-executive Chilly, 2008 has started with more turmoil within Lupe Fiascos 1st and 15th crew. Lupe and (apparently, former) in-house producer Prolyfic have exchanged barbs about the others business practices in the OkayPlayer message boards.

A user on the forums started a thread that inquired why Prolyfic didnt have any beats on Lupes latest album, The Cool, when he had produced standouts like Just Might Be OK and the Jay-Z-featured Pressure on 2006s Food & Liquor. Prolyficwho posts under the name Prolyficyea that umm Proresponded, saying that while he doesnt 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 didnt 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 Its 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 labels producers are all multiple-Grammy nominated, and that FNF implements a Home First system that emphasizes in-house producers over those from freelance beatmakers.

Prolyfic responded, implying that Lupe didnt have a direct hand in the labels practicessomething that Lupes 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 sites 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 hadnt listened to A Tribe Called Quests Midnight Marauders album. Said admission evolved after Lupes much-publicized flub during his performance of the albums popular Electric Relaxation single during last years VH1s Hip-Hop Honors.