Lupe Fiasco Explains How Atlantic Records Owns Rights To "Kick, Push" Because They Bought Its Sample
Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images
Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images
The rapper discussed the mistreatment he faced while signed to Atlantic Records during an Instagram Live with Joe Budden.
"Kick, Push," arguably Lupe Fiasco's most well-known song, is partially owned by his former label, Atlantic Records.
READ: Lupe Fiasco Says He Would Destroy Eminem In A Rap Battle, Discusses Nike’s Colin Kaepernick Campaign
During an Instagram Live with Joe Budden, Fiasco explained how the label intentionally affected promotion for "Kick, Push," as well as the lengths they went to own some of the rights to the hit single.
First, the rapper touched on how it was him that got "Kick, Push" on the radio — courtesy of Chicago hip-hop and R&B radio station WGCI — and how Atlantic Records CEO Craig Kallman called the radio station and told them to stop playing the record.
"Once it got out, he got confronted with the shit — like, 'Yo, the PD at WGCI reached out to us and told us that he got a call from you that said to slow down or stop playing the song,'" Fiasco said. "So all the A&R staff was there...asking Craig, 'Why the fuck would you do that?' And he said so he could give the label more time to catch up."
"You know why he did it?" Fiasco then asked Budden. "Because he didn't have nothing to do with 'Kick, Push.' He didn't have any publishing, he didn't have any royalty rights, he didn't bring the producer — he had nothing to do with it."
From there, Fiasco claimed that the label traveled to the Philippines to find the artist whose song "Kick, Push" samples — singer Celeste Legaspi's "Bolero Medley" — and purchase the rights to the song.
"They flew down to the Philippines...and bought the entire record from her," he said. "They actually own the song that 'Kick, Push' is sampled from."
"It's genius," the rapper said elsewhere when discussing how far the label went to own partial rights to the song. "It's cold blooded...grow it, sell it, and own the pawn shop that niggas is stealing the TVs and selling the shit back to you so you can sell — genius."
Fiasco was supposed to embark on a Food & Liquor tour scheduled to begin last month, but the dates have been rescheduled amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
