与XXL杂志新访问的细节，谈到和BOB的牛肉，网络和自己的专辑【lupe吧】

Would “Airplanes” and “Nothin’ On You?” have been just as huge if they were your songs?
No.
Why?
B.O.B. made those records. He took those records where they needed to go. To say, if it was my records would they be different. For what? There is no way to know. When it first happened, it was me and Bob did the second verse. It was supposed to be me and Bob. Bob’s verse was what they wanted, it was like, ‘Why don’t you do that?’ I’m like, ‘Why don’t you give it to Bob.’ I remember Lyor was like, ‘Why did you let that record go?’ I’m like, ‘It’s the same money. It’s the same money I’m not going to get. It’s the same money you’re going to get. And you broke an artist, as what you should be doing. The way you did?’ Eh, I can’t really rock with those records because of the way they did the business.
For me, it’s like, Who knows if it would be as big with me on it. Probably not. I’m already branded in a certain way. You got the people who **** with Lupe and people who don’t **** with Lupe. You have a whole industry that don’t **** with Lupe. Some are malicious but they haven’t been acquainted with me and they’ve seem me do other things so they put me over here. It’s like, I’m not Nelly, I’m dead prez. The people who rock with Nelly aren’t as quick to rock with dead prez. But if it’s someone new, they are open to the forces of the market. With me, there are certain records that I would do that the radio stations wouldn’t play because it’s Lupe. It instantly starts to be, ‘Well, is it going to be weird?’ But then you get Bob and it’s like, ‘Who is this B.O.B. dude?’
承认了Nothin' On You和Airplane在自己手中不会比在BOB手中更火，因为BOB做出来的就是公司和大家想要听到的流行音乐，所以他也算是因为觉得不想妥协做流行的音乐无奈放弃了这两首歌。
但是他也承认自己没有预料到这两首歌会这么火。自己做说不定火不了，因为自己基本定型了。BOB还像白纸一样可塑性比较高。

On the music business:
It destroys people. People come out of the music business ****ed up because you have to become so numb to things and you have to do things completely against your morals. You are putting out the most negative shit in the world. I am specifically speaking about urban music departments. You have families and little kids and you are putting out records about people getting killed, people selling massive amounts of dope and all this negative crazy shit and you think that’s cool? And you are celebrating it like you are not having an impact on society? To them, it just becomes a job. It’s like the dude who just makes Coca-Cola or the guy who makes gas and doesn’t think about the environment.
The things that you see specifically in the music business, it’s so visceral and so ****ed up the things that people do and the things that people go through and the integrity and the work is completely stripped away so you don’t know who wrote what. You don’t know if that person is real. It’s like when you finally meet your hero, you realize he ain’t shit because they had nothing to do with the process. Some people are the greatest people on Earth with good hearts and will get in the studio and make the most negative music in the world for the sake of success. That’s what the music business does to you. That’s what capitalism does to you.
When I look at how the product we create is the soundtrack to people’s lives, this shit is everywhere. I hate the music business with all my heart. I hate this shit. In the midst of doing Lasers, I was in Buffalo, New York and I called my partner and was like, ‘I quit. I can’t do this shit no more.’ Not even specifically because of what was going with Lasers. I’ve been in the music business for 10 years so I’ve seen all type of shit. You damn near 30 and you look back and are like, What the **** am I doing? This business is bananas. It rips families apart, rips relationships apart, just destroys shit. You find yourself in some hotel room in the middle of nowhere and you’re like, What the **** am I doing here? I was like, ‘I’m done.’ He was like, ‘C’mon man.’ Pep talk this. The only reason why I’m still in the music business is my partner Chill.
大概翻译下：音乐业现在在侵蚀着听音乐的人的大脑，你想要做出好的音乐就必须对事物麻木，做出不符合你道德准则的事情。比如你有可爱的家庭，天真的孩子但是你的音乐必须是和虚无主义契合的－比如毙了几个人，吸食了多少毒榀。这就是（万恶的）资本主义对人做的事情。
当我意识到我们的音乐对人们生活的影响是如此糟糕的时候，我对音乐业感到彻底的厌恶，当我lasers录到一半的时候我甚至给我的搭档打电话说：“哥不干了，哥受不了了。”而且这还不单单是lasers的风波，我在音乐圈里混了10年了，神马都见过。我都快30了有时候回顾下昨天会觉得，老天我都做了些什么啊。这个商业吧就好像是香蕉，它四分五裂，使人际的关系四分五裂，它摧毁很多东西。我半夜醒来在旅馆想，我去我在干什么？觉得自己玩完了。有人鼓励我。我唯一还在这里撑着的原因是因为我的好搭档－chill。

How confident are you in your rapping skills?
I think I’m pretty good. I’m just starting to find technically what I’m best at from a technical side. It’s kind of hard to explain because I can’t give you the context.
你觉得自己的说唱水平如何？
寡人觉得还不错啊。

You were upset a few years back after you were omitted from MTV’s ‘Hottest MCs list. Then you put out “Fire,” the Enemy of The State mixtape and “SLR.” What do records like that mean to you?
They have a purpose. They are like demonstrations. It’s like showing off. It’s not really about telling a story or pushing an agenda even though I will sprinkle that stuff in here and there. It’s about showing the skill level off, like metaphors, double entendres, all of that good fun stuff. I know fans enjoy that. I don’t necessarily think that if I did a whole album of that I would sell records. It’s definitely something that I think is needed. If people leave you off of lists or people doubt that you can rap or think you have fallen off, it’s nice to have that avenue where you can step in and drop some 39-metaphor song.
听说前几天你因为被MTV最火的MC名单上消失很不爽，差点搞出牛肉来，对你来说这意味着神马啊？
他们是有意义的，他们能表明你的说唱的很多方面的水平。我知道我的歌迷都很享受这个。我认为我的专辑还没糟到“为卖而做”的地步，它是被需要的。要是有人感觉你快过气了什么，有个这样的东西来证明价值必然是好的。

A lot of blogs and even your own fans think you should release more mixtapes. That’s the funky thing with music and that’s the funky thing with the business. It’s like the аmаteurs and the pros are playing together. There is no line of demarcation between the аmаteurs and the pros, everyone is using the same tactics and playing in the same arenas. The only thing that separates them is radio but the artist doesn’t control who goes to radio and who doesn’t. As professionals, we want to be on World Star and the blogs too but everyone is there so you have guys who play for free mingling with dudes who get paid to play. Then, it’s just the amount of music. There is so much music. It is devaluing itself. It is creative inflation. Some people feel like they shouldn’t have to pay for music. Some people feel like that they shouldn’t be paid for their music. I don’t feel like that. That’s the duality. That’s the way things are, man. At the end of the day, the funky part, even with me crying, ‘Don’t steal my music.’ I don’t make any money on the music when it comes out anyway. I don’t get any checks from Atlantic. That’s the hypocrisy…I haven’t gotten a check from Atlantic Records that I didn’t have to pay back in forever. I don’t count advances as credit to my account. That is debt to me. Even me sometimes, it baffles me, ‘Why the fuсk am I really tripping?’ It’s not about the money to me. It’s, ‘Let me control my shit.’ It’s the control freak in me. Let me put out the way I want to put it out. Let me mix it. Let me redo that third verse like I wanted to. When you lose that [control], that frustrates you.
有人说你应该多出mixtape？
哈，就像一群水平不一的人玩在一起一样。有人还说音乐不应该收费呢，我专辑刚出的时候我从公司那根本拿不到支票的，那时候一点钱都没有。我希望控制我自己这样我就能控制住我的音乐的方向。不然会很难过。
Did religion help you get through the bad times? Yeah, it definitely gave me, whether it was a distraction or moments of calm, of clarity, or moments of refocusing my attention to things beyond myself so I know the role I play in my family or my community or my role in the world. How have your thoughts on religion evolved over the years?
宗教有让你在难过的时候轻松点吗？
必然的，它让我冷静，告诉我事实真相，将我的注意力重新集中，令我懂的我在家庭，社会中的角色。
Well, yeah. You learn more, you see things and experience the contradictions, especially me because I grew up secular. I didn’t grow up immersed. Islam was always there but I always looked beyond that to the human side of things. I always look at religion like it’s software. The hardware, our DOS that we come with is our human side, our instincts. Humans have the capability of being the most compassionate and then turn around and be the most destructive. Once you start to understand that duality that comes with being human and filtering religion through that scope, it shocks the faith. People say that knowledge is the enemy of faith. Once you get certain knowledge and understanding, it definitely tests the faith. It’s still there, it’s still a part of me. I’m not saying I’m a heretic or an atheist but there are things that I recognize as being the way humans are no matter what religion you are. There are certain atrocities that human beings are capable of that just stun me. At the same time, there are acts of compassion, which have nothing to do with religion.
它们让我学到很多，你看事情会辩证。还有我的热情，它们与宗教信仰无关。但是它们也帮助了我很多。