Black Twitter was not having it when rapper Lupe Fiasco chose to exalt Japanese history and practices over his own ancestral African culture. In a series of tweets over the weekend, Fiasco expressed some very unpopular viewpoints.
“Black people could learn a lot from the Japanese about pretty much everything in my opinion,” Fiasco wrote in one tweet. He added he didn’t “see anything particularly or exclusively special about African culture” in another.
The clapbacks from Black people across the African Diaspora commenced almost immediately. One user asked Fiasco if he could really say such a thing, given how much of a masterpiece his album “Drogas Wave” is. Others suggested he take a crash course in African history and recognize how rich the culture is.
“Cmon family.. Our history is the richest in the world. We’re the oldest on the planet. We predate Japanese culture.. Matter of fact the first shogun was black.. First kings of Asia were black.. First Chinese dynasty was black.. Buddha was black. Indus Valley culture was black,” wrote user @Profess_Reality.
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Fiasco defended his statements and doubled down on his position writing, African history is “not the only history in the world…and just because you predate something doesn’t make everything that comes after it subservient or inferior.”
After one user suggested Marcus Garvey was probably turning over in his grave, Fiasco responded that the Jamaican civil rights icon who championed the “Back To Africa” movement modeled himself more after a “European Emperor” than “a traditional African King.”
Fiasco admitted that Africa was “large and complex,” but did not recant any of his positions. Rather, he told those who opposed his opinions that they could not ” school” him on Africa as he spoke from his own personal studies and experiences.
