Over the course of his career, Lupe Fiasco has time and time again made his stance on controversial issues clear. Most recently, he responded to the violence in his hometown's music scene by dramatically announcing his retirement, and though he claimed that his new album would stay away from politics, he's just gone on the record making another controversial statement. In a new interview with MTV, Fiasco equates Justin Bieber's use of racial slurs at age 15 to Donald Sterling's recent racist remarks.
Linking the perpetrators of two biggest stories on racism in 2014, Fiasco responded to a question about the video that recently surfaced of Bieber saying the n-word by saying, “Donald Sterling, did he say the N-word? Justin Bieber said it, but it’s cool?” Making the point that, as a rich old white guy, Sterling is a much easier target for those fighting against racism, Fiasco said that when a person that "we like" (AKA Bieber) gets into a similar situation, he has black artists rushing to defend him.
Quoth Fiasco: “There’s already people coming to his defense. I just did an interview with Fox Sports and they brought up Donald Sterling in that capacity in sports. I just was like, I don’t think anybody should be profiting off racism. Donald Sterling made a billion dollars. You know, sold the team, and made a billion dollars. And then, you just have somebody who just made a very racist joke about it. I wonder if Justin Bieber is going to get the same treatment as Donald Sterling. I don’t think he will. It’s an absurd twist of fate. Absurd things. I guess that’s how that universe puts things out.”
After Soulja Boy, Migos and Young Money have all vouched for Bieber as a non-racist person, Fiasco seems to be the only rapper that's spoken out against the young pop star so far. Watch the full interview below.