Lupe Fiasco recently sat down on Sway In The Morning on Friday (October 4) to speak on this history of the supergroup Child Rebel Soldier. For those unaware, the trio consisting of Lupe, Kanye West, and Pharrell released their first single "Us Placers" in 2007, had a few more tracks, and then disbanded in 2013 due to scheduling issues, per Fiasco. They loved to flip Radiohead samples and others from the band members' solo catalogs, with the Food & Liquor MC even reviving this ethos for his recent "SHRINK" single. When Sway asked him about CRS, he went through many moments across their history.
First off, Lupe Fiasco made it clear on Sway In The Morning that he, Kanye West, and Pharrell are still on good terms, and that "the fans feel betrayed" by the lack of material from them. He also joked that "the two richest n***as in the group" are the reason why they didn't keep things going. "P's eating caviar golden sandwiches, Ye is stitching up two different Rick Owens coats to wear in the shower. I’m trying to corral these two."
Lupe Fiasco On Child Rebel Soldier
Then, Lupe Fiasco started to talk about the good old days. "There [was] a lot of fan momentum around [Child Rebel Soldier's "Us Placers"] as a movement," he remarked. "We always talked about [the group, but] it kind of fell to the wayside… And then again, n***as get rich and crazy and s**t goes left." However, Lupe also attributed the group's enduring legacy to how it's impacted fellow artists. "That whole time, it’s incubating with people like Tyler [The Creator]," he shared. "One of the talks was like, ‘Yo, we old n***as and rich and doing other s**t. Why don’t we just get the dudes who would be us now, and just give them CRS and let them do it? What if CRS was the hip-hop Exile?'"
Sadly, Lupe Fiasco says that prospect "went nowhere." This year, he put out a solo song called "SHRINK" that revived Child Rebel Soldier without Kanye West or Pharrell, rapping over a sample of Radiohead's "Optimistic." "Radiohead was like, ‘F**k all that,'" Lupe joked about the band's "biggest cease and desist" against CRS. "I tried," he concluded about the supergroup. We'll see if they try again in the future...
