Lupe Fiasco Quotes

This whole Puff Daddy thing has taken a toll on me.

We were starting to lose track with Earth because fame and success brings you many things that you're not really prepared for or know how to deal with as a human being.

I don't really plan to be a pop star; I just want to be able to make music without the whole My Dad thing hanging over me, which everyone in my position goes through.

Selling eight million copies of your first album will mess you up.

I think maybe because of the kind of music I sing, people want to believe you're a diva. They can't believe after eight years, and eight albums, you're still relatively sane. I feel like they almost want me to throw something at somebody.

There was an enormous amount of pressure when my first album took off, and I struggled with the speed of everything and the exhaustion from the constant touring.

When I started off in music, I started with a real innocence, a real love for the instrument, the writing the songs, the playing the songs and the sharing and the recording and experimenting. It was exciting. Then, this thing called success came, and something happened at some point where I became disenchanted, and I lost the innocence.

And that's the kind of thing people think, you know, that if you sign up to be a singer-songwriter you know how to deal with people setting up hate websites, or people being obsessed with you and crying when you touch them, but you don't, and you just have to deal with.

I do worry about young people in the business who have experienced a lot of success and are punted around doing those manic publicity trails, when you don't really know who you are yet.

I put my heart and my soul into my work, and have lost my mind in the process.

You'd think I'd have been happiest in my life playing music in front of 50,000 people at Gillette Stadium. But let me tell you, it's an odd feeling to feel alone in the spotlight.

I don't think I'd get caught up in the crazy side of the music industry because it's just not in my nature.

When I got '227' and broke out from the rest of the cast, I became a workaholic, and I was very lonely.

Some people are so used to experiencing stress that they don't remember what life was like without it.

Desperation is the perfume of the young actor. It's so satisfying to have gotten rid of it. If you keep smelling it, it can drive you crazy. In this business a lot of people go nuts, go eccentric, even end up dead from it. Not my plan.

If I'd been a rock star, I'd probably now be dead.

To me, being in the big time is not that big of a deal. I've been there; I know what it is. It's exciting, but it's also a lot of work and pressure. I love sort of flying under the radar where we can play theaters and sell CD's on the Internet, and it's really kind of a cool time.

I was making comebacks every single year. That makes it difficult mentally. It causes a lot of stress.

With my quick success, I didn't have time to learn the ropes of the music business. Because my first record was such a hit, I was terribly spoiled and I thought I couldn't do anything wrong. I was also desperate to make tons of money because of my responsibility to my daughter. And there was no longer any joy in making music.

I feel there is a curse on rock stars.

I'd gone from being this art student messing about with music to this girl with a record deal, magazine front covers and all this hype. In many ways, it was everything I ever wanted, but when it happened all I felt was total, paralysing fear.

Being a celebrity can be very intoxicating and very addicting. And I've always been afraid of that, because I've grown up post-almost every child star out there who has gone wayward.

I was never as famous as all these kids. There was no social media. We weren't celebrity-obsessed as a culture. I feel like these kids are under a crazy microscope; they're basically brands. And they eventually implode and act out. They need a break, and they're not getting one.

We were so busy that right before we recorded the follow-up single to 'Lovin' Feelin' I had a nervous breakdown. I just folded. I had to stay in bed for a couple of months and rest.

After Euro 2012, I had very little holiday and almost no desire to play football. I was slipping into depression, from all the travelling.