Lupe Fiasco disappoints

I’m writing this with the slimmest of hope that Lupe Fiasco himself might get a chance to hear what I have to say about the show I just saw at Indiana University in Bloomington.

The show was very good and the energy was high the entire time, but the end was lackluster with no encore. I was ashamed that concertgoers started leaving even before the last song was done. In North Carolina where I’m from, we always ask for an encore, especially from an artist we appreciate and paid good money to see. Asking for an encore is a way the audience can compliment an artist.

I was high in the balcony and stayed yelling for an encore even while most people had departed. I made my way to the stage eventually, only because I was curious if Lupe would have come back out if his fans would have put any effort into asking for one. Bishop G came my way, and I asked him if there was going to be an encore and his response was: “Are you crazy? We just did an hour-and-a-half show.” His response really surprised me. I thought the band would have felt like I did, that IU was kind of turning their backs on Lupe, sending him on his way because IU had had enough of his music for one night and didn’t need another song, let alone want one!

I understand the physical exhaustion the band and Lupe Fiasco must have endured, but many other great artists such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers will do more than one encore even after playing two-hour sets.

I left the concert disappointed and hoping that Lupe Fiasco is nothing like Bishop G, hoping that he does remember the “little people” that made him a “Super Star” and would have come back out for an encore, even if he was tired. That is the kind of artist I would pay money to see again, but that is not the one I got at the end of the show.

Francisco Avalos
IU alumnus