Lupe Fiasco famously had a contentious relationship with his former label Atlantic Records before leaving in 2015. In an appearance on Joe Budden’s Instagram Live, the Chicago rapper claimed Atlantic “slowed down” the promotion of his single, “Kick, Push,” so they could buy the rights to the song it samples. Purchasing the rights would give the label a controlling portion of Lupe’s track and an opportunity for higher profit from its success.
During the conversation, Lupe recalled confronting Atlantic Records executive Craig Kallman for calling a radio program director to “slow down or stop playing” his buzzing hit. The rapper said Kallman claimed that he wanted to give the label more time to catch up, but that wasn’t the truth. Instead, they allegedly wanted to create an opportunity to track down the artist whose song it samples and buy the song’s rights from her.
“He didn’t have any publishing, he didn’t have any royalty rights, he didn’t bring the producer, he had nothing to do with it,” Lupe told Budden. “They flew down to the Philippines to find the woman who we sampled the record from and bought the entire record from her. They actually own the song ‘Kick, Push’ is sampled from. That’s what they did.”
According to its listing on performing rights organizations ASCAP, Lupe still owns a portion of publishing on “Kick, Push.”
“Kick, Push” is produced by Soundtrakk and is built around a sample of the instrumental intro of Filipina singer Celeste Legaspi’s 1982 song, “Bolero Medley.” Released in April 2006 as the lead single from Lupe’s debut album, Food & Liquor, it became his first Billboard Hot 100 hit, peaking at No. 78 on the chart.
Lupe left Atlantic with the release of 2015’s Tetsuo & Youth after nearly a decade signed to the label. In February 2019, the rapper shared a story about being mocked by former Warner Music Group executive Lyor Cohen for trying to regain control of his masters:
His most recent album is 2018’s Drogas Wave, the second part of an announced trilogy. It was released on his 1st & 15th label, with marketing and distribution by entertainment company Thirty Tigers.
Watch the clip above, and read all the lyrics to Lupe Fiasco’s “Kick, Push” on Genius now.
