LUPE FIASCO TALKS STORYTELLING RAP, UPCOMING ALBUMS AND GOING INDEPENDENT

After dropping his Food & Liquor 2: The Great American Rap Album Part 1 last month, Lupe Fiasco sat down with Al Lindstrom for a candid conversation on his creative process and upcoming albums.

Fiasco discussed the transparency of his songwriting and penning a great story. "You can see [my storytelling]. I don't think it's hidden," he said. "I just tried to be around great MCs [and] take the Nas model to tell a great story, spit a great rhyme and spit a great club record now and again."

Already hitting the booth for the second installment of Food & Liquor 2 and Skulls, the "B*tch Bad" rapper cited technology for his plans to go independent. "Technology caught up and made obsolete what a lot of people initially signed their deals now like marketing, manufacturing and distribution," he said. "Now you got a lot of companies who were at first skeptical of Hip Hop now fully embrace it. So now you got a lot of companies who don't want to deal with the labels and go straight to the artists through their management."

Regardless of his label status, the Chi-town native assures it's about the product. "Whether you're independent or whatever, it's all about the work."