Tracey Nearmy / EPA
By Ree Hines, TODAY contributor
Grammy-nominated rapper Lupe Fiasco received top billing for StartUp RockOn's Sunday night Inaugural Celebration at the Hamilton Live, but he soon went from headliner to unwelcome act after delivering a rap that did anything but celebrate President Barack Obama's inauguration ? though organizers say the early end and the political content of the rap were purely coincidental.
A brief video of the set reveals that Fiasco, who's no stranger to provocative lyrics, rapped, "(Rush) Limbaugh is a racist / Glenn Beck is a racist / Gaza strip was getting bombed / Obama didn't say (expletive)/ That's why I ain't vote for him," sometime before several men approached the stage and the set suddenly came to an end.
Warning: The following video contains some strong language.
While the lyrics might have come as a surprise to some, those familiar with the performer and sentiments he's made public in the past couldn't have been shocked.
In 2011, during an interview with CBS News, he referred to the president as "the biggest terrorist in the United States of America."
Still, an official statement from the organizers of the inaugural party claims that while they stopped Fiasco's set early, it wasn't due to his anti-Obama content.
Lupe Fiasco performed at this private event, and as you may have read, he left the stage earlier than we had planned. But Lupe Fiasco was not ?kicked off stage? for an ?anti-Obama rant.? We are staunch supporters of free speech, and free political speech. This was not about his opinions. Instead, after a bizarrely repetitive, jarring performance that left the crowd vocally dissatisfied, organizers decided to move on to the next act.
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