Lupe Fiasco has been rather outspoken lately. His latest trending talk point comes at the expense of Nas, who Lupe feels “wouldn’t rank high” on a list of the greatest lyricists. Yes, that was a record scratch.
Speaking on Culture United, Lupe gave a detail of what makes a great lyricist, hanging his hat on storytelling, imagery and more. That’s when Esco’s name came up.
“For me, remove the beat, remove everything else and you just go with the words and you throw Nas and you created a list of people who just rap, which is a big list, it’s hundreds and thousands of rappers, he wouldn’t rank high. I wouldn’t rank him high,” Lupe said. “That doesn’t mean we’re not lyricists in our space, but when you isolate it to that, a lot of people don’t rank high.”
You can kind of see his angle, but it won’t translate well across the Internet. Hear it in full from Lupe below.
🎙️Lupe Fiasco on Culture United asked about Nas not having great punchlines – and his response is that compared to all the rappers in the world, lyrically:
🗣️“Nas doesnt rank high” 😳
He leaves the room speechless and confused ⁉️🤔
‼️watch the live right now on YT 📺:… pic.twitter.com/xp1rJzwD4w
— HipHopKlipz36 (@hiphopklipz36) July 2, 2026
