Around eight months ago, Lupe Fiascotook to Reddit to begin explaining the ideation and process behind his most recent album Drogas Waves.
It looks like he continually updated his post over the course of the last few months, also giving his fans an idea of where Drogas Waves was headed while he was creating it, its title change, and leaving “Wave Easter Eggs” about the album.
He also shared that the album—which he mostly recorded in his home—was on a “razor-thin budget,” and he had to scrap some songs due to sample clearance issues:
“Some of the terms that people want to clear their samples can be a little too overboard,” he said. “Got word back today about a few samples and we made the decision to pull the samples out and begin reworking the records cuz the upfront costs plus the rights they want on the back end are just unacceptable.”
He added, “Bad news Wavers: remakes of joints we can’t clear aren’t going according to plan. So I’ve decided to just start from scratch with new records instead of pushing through something on y’all that I’m not feeling and that I don’t think y’all would feel either. It’s like 3 joints but they were really pivotal to the second half of the album. So I’m gonna tear it all back down and start over till I get the vibe back.”
He seemed to make updates to the Reddit post until around the time he was set to release Drogas Wave, which actually arrived a week earlier than expected. Lupe made the announcement on Wednesday that it would release on Sept. 21. “I don’t know how the album got out, but it did,” Lupe said about the early release. “It’s my label and I can do what I want with the music so I’m making it available to my fans now.”
