Security at StartUp RockOn's inauguration party Sunday night escorted headlining rapper Lupe Fiasco offstage when he launched into an anti-Obama rant during his set.
"Limbaugh is a racist, Glenn Beck is a racist, Gaza Strip was getting bombed," Fiasco rapped. "Obama didn't say s***. That's why I ain't vote for him, next one either."
Foreign Policy's Josh Rogin reported that Fiasco was thirty minutes into his anti-war song at the Hamilton Live in Washington, D.C. when guards led him off the stage:
So Lupe played one anti-war song for 30 min and said he didn't vote for Obama and eventually was told to move on to the next song.
— Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) January 21, 2013
Lupe refused to move to the next song so a team of security guards came on stage and told him to go.
— Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) January 21, 2013
A statement from the event sponsors said that they ended Fiasco's set only because his performance started going poorly:
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.
