After petitions and threats of a fan-led protest outside their headquarters, Atlantic Records has finally agreed to release rapper Lupe Fiasco‘s long-delayed third studio album, Lasers. In a tweet yesterday, the Chicago native accompanied a picture of himself with Atlantic executive Julie Greenwald with the exclamation “Victory!” This was then re-tweeted — that’s Twitter terminology for copy and pasted — by Atlantic’s Twitter with the date March 8th, 2011.
The apparent reconciliation comes just days after Fiasco publically voiced his frustration with Atlantic. At the Second Regional Academic and Cultural Collaborative in Dayton, OH, the Chicago MC blamed his reluctance to sign a 360 deal with the label as the reason why his new record has yet to receive a release (via MTV).
“There’s something called a 360 deal which entails that they get 25% of any ancillary properties that you do that come from your music,” said Fiasco. “So if I’m famous because of a song and that leads me to get a TV show or a sneaker, they think that they deserve 25% of that. I refuse to do that.”
He added, “I was told because you didn’t sign this 360 deal, we may or may not push your record.”
As previously reported, Atlantic was also upset over the lack of “radio hits” on Lasers. Fiasco addressed that issue at the conference as well, noting that he refused to record pre-packaged songs which Atlantic felt would be no. 1 hits.
Details of Fiasco and Atlantic’s settlement have not yet been detailed, so it’s still unclear which side made concessions to the aforementioned issues. But seeing that Laser‘s March 8th, 2011 release date is still a good five months away, I’m sure we’ll have plenty more to write about in the weeks ahead.
