Lupe Fiasco fans and his label can now breathe a sigh of relief, and both have reason to celebrate: The artist's third studio album, "Lasers,"
finally has a release date.
Last week, Lupe
tweeted a picture of himself and Atlantic Records President Julie Greenwald that was all smiles. The artist had been dealing with months of tension with his label over the release of “Lasers," and the photo came a week before fans' protests - dubbed “FiascoFriday” - were set to take place outside of Atlantic’s offices in New York City, with another march set in Chicago.
According to the artist, “Lasers” will hit shelves March 8, 2011, with the first single coming out October 26 via his website.
This is a mission accomplished for Lupe's fans,
who'd even created an
online petition demanding a release date for "Lasers," which now has more than 30,000 signatures.
In an interview with
MTV News in July, Lupe said he thought the label felt the pressure brought on by his listeners. “For them to see 16,000 people say, ‘This is what we want and what we want now'...They love to see fans that actually care.”
Fansite The LupE.N.D. Blog
released a statement encouraging Lupe lovers to continue on with their rallies with a change in the message.
“Even though we got a release date for Lupe’s ‘Lasers’ and for the first single off the album, there will still be a #FiascoFriday on October 15th,” the blog post read. “But instead of it being a protest it’ll be a celebratory march/event.”