Block Party ’07: Catching up with Ciara

Since they were on-campus for the recent Block Party ’07 concert, recording artists Ciara and Lupe Fiasco were both gracious enough to sit-down with The Student Voice to talk about their performance and what else is going on in their lives.

(Q&A with Ciara by Shavon S. Greene)
Do you have anything exclusive planned for your first performance here?

This is actually going to be an hour long show, and I actually added so some more records to it today. So, that’s actually going to be fun. Also, I’m just going to come out here and have fun. This is my first time at SU, so I’m looking forward to this experience. I got to walk on top of the Dome earlier today. I got to run up and down the stadium stairs. It’s definitely cool being here. I’ve really been enjoying myself, and the weather is beautiful.

Well, it wasn’t a few days ago. (laughs) What has to be accomplished during your performances to make the show rewarding for you?

I always want to feel like I rocked it the right way. It’s the worst feeling – walking away and feeling like I didn’t give it my all as much as I should have. You never know how long it’s going to be before you come back, so that’s how I feel about my performances. I just want to give it my all, all the time, always giving 100%.”

I understand you like performing–enjoying dancing—Have you every thought about starting a dance school?

Absolutely, I’m actually working on it right now.

So, do you know where you want to start?

Atlanta is definitely the place I want to start. My ultimate goal is for it to be a small franchise that would be in the major cities—Atlanta, Miami, New York, and California. That’s where I would start. Hopefully, it would be a worldwide thing, but definitely a small franchise more than anything.

Continue reading Q&A with Ciara.
(Above album art via Amazon.com)

Block Party ’07: Catching up with Lupe Fiasco

 

In the second interview with Block Party ’07 performers, up-and-coming hip hop artist Lupe Fiasco talks with The Student Voice about the industry and his life philosophies.

(Q&A with Lupe Fiasco conducted by Shavon S. Greene)
You’re known as the “Best Kept Secret.” Your music is different from most rap music today because it has a clear purpose. Do you think because your music and not being the type to just sell records has something to do with your problems at Artista?

What happened at Arista is L.A. Reid got fired. So when he got fired, everything stopped. Everybody’s project stopped. It was more publicized with the Clipse. The Clipse are on Arista, and they had all that trouble trying to put their album out. They eventually had to go to Jive. It was the same situation for all the artists even for Ciara. We were all on Arista. Arista was like we’re done, and it was like what are we going to do. So, everybody had to find their own way to get out of Arista, and we actually got out of that system and went into the Warner Brothers system. So it was really because of that. It wasn’t because of any artistic reason; the CEO got fired.

You were in a group called Da Pak when you were nineteen?

I was in the group called Da Pak when I was eighteen. I got my first record deal when I was in high school, and I was with Da Pak. We were signed to Epic Records.

Did you like or dislike being in a group? Did you prefer being a solo artist?

The group fell through. That was more of the artistic kind of thing where it just wasn’t cohesive. We have put out maybe one single – really preliminary stuff – and never shot a video for it. It really didn’t do anything. It was like we were done.

Continue reading Q&A with Lupe Fiasco.
(Above album art via Amazon.com)