4.15.2025
Lupe Fiasco to Perform Concert at MIT’s Artfinity Festival with MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble on May 2nd
The Award-Winning Rapper and MIT Visiting Scholar’s Performance, Entitled “GHOTIING MIT: Public Art,” Takes Inspiration From Specific Works of Art Found on MIT’s Campus
Lupe Fiasco Continues to Push the Boundaries of Lyricism in Hip-Hop, Pioneering New Techniques for Spontaneous Expression and Sonic Innovation in Hip-Hop
Critical Praise:
“Samurai is expected to be one of Fiasco’s most intrinsic works, as he is known for his conceptualized approach in his albums.” – Forbes
“The Chicago legend’s ninth album is inspired by battle rap and Japanese culture…” – CLASH Magazine
The Announcement:
Cambridge, MA (April 15) – Lupe Fiasco and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology announce that the GRAMMY-winning rapper will perform an on-campus concert on May 2nd with MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble at MIT’s Kresge Auditorium. The upcoming concert marks the conclusion of MIT’s Artfinity festival, a performing and visual arts festival celebrating creativity and community at MIT that began on February 15. All 80 Artfinity events, including Lupe Fiasco’s upcoming concert, are free and open to the public.
Lupe Fiasco’s MIT concert is an element of the artist and MIT Visiting Scholar’s art project “GHOTIING MIT: Public Art,” which transforms public art into a living sonic experience—where rap and visual art intersect in real time. The Chicago native recorded 9 new songs for the art project, overseen by the MIT List Visual Arts Center, each taking inspiration from a different piece of art around MIT’s campus. Lupe recorded each piece on site, at the location of each artwork, incorporating field sounds into the recording and crafting lyrics that spontaneously respond to the scene’s unique environment. Lupe will perform 6 of these songs during his MIT concert with the MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble, along with songs from his decorated catalog. The project will live on as a free public art tour for visitors through the MIT List Visual Arts Center digital guide, where the public can scan a QR code and listen to Lupe’s rhymes on their phone as they walk through the campus and look at the public artworks in person.
Link to the art tour: https://listart.stqry.app/1/tour/55310
Register for the concert HERE
View more information about the Artfinity Festival at artfinity.mit.edu.
For more information about Lupe Fiasco, please contact
Kevin Grossi, Audible Treats
For more information about MIT, Artfinity, and MIT Music, please contact:
Leah Talatinian, MIT
Antony Gormley, Chord, 2015. Photo: Peter Vanderwarker
905 stainless steel elements of varying section sizes and 541 stainless steel balls, 671⅝x126⅜x134¼in.(1706x321x341cm). Commissioned with MIT Percent-for-Art funds. Courtesy the artist and MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Inspiration for “Molecule Flavor” by Lupe Fiasco Written and recorded on site at MIT, winter 2025
The Background:
About Lupe Fiasco
With over two decades of tenure in the rap game, Lupe Fiasco is a savvy veteran of hip-hop, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t take the time to hone and perfect his craft at every turn. 2024 saw the release of his acclaimed album Samurai, named one of the best albums of 2024 by The Needle Drop, Okayplayer, FLOOD, and more, which earned praise for its dense lyricism and Amy Winehouse-inspired concept. Samurai was Lupe’s first new album since 2022’s DRILL MUSIC IN ZION, which earned critical acclaim from NPR, Complex, The FADER, and many others, including Vinyl Me Please, who wrote “At their best, Lupe’s bars are as visually and phonetically pleasing as popped bubble wrap.” In 2023, the iconic Chicago native also settled into his position as a visiting professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he teaches “Rap Theory and Practice.” Beyond music, Lupe continues to focus on the community organizations he founded, including We Are M.U.R.A.L, The Neighborhood Start-Up Fund, Society of Spoken Art, and his cross-cultural content venture, Studio SV. Most recently, Lupe’s single “Pound For Pound” became the theme song for the AAA video game Undisputed. Lupe plans to perform throughout the year, including an upcoming performance at MIT’s Artfinity festival on May 2nd.
About GHOTIING MIT: Public Art
A collaboration between Lupe Fiasco and the MIT List Visual Arts Center, GHOTIING MIT: Public Art is a site-specific rap and field recording project that explores the relationship between rap and MIT’s public art collection. By composing and recording on-site, Lupe engages directly with the sculptures, murals, and installations across campus, using their forms, histories, and surroundings as creative catalysts. Capturing ambient sounds and crafting lyrics in response to each piece, the project transforms public art into a living sonic experience—where rap and visual art intersect in real time.
“GHOTIING” is an innovative, site-specific approach to rap creation that integrates field recording and En Plein Air composition. Pioneered by rapper & professor Lupe Fiasco at MIT, this method encourages rappers to compose and record in dynamic, real-world environments rather than within the controlled confines of a studio.
By venturing into various outdoor and public spaces—such as bustling city streets, quiet parks, transit hubs, or culturally significant landmarks—artists engage directly with their surroundings, allowing ambient sounds, atmosphere, and social context to shape their lyrical content, flow, and delivery. The process incorporates field recording techniques, capturing environmental noise and spontaneous interactions, which can serve as sonic textures or conceptual inspiration for compositions.
Much like En Plein Air painters immerse themselves in a setting to capture its essence in real time, GHOTIING encourages rappers to respond to their environment spontaneously, adapting their creative process to the unique energy of each space. This approach fosters greater improvisation, a deeper connection to place, and an expanded understanding of how setting influences artistic expression. The result is a more organic, unfiltered form of rap that exists at the intersection of soundscape, lyricism, and lived experience.
Inspired by fishing expeditions, GHOTIING (pronounced “fishing”) reimagines rap creation as a hunt for big ideas—where beats serve as bait, microphones as fishing rods, and both the object and the artist’s mind act as the body of water. By immersing themselves in different environments, rappers cast their creative lines, hoping to reel in unexpected inspiration.
On Friday, May 2, six of Fiasco’s GHOTIING compositions will premiere at Kresge Auditorium, performed by the MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble (MIT FJE) and Fiasco himself. Especially arranged for this unique concert by Kevin Costello ‘21, Matthew Michalek (G), and MIT Distinguished Professor of Music, Evan Ziporyn, Fiasco’s MIT art-inspired music will burst from the stage with the support of the 25-member MIT FJE.
Pieces that will be performed in the concert and also part of the public art tour:
“Courtyard Opps Flavor” by Lupe Fiasco
Inspired by Guennette, 1977 Michael Heizer & Three-Piece Reclining Figure, Draped 1976 Henry Moore
Written & Recorded On Site @ MIT Winter 2024
“Muse Flavor” by Lupe Fiasco
Inspired by Birth of the Muses, 1944–50 Jacques Lipchitz
Written & Recorded On Site @ MIT Fall 2022 & Winter 2024
“Molecule Flavor”by Lupe Fiasco
Inspired by Chord, 2015 Antony Gormley
Written & Recorded On Site @ MIT Winter 2025
“ALL CAPS FLAVOR” by Lupe Fiasco
Inspired by Elmo-MIT, 1963 Dimitri Hadzi
Written & Recorded On Site @ MIT Summer 2022
“Sailing Flavor” by Lupe Fiasco
Inspired by La Grande Voile, 1965 Alexander Calder
Written & Recorded On Site @ MIT Summer 2022
“Alchemist Flavor” by Lupe Fiasco
Inspired by Alchemist, 2010 Jaume Plensa
Written & Recorded On Site @ MIT Winter 2024
The pieces above plus the pieces below are part of the public art tour.
“3 Piece Flavor”by Lupe Fiasco
Inspired by Sacrifice III, 1949 Jacques Lipchitz, Hagar in the Desert, 1957 Jacques Lipchitz & Bather, 1923 Jacques Lipchitz
Written & Recorded On Site @ MIT Fall 2022
“The 3 Second Rule Flavor” by Lupe Fiasco
Inspired by Bars of Color within Squares (MIT), 20087 Sol LeWitt
Written & Recorded On Site @ MIT Winter 2025
“Funhouse Flavor”by Lupe Fiasco
Inspired by Non-Object (Plane), 2010 Anish Kapoor
Written & Recorded On Site @ MIT Winter 2025
ABOUT ARTFINITY
Artfinity is a festival of the arts at MIT featuring 80 free events across the performing and visual arts, celebrating creativity and community at MIT. The festival launches with the opening of the new Edward and Joyce Linde Music Building at MIT on February 15, 2025, continues with a concentration of events Feb 28-March 16, and culminates with the Eugene McDermott Award in the Arts public lecture by 2025 recipient Es Devlin on May 1, 2025, and a concert by Grammy-winning rapper and Visiting Scholar Lupe Fiasco on May 2, 2025.
Artfinity features the work of MIT faculty, students, staff, and alumni, alongside guest artists from the Greater Boston area and around the world. All 80 events are open to the public, including dozens of concerts and performances plus an array of visual arts such as projections, films, installations, exhibitions, and augmented reality experiences, as well as lectures and workshops for attendees to participate in. With a wide range of visual and performing arts events open to all, Artfinity embodies MIT’s commitment to the arts and the intersection of art, science, and technology. Artfinity is an Institute-sponsored event, organized by the Office of the Arts at MIT, with faculty leads Institute Professor of Music Marcus Thompson and Professor of Art, Culture and Technology Azra Aksamija.
All official Artfinity events are free and open to the public. More at artfinity.mit.edu
ABOUT MIT FESTIVAL JAZZ ENSEMBLE
The MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble (MIT FJE) was founded in 1963 by Boston jazz icon Herb Pomeroy and led since 1999 by Dr. Frederick Harris, Jr. Composed of outstanding MIT undergraduate and graduate students studying a wide range of disciplines, the MIT FJE performs traditional and contemporary jazz ensemble literature, including student compositions and new works written for the ensemble by major jazz composers. MIT FJE has released five professional recordings including its major jazz label debut on Sunnyside in 2015, Infinite Winds, which received a five-star review from DownBeat and was chosen by the magazine as one of its “Best Albums of 2015 Five-Star Masterpieces.” Major artists with whom MIT FJE has worked include Chick Corea, Miguel Zenón, Jacob Collier, Anat Cohen, Lupe Fiasco, Don Byron, Steve Turre, Luciana Souza, Sean Jones, and Elena Pinderhughes. MIT FJE has toured Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and the Brazilian Amazon with projects fusing music, science, and environmental and cultural sustainability.
ABOUT MUSIC AT MIT
The Music program within the MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences serves more than 1,500 MIT students who enroll in music classes each academic year. More than 500 student musicians participate in at least one of 30 on-campus ensembles. Music faculty hold Grammy Awards, MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellowships, and perform worldwide. The Music program at MIT welcomes all students, regardless of major, who wish to take subjects in music history and culture, composition and theory, music technology, and performance. Through the study and creative practice of classical, jazz, popular, and world musics, the program offers students an experience that is intensely rich and uniquely
MIT. A new Music Technology and Computation graduate program will begin in the fall of 2025 in partnership with the School of Engineering (SoE).
ABOUT THE LIST VISUAL ARTS CENTER AND PUBLIC ART AT MIT
The List Visual Arts Center at MIT is a creative laboratory that provides artists with a space to freely experiment and push existing boundaries. As the contemporary art museum at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the List Center presents a dynamic program of six to nine special exhibitions in its galleries annually, a program of exhibitions by emerging artists known as the List Projects, as well as a broad range of educational programs, events, and publications.
The List also maintains and adds to MIT’s permanent art collection; commissions new works through the MIT Percent-for-Art program, a collection of more than 60 site specific artworks throughout the campus; and oversees the Student Loan Art Program, which lends more than 600 works of art annually to MIT undergraduate and graduate students.
Links:
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“Palaces” (Remix): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xS7Ii49ai04
Samurai: https://orcd.co/lupe-samurai
“No. 1 Headband”: https://youtu.be/-qpInC2hSSw
“Cake”: https://orcd.co/lupe-cake
“Samurai”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcoRc2ieFzE
DRILL MUSIC IN ZION: https://orcd.co/dmiz