Fans Petition Atlantic Records for New Releases by Lupe Fiasco, Young Dro

(AllHipHop News) Two frustrated Hip-Hop fans have created online petitions demanding Atlantic Records release new projects by Grand Hustle artist Young Dro and Grammy Award winning rapper Lupe Fiasco.The two nearly identical petitions, hosted at PetitionOnline.com, states that fans have been waiting for Dro’s P.O.L.O. (Players Only Live Once) and Lupe’s Lasers “for over a good year now,” and that in each case, the artists in question have stated that the albums are ready.The petitions go on to offer the petitioners’ rationalization for the necessity of immediate releases by both artists.“Enough is enough,” says Lupe petitioner Richard Derrick Barker. “We demand that you stop playing around and give us the album that we have been highly anticipating since the release of The Cool.” Kerrick Thomas bolsters his petition by pointing out that Dro himself has said “he’s ready for the album to come out,” and by listing Dro’s past success.“His first album The Best Thang Smokin [sic] went gold,” Thomas writes. “And it had a platinum single ‘shoulder lean’ [sic] so [you] know he has hits. He’s getting a great response with ‘freeze me’ so can [you] please release the album.”During an interview with BBC 1Xtra’s DJ Semtex on Friday night [July 23], Lupe addressed the petition, which he said had about 9,000 signatures the last time he checked.“You got kids calling up to the record label,” he told Semtex. “I feel great knowing that I have that kind of support. This is some straight, grassroots, Lupe Fiasco fans. Since The Cool came out, I been on tour non-stop for, like, three years. Sold-out world tours, and it amazes people. I guess if they don’t hear nothing on the radio or they don’t hear nothing on the internet, I guess they just feel like people fell off. So I guess it’s like a shock to everybody to see these kids out of nowhere showing major support.”“I think it’s a good look,” Lupe continued. “I thoroughly support it. I’m definitely not baking away from that. I think it’s beyond us now. I think it’s beyond whatever situations that I got with the label  and whatever  situations they got with me or the music. The fans are speaking above both of us. Even for me, it’s kind of a wake up, and I think for the [label] it’s definitely a wake up. But even with all that, shout out to Atlantic Records, shout out to everybody behind the project. Ain’t no love lost, no ill will. I think we just both looking at this now like it’s serious.”The Dro/P.O.L.O. petition has not quite reached the same momentum as the Lupe Fiasco/Lasers petition: at press time, as just 279 signatures have been collected on P.O.L.O.’s behalf. While a date is not attached to either petition, Amir Boyd, the Vice President of Promotions at Grand Hustle Records said that the label first became aware of the Young Dro petition this week, when one of the label’s managers was notified of it via email.“To me, it states the obvious,” Boyd told AllHipHop.com. “People are ready for Dro to drop! They’ve waited long enough. They’ve seen many come and go since his debut. The only thing the petition changes is now, hopefully, the higher ups will see that dude should be a priority.” After announcing his new project in June 2009 via the release of the “L.A.S.E.R.S. Manifesto,” Lupe offered fans the album’s first single, “Shining Down” featuring Matthew Santos last July. However, five months later, in a rumor-correcting rant on his LupeFiasco.com blog, Lupe announced that “LASERS does NOT HAVE A RELEASE DATE YET.” On February 10, just two weeks after the release of the album’s second single “I’m Beamin,” he wrote, “At Rehearsals for the ‘Steppin’ Laser Tour’ kicking off in Australia next week… Playing ‘Lasers’ for the first time in its entirety for the band.”Atlantic Records first announced Dro’s second album in November 2008, with the online release of the LP’s first single, “Take Off,” featuring Young LA.  They collaborated a year later on “I Don’t Know Y’all,” the album’s second single, which has since been followed up with the street release “Freeze Me.”As recently as April of this year, Young Dro said in a Sirius XM Radio interview with DJ Scream that P.O.L.O. would be out this summer.Per his interview with DJ Semtex, Lupe Fiasco is continuing his “Steppin’ Lasers Tour” in support of the album despite its current status. He is scheduled to kick of the Asian leg of the tour on August 4 in Singapore.On July 16, Lupe released In the Jaws of the Lords of Death, the debut album by the punk band Japanese Cartoon, which he fronts under his real name, Wasalu Jaco. The nine track album is available as a free download at www.allsabotage.com.