''I Am A Hostage...''
6:00AM ET March 4th, 2011
Contributor : Stephen Willis
A Rocky Williform Company

Lupe Fiasco continues what can only be described as a smear campaign against his own record. The rapper has complained this week about the stress he was under while recording and trying to release his Lasers album, which officially drops March 8. Lupe has also lashed out at critics who have blasted the album in early reviews. In a recent interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, Fiasco again makes references to his label frustrations while working on this album.

"I was specifically told 'Don't rap too deep on this record,'" Fiasco told the Sun-Times. "That was a specific order from the top. 'You're rapping too fast or too slow, or it's too complex.' There are consequences and combat that comes from that process and the eventual compromise. With me, though, I'm not writing about someone else. I'm writing about me. This is my life. It's very personal for me. So for somebody to kind of put their fingers in that and play with that, it becomes more damaging."

The Sun-Times goes on to say: "He 'hunkered down' and 'got through it.' He 'went along,' he 'acquiesced.' He 'found some emotional distance from the music." He "lost those aspirations.'"

"I am a hostage," Fiasco said. "I gave them what they wanted. If I didn't, at the end of the day the album wasn't coming out."