Anti-Obama Rant Gets Rapper Lupe Fiasco Pulled Off Stage At Inauguration Concert

Audience members wave flags from the National Mall during the 57th Inauguration Day events in Washington, D.C., Jan. 21, 2013. More than 180 Marines from Marine Barracks Washington marched in the inaugural parade behind the U.S. Marine Corps Band, known as "The President's Own." U.S. Marine Corps photo by Staff Sgt. Mark Fayloga

By Ria Novosti -- (January 21, 2013)

Rapper Lupe Fiasco was pulled off the stage by security guards during a performance at a pre-inauguration concert here in which he launched an anti-war tirade and sharply criticized President Barack Obama, US media reported Monday.

The episode was captured on video and reported by concertgoers including a number of journalists who were present at the show and tweeted the rapper’s ejection from the stage as it was taking place.

Fiasco, whose birth name according to the conservative Daily Caller website is Wasalu Muhammad Jaco, is a 30-year-old artist from Obama’s hometown of Chicago. He had been billed as the headline act at the StartUp RockOn inauguration concert event on Sunday.

In a statement released Monday as news of the incident spread, the organizers of the event insisted that he was not removed from the stage because of his acerbic attack on Obama but because his performance was judged “bizarrely repetitive” and “jarring.”

It was not the first time the rapper had publicly voiced his strong opposition to Obama. During a media tour last summer ahead of the release of a new album, Fiasco blasted Obama for the use of drone attacks on designated anti-US militants overseas, Complex magazine reported.

“I’m talking about ordering a drone attack,” Fiasco said. “Ordering drone attacks that go and kill mothers, innocent bystanders, children. Militants too, but the collateral damage. You’re responsible for that, too.”