Lupe Fiasco is one of the strongest examples of endurance within the music industry. After a strong debut and sophomore album, he hit something of a wall with his label. All of his ambitious ideas were immediately shot down.

They would even dismiss his attempts to do songs that the label would approve of. It made him eventually grow to hate how his third album, Lasers, turned out.

“I don’t hate the music, but I hate the process. When I look at it, I don’t see song titles and artwork; I see the fight,” Lupe Fiasco told The Guardian in 2011. “I see the emotions, the blood, sweat, and tears. There are a couple of songs on there that I love; but Lasers is a little bit of what you love, a little bit of what you like, and a lot of what you had to do.”

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