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Wasalu Muhammad Jaco, better known by stage name Lupe Fiasco, is a rapper and producer from Chicago, USA.

Born on 16^th February 1982, Jaco began rapping in eighth grade and, after listening to Nas’ 1996 album It Was Written, resolved to pursue a career in hip hop. At the age of nineteen he was in the rap group De Pak which released one single on Epic Records before splitting up.

Jaco first became known in the wider music industry when he featured on the Kanye West singles Touch the Sky and Diamonds from Sierra Leone in 2005, and this led to him producing his first solo album with rapper Jay-Z.

The critically-acclaimed Food & Liquor was released in September 2006. It featured established artists like Jay-Z, Kanye West and The Neptunes and debuted at number eight on the Billboard 200. The singles Kick Push and Daydreamin’ (ft. Jill Scott) both debuted in the UK Top 40, with follow up single I Gotcha also charting. The album also received four Grammy Award-nominations, winning one for Best Urban/Alternative Song (Daydreamin’).

Fiasco’s follow-up album The Cool was released in December 2007. It debuted as the number one rap record in the US and stayed at the top of the charts for nine weeks. This album, like his last one, was nominated for four Grammys but won none. However, the album did produce the Top 10 hit single Superstar, along with the singles Hip Hop Saved My Life and Paris, Tokyo and met near universal acclaim from critics: The New York Times called it “one of the year’s best hip-hop albums”.

Lupe Fiasco’s third studio album, Lasers, is scheduled for release in late 2010. The record’s lead single Shining Down was leaked onto the internet in June 2009 but an official version has yet to be released.