MVRemix: Has the feedback or anything you've read affected the final tracklisting? Do you even have a final tracklisting for the album?

Lupe Fiasco: Yeah, we've got a final tracklisting. One thing we was playin' with was we were thinkin' about doing a double CD. Even though the album, the version that leaked... I don't even really call it the album, 50% of that was gonna be on the final album. Even when you took that 50%, like trash-canned the other songs. The amount of songs that we recorded intended for the album and the collaborations we did, like the Three 6 Mafia joint I did with Kanye. The joint I did with Jay-Z, when you put all them joints together, we sat back and we had 25 songs to go through. 25 songs, like hard songs - this was after we put out the b.s. and the album filler, stuff like that. We got 25 songs, so we was like, "Yo, we should try and do a double CD."

MVRemix: Anyone ever come out the gate like that? I can't even think of a double debut...

Lupe Fiasco: And it works, we were sittin' and talkin' with the record label about it and there's already awareness for at least half this. For them I think it was more of a budget thing where it would cost more, the more we press up and so we would have to charge a premium and I was like that's garbage, but it is what it is and we might, but not really. It ain't effective creatively at all because it wasn't like I had to go through anything new, it was songs that were just done, not songs that I was doing. When it leaked out in the studio, the week after that I'm with Kanye. The week after that I'm with Pharrell.

MVRemix: One of the songs that I know a lot of fans hope to make it is "Failure," can you enlighten us on that joint?

Lupe Fiasco: Not gonna make it.

MVRemix: So everyone should save the MP3...

Lupe Fiasco: Yeah, make sure... What I want people to do, for real, for real is after the album come out and all that stuff - make your own album. One thing I learned is when you lose that control, you can't control anything. So it's like kids are gonna make this, kids are gonna make that and so the way the iPod generation is right now, people makin' they own things up anyway, so go ahead and make your own version of "Food & Liquor," just back to it, it isn't creatively effective at all. But I want kids to make their own joint. "Failure" is not gone make it though!

MVRemix: But as long as they buy the retail to show their support, then you can burn your own disc.

Lupe Fiasco: Make your own playlist... I might even set something up through iTunes where we take that batch of songs and for the first time ever do something crazy.

MVRemix: I think ?uestlove is doing something like that with The Roots' stuff - he's got three or four extra tracks and it's going to be on iTunes I think...

Lupe Fiasco: Fresh to death... Yeah, "Failure" was a "Failure" - it didn't make it. "Failure" is like four years old. I recorded that when I was back on Arista, and the situation's where when they released us they were like, "Whatever, go ahead..." And now that they've released us and they're seeing everything poppin', they're like, "Well, you recorded such and such and we're gonna want 39% of that when it's released." It's like, whatever man.

MVRemix: Trying to find those contracts...

Lupe Fiasco: Yeah, whatever, go ahead - I'm straight.

MVRemix: Have you shot any videos yet for the record?

Lupe Fiasco: Yeah, we shot... Nah, no we didn't.

MVRemix: [chuckles] It was a dream?

Lupe Fiasco: Nah, 'cause I'm thinkin' about "Kick Push," you know we did "Kick Push" which was the single. Prior to that we did a video to another song on the album called "Emperor's Soundtrack."

MVRemix: I didn't even know about this one; there's one that's an online video...

Lupe Fiasco: My mans hit me up and told me that they either put it on "On Demand" or they put it on somethin' - some media thing on cable or sattellite and we shot a video for that. It was only like one verse, it was real small, but it was for a joint off the album. The next single is "I Got Ya" with the Neptunes, so we shootin' that next week actually.

MVRemix: Tell me about this whole situation, I heard you made a little MySpace recently - I saw that apparently the UK, and maybe other countries are gonna get "Daydreamin," the joint with Jill Scott. But can you talk about the "I Got Ya" and "Daydreamin" situation - what's the deal with gettin' separate ones?

Lupe Fiasco: I didn't want to do separate ones. Sometimes you conceed control to the record label just a little bit, and they run with it. "Daydreamin" is a conception of the record company and I just was like "Alright, go ahead." Before we know it they'd already pressed it up and put it out overseas. What people like to do is they like to put you in situations and they like to put your fans in the middle of it and then hide behind your fans. They're like, "Well, you've gotta do it now because you don't want to hurt the thing with your fans." I did this show the other day in New York and that's what the promoter did, he split it out like I was supposed to perform and I had like 500 of my fans there, and it was like "They gonna riot," I gotta do a show now, thank you very much. So you find that same kind of bootyness in the game, so "Daydreamin," what it's officially supposed to be is the single for the UK and "I Got Ya" is the single for the US. I originally wanted "I Got Ya" to be both and then we were gonna do double singles on the third single, so it was probably gonna be the joint with Mike Shinoda from Linkin' Park and maybe "Sunshine" or somethin' like that off the album. That's basically what it is, I'ma shoot two videos for both of them. That's what it is so far. I guess it leaked back to the States and they was sending "Cease And Desist" orders. It's like, "You thought it was not gonna leak over here? It's the world."

MVRemix: No doubt. This dude's blog got shut down with the quickness.

Lupe Fiasco: And I fall for that, and it be weird. Kids don't know how close I be to it 'cause I'm not just a artist, I'm a Vice President. I see all the papers that pass and I be like, "Yo, what are y'all doin'? That's y'all fault! You can't shut that kid down." I think it was like "Honourable Mention" blog or somethin' like that, I was like, "Y'all shouldn't shut that down on the strength of me. Don't make me the prototype to shut people down and then y'all go hard when y'all didn't go hard to stop the album."

MVRemix: You and Phonte can commiserate...

Lupe Fiasco: I hate the music business yo, I love music, I love business - but I hate the music business. This is one of the most terrible...