Lupe Fiasco "Shocked" By Pete Rock

Lupe Fiasco again addressed the controversy over his single "Around My Way (Freedom Ain't Free)" and its sampling of the Pete Rock & CL Smooth classic "They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.)" Pete Rock blasted Lupe and the song via Twitter, and Lupe said he had no idea that Rock would react so harshly.

"That was a little unexpected, seeing as we already reached out to him to get his blessing and all that. We went and did it," he said. "Especially because of what it means to him and what it represents to him and how deep, how personal the record is for him. At the same time, too, with Heavy D passing and all that stuff, we tried to be as sensitive as possible with it and make sure that we represent it correctly. But there are so many remakes of ‘T.R.O.Y.’ out there. That's what was surprising."

"Nah. The friends and family is dealing with that. They’re the ones who put that together, so I’m kind of like a third party in it," he added. "But the people who initially reached out to him from my camp to his camp, I guess they was on the phone last night trying to figure out what was going on. It was a shock to me and it’s best for me to fall back."