Despite a 12-year rap career that includes a chart-topping album and a gold certified album, Lupe Fiasco claims that hip-hop constitutes only 20 percent of the music he listens to on a daily basis. Instead, the rapper prefers to listen to Queen, Public Enemy, Radiohead and Curtis Mayfield – artists his father played when he was growing up.

Grammy-award winning hip-hop artist Lupe Fiasco will perform at Chaiftez Arena Thursday night before taking his tour to Purdue University. Lupe Fiasco cites St. Louis-native hip-hop artists Chingy and Nelly as influences in “bringing back the fun that was missing for a long time from hip-hop.” Returning for the first time in two years, Lupe Fiasco said that his most vivid memories of St. Louis involve “good times underneath the Arch.”

The rapper said he hopes his music will shed light on injustice and inequality. “‘Lasers’ stands for peace, progression and revolutionary ideas,” the artist said of his latest album.

In addition to music, Lupe Fiasco is interested in American politics. If he were president, the artist said, he would “pull all of our military bases, close the Pentagon” and “demilitarize the U.S. to focus on being a humanitarian country rather than a militaristic one.”

Lupe has caused a fiasco for some controversial political comments he made during interviews and concerts in the past. It is hard to tell, though, if he will have an explicit political message for students on Thursday night. As controversial as his reputation might be, Lupe Fiasco was cleared by the administration’s performance, presentation and speaker policy to perform at the Homecoming concert. The administration also cleared The New Boyz, whose songs have a reputation for containing controversial content, as well.

The New Boyz and two undisclosed acts will open for Lupe Fiasco. The concert completes and culminates a week of Homecoming activities sponsored by the Student Activities Board.

Homecoming week offered a mix of new and traditional events. Saturday saw the Golf Cart Parade, which celebrates Billiken pride and traditions. On Tuesday, students filled up all available appointments for the annual blood and marrow drive. SAB worked with the Diversity Leadership Council to sponsor the Live the Oath Faith Event on Wednesday, a reflection on the Oath of Inclusion. The Quad Festival also took place on Wednesday. Students enjoyed food, inflatables and music, and could pick up and decorate their own sunglasses for Friday’s Glowdown, a free dance in the Busch Student Center.

For many students, though, the highlight of Homecoming week is Thursday night’s concert. Freshman John Hueste said he picked up a floor ticket as soon as they were available in August.

“I haven’t been to a real concert, so I thought this would be a good way to start,” Hueste said. “I’m a fan of hip hop and have heard a few of [Lupe Fiasco’s] songs on the radio.”

It was Lupe Fiasco’s popularity among college students that inspired SAB to pursue him for the Homecoming concert. With the release of “Lasers” earlier this year, Lupe Fiasco became a hot and expensive ticket.

After falling short of booking him for the spring concert last year, SAB was able to make the accommodations necessary to bring Lupe Fiasco to SLU by working directly with the Chaifetz Arena staff. SAB formed a music advisory board, made up of students from various organizations on campus in order to bring in an artist that would appeal to a wide variety of students.

Jim Wyncoop, general manager of Chaifetz Arena, worked one-on-one with the music advisory board over the summer to orchestrate the collaboration.

“In order to get a better name artist, we needed to start earlier,” Wyncoop said.

After choosing Lupe Fiasco and booking time for the concert at Chaifetz, Wincoop said that it took six additional weeks to completely plan the event. Due to a low turnout at last year’s concert featuring Tonic on the parking lot behind Griesedieck Hall, SAB sought a more popular artist, but it came at a heavy price. Due to the collaboration with Chaifetz, SAB was initially able to secure only 2,500 tickets for students who could retrieve them on a first-come, first-serve basis starting at 9 a.m.

Students formed long queues, and the tickets ran out by 4 p.m. on the first day they were available.Some students were frustrated by what they felt were a lack of tickets provided to students who pay into the activity fee.

Undergraduates pay a fee of $45 dollars a semester for student activity fees, and graduates pay $30 per semester. This money is budgeted for different SAB events, including the Homecoming concert, and allowed SAB to pay Lupe Fiasco’s concert fee and to purchase 2,500 tickets for students.

However, SAB could not have afforded the event without Chaifetz’s assistance.

“There isn’t quite enough money to have done it as a private show on [SAB’s] budget,” Wyncoop said. “No one quite knows what the demand is going to be. You pick an artist you think will be popular, but you don’t know.”

Wyncoop said that Global Spectrum, the company that manages Chaifetz Arena, does not operate Chaifetz independently of SLU.

“There is a perception on campus that we are a totally separate entity, but we’re not. Every dollar we make goes back to the University, and every dollar we spend comes from the University. We manage the building on behalf of the University,” Wyncoop said.

After SAB ran out of tickets, it quickly searched for money to make more tickets available for students.

“It took us a while to figure out how to accommodate student demand,” SAB President Christi Thieben said.

Ticket demands prompted SAB to procure more passes for students.

“We wanted to please the people who were unhappy on Facebook and wanted to make SLU happy,” Michael Schaddel, Homecoming co-chair, said. “Students should be able to go.”

This week, SAB has organized Facebook and Twitter promotions entitled “Find Us Here” to give out what remains of the 500 tickets they bought in the second batch.

Many students are excited for the rapper’s concert. Even though she only knows a few of his songs, freshman Tess Hejna said she hopes it will “be fun to go with friends and see a good performance.”

Some students are not as thrilled for the concert, however. SAB received a few complaints about the choice to bring Lupe Fiasco to SLU,  because of his allegation that President Obama is “the biggest terrorist in the United States of America,” and his calls for the President to step down.

But Schaddel and Thieben said they believe politics will not be an issue on Thursday night. Instead, should students expect a rousing concert?

“Nah, just going to have everyone stand around,” Lupe Fiasco said, jokingly.

He said he promises a “really energetic show, a high energy show. But it depends on the crowd. It becomes infectious from the front people.”

Tickets for the concert can still be purchased through Chaifetz Arena for $25 for the Upper End and $35 everywhere else – everywhere, that is, except for the floor, which will be full of Billikens.

“There’s going to be so many people there,” Schaddel said. “It’s going to be a fun time to be around your friends and to see a good artist come to SLU.”

Wyncoop said he expects Lupe Fiasco to put on successful show.

“It’s a pretty full evening’s worth of entertainment. We’re excited. We’re excited that students are excited,” Wyncoop said.

Alright, already. The show goes on.

Additional reporting by Tyler Sondag.