Lupe Fiasco has revealed that the debut album by his post-punk group Japanese Cartoon, is a tribute to Joy Division.
Entitled 'In The Jaws Of The Lords Of Death', the free LP sees Fiasco - whose real name is Wasalu Muhammad Jaco - take on vocals in a forced British accent.
"The true inspiration for Japanese Cartoon is the band Joy Division," Fiasco told Complex.com. "You ever watch footage of Joy Division singing? [Frontman] Ian Curtis is like a straight nerd. And he [doesn't look] like the rock and roll type. But when he got on stage, he became a completely different animal, like he was having a seizure on stage."
He added: "When he was performing he just threw himself into the performance, but when he came off stage he was a mild-mannered person. Japanese Cartoon is like a tribute to Joy Division and Ian Curtis."
More commonly known as a rapper and hip hop producer, Jaco also explained the reasons why he originally denied being the singer in the group.
"I didn't want it to be viewed as a Lupe Fiasco side project," he explained. "I wanted it to be like, 'Here's this band out of nowhere'. [That way] I can get an honest opinion. I didn't want to get, 'Man I like Lupe, but that's wack because he's not rapping', or a 'Lupe, everything he do is dope!', I wanted a true reaction to it."
