Lupe Fiasco’s “I’m Beamin” Reveals Atlantic’s Video Blueprint (Watch)

We've been hearing the occasional leak from Lupe Fiasco's upcoming "Lasers" album for weeks, but until now we haven't seen any accompanying visuals...until now. Last night El Senor de Fiasco released a treat for your eyeballs to go along with the audio for the album's lead single "I'm Beamin". If this was an R. Kelly video I'd be concerned about the preponderance of children in it, but as is I'm really digging the hip-hop meets third grade school play style. Enjoy.


Download "I'm Beaming" via MediaFire
Download "I'm Beaming" via UserShare

Instead of breaking down the videos specifics, I thought we'd take a slightly more large scale view and explore the link between Lupe and B.o.B. First, as regular readers will likely recall, a few weeks ago I revealed that B.o.B.'s breakthrough single "Nothin' On You" was originally written with Lupe in mind, but Lupe passed and handed it off to B.o.B. In other words, if Lupe had snatched up the track we likely wouldn't be talking about B.o.B. now, and would instead be watching a video for Fiasco's lead single, "Nothin On You".

In terms of the videos specifically, notice any similarities between this and B.o.B.'s "Bet I Bust" flick? It can't be a coincidence. We've basically figured out that Atlantic Records is currently telling its artists, or at least its hip-hop artists, "we'll give you enough money to shoot a performance video in one location. You can do some shit in the background if you want, as long as it's cheap, and we'll also throw in a few basic special effects. That's all you're getting. Do with it what you will."

Think I'm going too far? Just check out another Atlantic artist T.I. and his new "I'm Back" video. Clifford brings in the big money so he's given a little more room to manuever than Lupe or B.o.B., but we're still basically talking about the same thing, right?