Lupe Fiasco’s Public Art Experience
GHOTIING MIT: Public Art invites you to explore a site-specific collaboration between Grammy Award-winning rapper and MIT visiting professor Wasalu Jaco (Lupe Fiasco) and the MIT List Visual Arts Center. This innovative project examines the relationship between rap and MIT’s public art collection across seven campus locations, blending Jaco’s unique “Ghotiing” approach—which merges plein air painting concepts with field recording and rap. While Jaco’s May 2 Artfinity premiere with the MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble is now sold out, there is an in-person standby line and this public art experience remains accessible to all.
Start Tour Here: GHOTIING MIT
A collaboration between Lupe Fiasco and the MIT List Visual Arts Center, GHOTIING MIT: Public Art is a site-specific rap and field recording project that explores the relationship between rap and MIT’s public art collection. By composing and recording on-site, Lupe engages directly with the sculptures, murals, and installations across campus, using their forms, histories, and surroundings as creative catalysts. Capturing ambient sounds and crafting lyrics in response to each piece, the project transforms public art into a living sonic experience—where rap and visual art intersect in real time.
“GHOTIING” is an innovative, site-specific approach to rap creation that integrates field recording and En Plein Air composition. Pioneered by rapper & professor Lupe Fiasco at MIT, this method encourages rappers to compose and record in dynamic, real-world environments rather than within the controlled confines of a studio.
By venturing into various outdoor and public spaces—such as bustling city streets, quiet parks, transit hubs, or culturally significant landmarks—artists engage directly with their surroundings, allowing ambient sounds, atmosphere, and social context to shape their lyrical content, flow, and delivery. The process incorporates field recording techniques, capturing environmental noise and spontaneous interactions, which can serve as sonic textures or conceptual inspiration for compositions.
Much like En Plein Air painters immerse themselves in a setting to capture its essence in real time, GHOTIING encourages rappers to respond to their environment spontaneously, adapting their creative process to the unique energy of each space. This approach fosters greater improvisation, a deeper connection to place, and an expanded understanding of how setting influences artistic expression. The result is a more organic, unfiltered form of rap that exists at the intersection of soundscape, lyricism, and lived experience.
Inspired by fishing expeditions, GHOTIING reimagines rap creation as a hunt for big ideas—where beats serve as bait, microphones as fishing rods, and both the object and the artist’s mind act as the body of water. By immersing themselves in different environments, rappers cast their creative lines, hoping to reel in unexpected inspiration.