Lupe Fiasco has shared a previously unreleased single entitled “Shrink,” which features a sample of Radiohead’s Kid A track “Optimistic.” Of course, this isn’t the first time Lupe has rapped over a Thom Yorke–affiliated cut—in a June interview with Stereogum, the rapper revealed that many songs he made with Kanye West and Pharrell under the Child Rebel Soldier moniker featured Radiohead/Yorke samples. One of those, “Us Placers,” remains an absolute banger.
In the interview, Lupe explained: “Pharrell is at Louis Vuitton, Ye is in some fucking factory somewhere pumping out socks. So [now], I’m like fuck it, I’m gonna reboot CRS in the next six months, maybe next year—Tyler has one of the CRS records—but it’s gonna go back to the original energy, which was me rapping over Radiohead beats.”
Lupe also sampled Kid A track “The National Anthem” on his 2014 track of the same name, featured on his Enemy of the State project. Check out “Shrink” below, and read our recent interview with Lupe—in which we cover just about everything but Radiohead samples—here.
