Tickets for Lupe Fiasco and Cool Kids are available at the NIU Convocation Center Box Office, all Ticketmaster Outlets, Ticketmaster.com, or by phone at 800-745-3000. Tickets for Lupe Fiasco are $37.00. NIU Student tickets are $32.00 with a valid NIU OneCard at the NIU Convocation Center Box Office.

Critically acclaimed rapper Lupe Fiasco returns with one of the most heavily anticipated releases in recent years, a revolutionary album called LASERS, reaching new heights of lyrical and musical mastery, while aiming to reach even bigger audiences.

The album has already spawned an exuberant hit single, “The Show Goes On,” which re-introduced Fiasco to fans after a four-year absence. It will undoubtedly continue to earn attention over the next year and beyond with mind-expanding and ear-catching singles like the incendiary “Words I Never Said” featuring Skylar Grey and produced by Alex Da Kid (Eminem’s “Love the Way You Lie”), the thought-provoking “All Black Everything,” and “Out of My Head,” a collaboration with labelmate Trey Songz.

LASERS is an acronym for “Love Always Shines Everytime: Remember to Smile,” and the album is a reflection of a 14-point manifesto the Chicago-born MC composed to guide him on the project, including items like “We want substance in the place of popularity” and “We will not compromise who we are to be accepted by the crowd.”

“I want to start a popular uprising,” says Fiasco. “The music is the bait to get people to come in and listen to what I’m saying.”

In the packed confines of clubs around their hometown of Chicago and throughout the world The Cool Kids’ irresistible, hooky rhymes and club cramming beats seamlessly bridge the old and new schools of hip hop while assuring them a sure-fire path to world-wide attention. In their short amount of time as a duo The Cool Kids have been featured in Rolling Stone, XXL, The Source, Spin, Paper Magazine, CBS News, The New Yorker, The Fader, and on the cover of The Urb – all without a single release to their name!