STATE OF OPPORTUNITY. Can Kids in Michigan Get Ahead?

"Nothing's changed" - Rapper Lupe Fiasco breaks down seeing his old neighborhood

Lupe Fiasco performing
Brennan Schnell

A video making its way around the web right now is a powerful demonstration of what a toll it takes - even on very successful people - to come out of difficult circumstances.

There are plenty of statistics on this site showing it's really hard for kids born without economic opportunity to get ahead. But rapper Lupe Fiasco shows what an emotional toll that lack of opportunity can take on people - even people who beat the odds and find success. 

Fiasco, a hip-hop star famous for his experimental music and for bucking expectations about what a rapper can make records about (his first single was an homage to skateboarding), broke down in an interview after watching a six-year-old video of himself in his Chicago neighborhood.

"You're just trying to make it better, and come up out of it ... nothing's changed." Fiasco said. "Some of them kids ain't gonna make it out of there. You just feel so helpless ... it is a terrible thing. And I see it everywhere."

Get More: Lupe Fiasco, Music News

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