Pete Rock is upset Lupe Fiasco used his “T.R.O.Y.” sample on Food & Liquor 2’s first single, “Around My Way (Freedom Ain’t Free)”, thus eliciting a (bulls***) response from the Chicago native.The latest/first single released off Lupe’s much-anticipated Food & Liquor 2:The Great American Rap Album, “Around My Way (Freedom Ain’t Free), received some constructive criticism from Pete Rock — who used the sample on “T.R.O.Y.”, an ode inspired by a fallen friends of the legendary producer.

Of course, Lupe felt the need to qualify his use of the iconic sample via a conference call with his label, Atlantic, mediated by DJ Whoo Kid [via Soul Culture]:

“All the credit goes to my partner and manager Chill, he just felt like it was time to bring back a joint… Go back and take one of the iconic records of Hip Hop and put a new spin on it and put it back out there. I spit on it a couple times before, some mixtape stuff back in the day, Chill felt it needed a bigger look than that.”

If you’re going to use that sample — and I don’t care that Pete Rock took the sample from the jazz musician, Tom Scott, because every legit hip hop head KNOWS “T.R.O.Y.” — at least own up to it. Don’t pass the buck onto your manager. You want to rap on “T.R.O.Y.”, do it on a mixtape, not on an album with “The Great American Rap Album” in its title. Show some respect or at least ask. Some beats should just be left alone.

Speaking of “The Great American Rap Album”, Lupe touched on that as well:

“It’s Food & Liquor 2: The Great American Rap Album Part I. Part I, which “Freedom Ain’t Free” is the single off of, is coming in the next few months. It really ain’t got no features on there. It got a few people on the hooks and stuff like that, but no other real features other than myself. But that’s part one. It’s a double album. We’re probably 80% finished with part 2, which is going to come out a little later. It’s not finalized. You don’t know who’s going to be on it… Part 1 is done and there ain’t gonna be any features on there, but part 2, it maybe somebody coming at the last inning to drop a verse. We’ll see.”