Lupe Fiasco Beats No. 1 Ranked ‘Street Fighter’ Player in the World

Lupe Fiasco's lyrical prowess is well known, but the Chicago rapper has some pretty sick skills with the sticks as well. Just ask world reigning Street Fighter champion Daigo Umehara, whom Lupe beat in a best of five matchup earlier this week at the Street Fighter V launch gala in San Francisco. While Fiasco has referenced the game on wax ("I love Street Fighter 2, I just really hat Zangief / Only Ken and Ryu, I find it hard to beat Blanka"), the Japanese-born Umerhara holds the Guinness World Record for most Street Fighter tournament wins, making him the odds-on favorite entering the match.

And yet, Lupe prevailed, delivering a flying jump kick in the fifth of five matches to seal the deal. The two squared off in a 2-D version of the game with its most iconic characters Ken (Fiasco) and Ryu (Umehara). Any notion that Umehara threw the match was shot down by the gamer himself.

“Given that Lupe is such a wildly talented artist, it shouldn’t be surprising that he came to play against me last night," Umehara told Kotaku in a statement. "I would like to congratulate him on his victory last night, but let’s say that you can eagerly await a rematch. The crowd warmly welcomed us and was so excited. I thought it was a great run. Lupe gifted me his own Metal Gear jacket (which I wore at the autograph session later). I believe it was because he thought we had good matches too!”

Though sales numbers have yet to be released, safe estimates are projecting the game to sell two million copies before the end of the fiscal year. Watch the match-up in the video above.

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