Lupe Fiasco - "The Cool"
 

Coming off the heels of his ground-breaking debut "Food & Liquor," Lupe Fiasco outdid himself in this, his full-length sophomore album.

"The Cool" kept, and even improved upon the sound that made "Food & Liquor" an amazing album. His lyrical delivery comes across as extremely confident (similar to Kanye West), and his beats consist of lots of bass (per the usual hip-hop beat), mixed with synthesizers and some horns and pianos, creating a sound that I can only describe as amazing.

His lyrics always tell a story. While listening to this album, it seemed to me that Fiasco was making this album to make good music, not to sell records.

In "Gotta Eat," he compares the life of living on the street and making ends meat ("getting cheese", "eating", "seeds", etc) to a fast food restaurant.

"Dumb It Down" speaks to black america, and how the music industry holds them down. He addresses how mainstream rap dumbs people down with their trash lyrics such as "make it rain," "pourin champaign," etc.

"Intruder Alert" is oneof the best rap ballads that I've heard in many years. It addresses the pain and struggle of the world and its individuals, and how the world needs to change for the better. It encompasses the story of a young girl who has been raped, a recovering drug addict, war and famine in africa, and many other issues.

This album is a welcome breath of fresh air on the rap scene. Out of the 19 tracks on "The Cool", I only found 3 that didn't sufficiently warrant space on my MP3 player.

Overall rating: 9/10
Favorite Song: Gold Watch
Favorite Lyric: "And my most coveted thing is my high self-esteem
And the low tolerance for them telling me how to lean
See the most important parts are the ones that are unseen
See the wings don't make you fly and the crown don't make you king" - Gold Watch

Oojay writing a review ?

Hell really must have frozen over.

Nicely written too. :)

I LOVE The Cool.

i felt it had some unnecessary tracks but was still easily a number 1 pick

lupe is definately doin it... i need to grab this album still.

The Cool album was def one of my favorites Lupe is def doin his thing!!!!

Very well written review! got this album a few weeks ago and even though its not my favourite Genre anymore its never out of my CD player. Its getting so hard to find something different and fresh in Rap/Hip Hop, but Lupe Fiasco is certainly the closest thing to "fresh" that is in Hip Hop today

I think your review gave the album more credit than it deserved, but that's just me.

In Gotta Eat, he characterizes a hamburger as a supervillian that's going around and making America obese. he was taking a jab at the fast food industry.

You also forgot to mention the whole "Cool" storyline that covers a few tracks in the middle. I think he should've just made the entire album a concept album.

My favorite track is Streets on Fire. I'm still trying to figure out that song. Streets is Cool's girlfriend but is she on fire as in on a streak of killing people. There's a part when he says different people are the causes of the deaths. bah
I have to listen to it more to figure it out.

OT: hey djchameleon, where is your avatar from? :yikes:

Don't like him. No flow, mediocre lyrics, and annoying attempts at humor.

No flow? More flow than 99% of the rappers out there right now. And for lyrics, hes got better lyrics than that same 99%. Doesn't rap about the same getting rich bull**** most do, its about stuff happening to him, and the world.

Thats just my 2 cents though, i could see how you don't like him.

Problem is there's a lot more than 100/1 bad/good rapper ratio right now. Sadly.

If that aint the truth. Theres next to no good new artists around now. All the new ones are just filthy bad.

There's just as much total good stuff, but the way record labels churn out artists is pretty disgusting.

I really do like Lupe and love what hes doin in the hip hop game right now. However, I really wasnt all that impressed with The Cool at all.

very good cd. i agree with DMizz, there was some unnecessary tracks, but definitely at nice addition to any collection.

Food & Liquor was hyped a while back and I was dissapointed with it TBH. I don't know whether I should give this one a listen.

This one's way better than F&L IMHO. It has strong hints if the same style, but taken to a much higher level.

one of my favorite recent albums -- wordplay and flow is amazing. the metaphors especially remind me of something i would see in slug's work. i especially like hip hop saved my life, the coolest, and little weapon. lupe's words are beautifully scripted and his themes are deeply integrated into the actual song. he touches on many complex aspects of life while still keeping the album interesting. it's a nice change to have a relatively popular artist release something that isn't just about "poppin hoes" or "gettin money" :-D

I have to say that I wasn't thoroughly impressed by "The Cool". I would give it maybe a six out of ten. Furthermore, I think "Food and Liquor" is definitely better than this album. So jackhammer, if you didn't like "Food and Liquor" (which I did), I wouldn't bother trying "The Cool" if I were you. But you did a good job reviewing it oojay.

lupe fiasco is good i agree with ur rating

"Streets On Fire" is amazing.

im into any rapper that brings a different sound to the genre and brings any meaning at all to the music

this album was pretty good. i would give it a 7 or 8/10. i liked food and liquor alot more. the tracks seemed alot better for me. i'm sure the cool is one that definitely grows on you

No flow

lol

I really like the track "Daydream."
I knew the original song by I Monster before his album was released, and I was very impressed with his version.

LOVE this record!

Maybe you can explain why. Don't hold back , this is a forum for expressing opinions after all.

i think as a whole the cool is much better lyrically and ryhtmically but "kick Push" of F&L is still his best song

The greatest thing about "The Cool" is that it has so many different meanings depending on who is listening. You can argue "Gotta Eat" is an attack on the fast food industry but you could easily turn the argument around and say it's the story of a drug dealer or even the character of, "The Game". I agree with you on "Gold Watch" as the top pick, that's a hot sample right there.

i put this into my cd player for the first time in a while and i have to say that i wasnt very pleased with it. i really enjoyed it the first few times but it just didnt have any replay value with me.

I really enjoyed, solid album. I'd give it around a 7.

Firstly I just like his voice, his flow can be great as well (go go gadget flow). The production is good, although I find that alot of the time the chorus doesn't really gel with the verse that well.

Lyrically he is a little patchy, Hip hop saved my life tells a great story, Dumb it Down is really creative and surreal, but then the ones songs like The Die let him down a little. Oh, and Put you on Game is also has some great emotionally resonate lyrics.