The Cool.

[AC9breaker]

Has anyone picked up Lupe Fiascos new album yet? I just got home from the mall and I was listening to some of the tracks on my way home. This is the first time I've had a song hit me so hard to me move me to tears. Track number 5 Superstar. Once I finally gather my thoughts I'll post my review of this album.

[Shadowpawn]

It's alright. Didn't really like superstar (too much feel good nonsense for me) to much but I the ones I did like where:


Gold Watch
Toyko in Paris
The Coolest
Put you on Game
Little Weapon
Streets on Fire
Intruder Alert

So I pretty much like half the album. P.S. I didn't know a Fallout boy produced the beat to Little Weapon. I was like...wha? http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_eek.gif

[DizzyDi]

I love the album. Pre-ordered it and also got a shirt, going to a concert on the 25th. Word up.
The whole album is great but I think Superstar is a pretty weak track. My favorites are...:

The Coolest - Not much I can say about this track that hasn't already been said. Its lyrically deep, great dark melody, and a nice intro to the album's pseudo-concept.

Gold Watch - My friend's don't like it for the looping vocal sample but I personally think its dope. Its catchy, and its just Lupe talking about how smoove he is. Whats there not to like?

Intruder Alert - Its like Hurt Me Soul pt 2. AND I LOVED THAT SONG!

Streets On Fire - No one can hate this song, seriously. Everything about this song is on point.

Little Weapon - Its like American Terrorist but with a different perspective. AND I LOVED AMERICAN TERRORIST.

Gotta Eat - Did you realize he's rapping about a hamburger? I mean seriously, not only are the lyrics incredibly complex, BUT WHO ELSE HAS RAPPED ABOUT A HAMBURGER? Lupe is seriously one of the best ever.

Dumb It Down - Heard it like 3 months ago, loved it then, still love it. Event hough I really don't think hes rapping about anything really important or relevant.

Hello/Goodbye - The most standout track on the album. NOT THE BEST, but the one that sticks out the most. And it just shows Lupe's creativity to collab with an English metal band

Little Weapon - Produced by Patrick Stump? The dude from FalloutBoy, WORD? Well whatever, its a great song. I especially like how the song starts.

Put You On the Game - VERSE OF THE YEAR. 'Nuff Said.

Fighters and Go baby - Good songs as well.

[Shadowpawn]

I kinda figured he was rapping about the Big Mac. >_>

And uh...Hello/Goodbye reminded me of a Linkin Pa-

Forget what I was about to say. I SAID NOTHING.

[DizzyDi]

Talkin about fast food in general and about how its bad for you.
"Some call him king, some call him clown/He would say bite me thats the way its goin down"

[Solstis]

Gold Watch is amazing.

The rest are great, but the weakest for me is Hello/Goodbye.

It's okay, but a real mood killer in some ways.

[HAYABUSA-FMW-]

On 2008-01-09 18:28, DizzyDi wrote:
Gotta Eat - Did you realize he's rapping about a hamburger? I mean seriously, not only are the lyrics incredibly complex, BUT WHO ELSE HAS RAPPED ABOUT A HAMBURGER? Lupe is seriously one of the best ever.

That MF DOOM guy.

Lots more production and it avoids Lupe doing 90% of the choruses like Food and Liquor, the featured artists on the tracks helps with that too. Good melody for most of the tracks this time, much easier listen - though I did listen to Food and Liquor a ton anyway.

One track is very much like an old school Tribe Called Quest of J5 kinda thing too, regardless of all that overblown blog/MTV media circus stuff during last year.

Hopefully this carves out a bigger niche for him and brings in more people to his music.

[DizzyDi]

Oh yeah...MF DOOM had an entire album dedicated to food.
But he didn't do it in this way, I don't think.

[Shadowpawn]

It's too bad he's considering ending his career with his next ablum. We need more artists like Lupe who can just rap about anything and make it sound good.

[UnderscoreX]

It's beyond considering, he's said many times he wants to end it with the next album. He still has the CRS thing going though with Kanye and Pharrel, but hey JayZ retired the mic about 4 years ago and we all saw what happened with that.

I think the whole concept album appeal flew over most poeple's heads really. Especially since some of the better tracks weren't really related to the whole Game story. Easily album of the year though for me, favorite tracks were Little Weapons and Hip Hop saved my life.

[AC9breaker]

Some info I found out on the album


I expand on the story, I introduce two other characters, the Game and the Streets. The Streets is a female. She's like the action personification of the streets, the street life, the call of the streets. The Game is the same way. The Game is the personification of the game. The pimp's game, the hustler's game, the con man's game, whatever. Then they've got supernatural characteristics. Like the Cool, his right hand is rotted away. The only thing that rotted away was his right hand. It represents the rotting away of his righteousness, of his good. And the Streets and the Cool kind of have a love affair going on. So she's represented by this locket. And the locket has a key and it's on fire. And as a gift to the Cool on his rise to fame, she gave him the key. And the key represents the key to the Streets. So she wears a locket around her neck at all times. And the way the story goes, she has given that key to tons of people throughout time. Al Capone, Alexander the Great, whatever. She's giving them the key to the Streets. Fame and fortune — but also the prices. The Game, he's represented by a stripped-down skull, a skull with dice in his eyes and smoke coming out of his mouth. The billowing smoke is actually crack smoke. It's not a full concept album; it's more spread over like five [tracks], really abstractly.

I've been listening to this CD nonstop and I gotta say I love how every track seems completely fresh.

[Midicronica]

It's a kind of crazy how this thread showed up hear. One of my friends just came over telling me that "YOU HAVE TO LISTEN TO THIS NEW ALBUM! THIS SHIT IS DOPE AS HELL!" We popped in my Xbox which is linked to my sound system and started jammin.

I've always been a fan of Lupe Fiasco since I first saw his video "Kick Push" and now he releases this amazing album. I gotta give the man his props. This is album is great.

[InfinityXXX]

I enjoyed The Cool...I'll give it a 4/5....it was refreshing to have some real hip hop dropped....

...My only complaint was that I relaly wasn't feeling some of the tracks (i'm talking about the music)...It could've used better production..but Lupe has great wordplay skills and I liked the album cover.....The lyrical content on The Cool was better than Graduation (yea..I'm putting that out there lol)


...Anyways..tickets to see him in concert are selling like Hot Cakes...I'm just hoping I get into some cash before nothings left but Nose Bleed....ughhhh