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Lupe Fiasco Gets Even Cooler On Second Album

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By CURTIS ROSS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 3, 2008

Make no mistake about it. Lupe Fiasco is good. So good you'll wonder why Kanye gets all the press. So good you'll wonder why 2006's "Food & Liquor" didn't create a bigger sensation. So good you'll forgive him pronouncing "passport" as "pass-purt" for the sake of a rhyme.

Yeah, that good.

"The Cool," the Chicago-based MC's second album, has a storyline, a pretty standard poor-boy-on-the-streets scenario with supernatural overtones. But "The Cool" never strains your patience. Each cut stands on its own - not so great for the story, really, but far better for the listener.

Like West, Fiasco has a knack for combining credible hip hop with pop-style hooks. First single "Superstar" has a chorus that sticks in the memory after the first listen. "Paris, Tokyo" is a dreamy, romantic diversion built around a lush Deodato sample.

"Hip Hop Saved My Life" is perhaps the most moving salute to the genre so far, a song that describes the power of the music the way The Velvet Underground's "Rock and Roll" does for rock.

The story, and the album, inevitably spirals into darker territory, and the trio of "Gotta Eat," "Dumb It Down" and "Hello/Goodbye" (with war-zone rock backing by Unkle) set up the near-hopeless "The Die."

But Lupe's not going out like that, and the album ends on the positive, if somewhat inexplicable, note of "Go Baby."

Had it not been released so late in the year, "The Cool" would have been a shoo-in for most Top 10 lists.

Download this: "Superstar"

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