Lupe Fiasco - The Cool

December 18th, 2007 marked the release date of Lupe Fiasco's sophomore album entitled, The Cool.  The title for the album comes from his freshman musical album in which, "The Cool" is the title of one of the tracks.  There are three characters introduced in this album: The Cool, The Streets,  and The Game.  The Streets is a female character which describes the conflict and action which goes on in the streets.  Both her and The Cool end up having a love affair, and The Cool gets a rise to fame, and The Streets give The Cool a key to a necklace with which she wears around her neck.  As you can see on the album cover, there are three things, a skull hand (representing The Cool), a skull head (representing The Game), and a locket (representing The Streets, as mentioned above).  As you can see, there is a sort of story-line to the whole album.

The first single off The Cool, "Superstar" was everything you would want in a single.  The track was a hit, and like most hit tracks, had many remixes and versions.  Out of all the tracks on Lupe's second album, "Superstar" was my favorite.  The track features Matthew Santos, and the two of them compliment each other very nicely on this track.  The track has an excellent beat, the lyrics are up beat considering how the album features more of a darker side then past albums.  The album overall is pretty good, but this track really does help with the quality with which this album is as a full production.  So as you can see, I thought this track for a single was simple genius by Lupe Fiasco and those who helped him make the album.

"Paris, Tokyo" was the second single off of Lupe Fiasco's, The Cool.  The track was alright as a second release, but it is hard to follow up a track like "Superstar" on such a start studded album.  In my opinion, on the overall album as a whole, "Paris, Tokyo" just did not really fit in with the whole album.  While it is a good track still, nonetheless, I do not see it as a single worthy track.  Maybe a track such as, "Dumb It Down," would be considered more of a single worthy track.  Overall, it was a pretty decent track, and it definitely kept me interested in the album's release.

Overall, the album was a huge success, and is probably one of my favorite Rap albums of not only that year, but also at the beginning of 2008.  The album still has singles to be released, music videos to be shot, and remixes to be made.  As you are all knowledgeable people, some of you may not know that Lupe Fiasco is a fans type of musician.  A lot of rappers and hip-hop artists now a days disregard their fans, and care mainly about cash money and how they solidify themselves in the history of the musical industry.  Lupe is not like that.  He is that guy that thanks his fans, shouts out to people who support him, and is just not a selfish guy.  For that, we here at TGLR would like to thank Lupe for all that he has done in the music world, and are excited for his third and hopefully not last album which will be entitled, LUPEnd. 

Track Listing:

"Baba Says Cool for Thought (Feat. Iesha Jaco)" (N/A out of N/A)
"Free Chilly (Feat. GemStones & Sarah Green)" (8.7 out of 10)
"Go Go Gadget Flow" (8.9 out of 10)
"The Coolest" (9 out of 10)
"Superstar (Feat. Mathew Santos)" (9.8 out of 10)
"Paris Tokyo" (8.6 out of 10)
"High Definition (Feat. Snoop Dogg & Pooh Bear)" (8.2 out of 10)
"Gold Watch" (8.5 out of 10)
"Hip-Hop Saved My Life (Feat. Nikki Jean)" (8.85 out of 10)

"Intruder Alert (Feat. Sarah Green)" (9 out of 10)
"Street on Fire (Feat. Mathew Santos)" (8.99 out of 10)

"Little Weapon (Feat. Bishop G & Nikki Jean)"(8.3 out of 10)
"Gotta Eat" (8.4 out of 10)
"Dumb It Down (Feat. Gemini and Graham Burris)" (9.5 out of 10)
"Hello/Goodbye (Uncool)" (9 out of 10)
"The Die (Feat. Gemini)" (9.3 out of 10)
"Put You on Game" (8.7 out of 10)
"Fighters (Feat. Mathew Santos)" (8.9 out of 10)
"Go Baby Go (Feat. GemStones)" (8.8 out of 10)

Bonus Track:

"Blackout (Circuit City Bonus Track)"

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