Lupe Fiasco's The Cool

"I'm from the city in the Midwest, best city in the whole wide wide world..."

Just thought I'd throw out a CD recommendation for any hip-hop fans out there. Lupe Fiasco's "The Cool" is probably the best album I've listened to in a long time, hip-hop or otherwise.

I'll admit I may be biased because I always like the Chicago-area artists, but in my opinion Lupe is one of the most talented MC's out there today. Some people are born to sing, others born to dance - and then there are those who are simply born with the gift of rapping. As I listen to "The Cool" (as well as his last album, "Food & Liquor"), I definitely get the feeling that he was born with that special talent to be an MC. It's something that not everyone in the hip-hop world has - for example, I always felt like Kanye West lacked that natural flow in his delivery, and his music isn't as good as it could be. So when you hear someone who really has the skills, it stands out that much more.

The lyrics on "The Cool" are also very well done. Even though I don't necessarily agree with everything that he says, most of it is thought provoking at the very least. While I enjoy your typical mindless radio song about "Apple Bottom jeans and boots with the fur" as much as the next person, I can't help but to wish for a rapper that tackles some more meaningful topics, or goes a little deeper into the psyche of his community. Although I should also point out that at the same time, I think there have been other rappers (or groups) that try too hard to be intellectual or social revolutionaries, but in the process it seems as though the music suffers and they start to lose relevance to real life. I think Lupe does an exceptional job of integrating genuinely thoughtful lyrics with music that still resonates with the listener.

Of course, no rap album can be considered good without having good beats. Fortunately, "The Cool" does not fall short in this category either. The whole CD is packed with some really solid beats, mostly original as far as I can tell. One of the tracks is particularly unique, as "Gold Watch" loops a clip of some lady yelling some gibberish. As weird as that description sounds, it still somehow manages to work. It's actually my favorite song on the album, if I had to pick one.

Other songs that I liked the most were "Hip Hop Saved My Life" and "Intruder Alert". Overall, I wouldn't say this is a very "radio-friendly" album, and I doubt there will be too many singles that reach the top 40 charts. I will say that I think a lot of the songs need a few listens before they start to grow on you, which is a good thing. All of which is a big reason why I felt the need to spotlight the album it out here to begin with. I really believe it's too good of a CD to be lost in the shuffle because of not enough mainstream airplay.

This will sound like an unusual comparison, but in a lot of ways, the album that "The Cool" reminds me most of is Radiohead's "OK Computer", one of my favorite CDs of all time. Obviously each covers a very different genre of music, but the style and approach of both albums seems to generate a similar sort of feel in my mind. Neither disc has much of your typical 4-minute catchy radio single, and neither artist fullly "fits in" with the other artists in their category of music. But when you listen to each song on the CD, almost every single one of them holds up strongly in their own right. There's not much "filler" like what you often find on most other albums - I'd go as far to say that both "OK Computer" and "The Cool" are complete masterpieces that you can listen from beginning to end.

If there is one complaint I have with "The Cool", it would be that there are too many other artists featured throughout the album. I know that it's the trend these days in music to include as many collaborations as possible, but I'm not really a fan of that trend. Especially in this case, I don't think they add much value to the music. As much as I love old-school Snoop Dogg, he hasn't put out anything worthwhile in a long time, and his part in "Hi-Definition" (track 8) is more pointless than anything else. Most of the other featured artists are from lesser known singers or groups, and they did not seem to be all that talented, at least not enough to make the songs significantly better. I think Lupe would have been much better off trimming down the collaborations and keeping this album cleaner.

That one negative aside, I would still rate "The Cool" a solid 9 out of 10, and I strongly recommend to anyone looking for a good rap album to listen to.