Lupe Fiasco

Lupe Fiasco is certainly ambitious. Nestled between pop nuggets such as the butter smooth, globe-trotting anthem "Paris, Tokyo" and lead single "Superstar," Fiasco threads a narrative about a gangster named The Cool who strikes a devilish deal with The Streets and is resurrected as a one-armed monster. Marrying gothic horror with Jigga's liquid flow, The Cool is the most lyrically ambitious hip-hop album of 2007, and the production's genre-spanning electro-hop serves as an excellent point of entry.

Fifty years ago, Miles Davis announced the “birth of the cool.” Lupe Fiasco anchors his
new album in the declaration, “I present the death of tha cool” — showing all the artistic
ambition and cold-eyed moralism that makes him such a fascinating hip-hop figure. This
skateboarding Muslim from Chicago won fans right off with his 2005 debut Food and Liquor,
even if it turned out he was pro the former, con the latter. The Cool goes for sof... More >