Lupe Fiasco's "The Cool" review

Lupe Fiasco
The Cool
Grade: C+/B-

I still don’t see what’s the big deal about Lupe Fiasco. When people talk about him, he seems to inspire ridiculous praise or ridiculous hatred. He doesn’t merit either. Lupe’s a slightly above middle-of-the-road MC with a decent flow and some interesting concept songs who takes himself a tad too seriously.

I don’t like to sound like the crotchety sour-ass hip-hop head living in the past, but even 10 years ago this guy wouldn’t have distinguished himself from the hordes of other underground MCs trying to earn major label attention. Ironically, it’s only since both the mainstream and underground scenes have been dumbed down so much that Lupe is seen as a breath of fresh air. It follows that “The Cool,” Lupe’s second album in two years, doesn’t do that much distinguish itself from the other quality hip-hop releases of the year, both underground and mainstream.

To its credit, “The Cool” is never offensively bad: it’s just boring. Much of the album runs together, many of those songs sounding interchangeable. Lupe’s “Go Go Gadget Flow” (he even has a song about it) is interesting but nothing to crow about. He knows how to string together words and make them sound cool, but he lacks the mic presence and charisma to really make you care. His collaboration with Snoop Dogg, “Hi-Definition” is as boring as most Snoop collaborations these days, with Snoop phoning it in once again over a track that sounds like it was thrown away by will.i.am (it was actually produced by Aishux).

The album does contain good songs, such as “Paris, Tokyo” and “The Die.” “Gold Watch” shows he can still do straight braggadocio raps when needed, over crispy dumb and a chopped vocal sample. “Little Weapon” is poignant tale of how violence affects the reality of people across the globe, while “Fighters” contains a heartfelt dedication to Lupe’s deceased father. And, to his credit, “Hip-Hop Saved My Life” is about an accurate description of the life of a MySpace/mixtape rapper that has been recorded thus far. But these six songs don’t add up to make “The Cool” a good album, especially considering its bloated 70-minute length.

Lupe has conviction and he knows how to write a song about interesting topic, but that in itself isn’t enough to make “The Cool” to move beyond a decent listen into something truly memorable. I already feel like Talib Kweli already did this type of album, a “conscious” album with pop appeal, much better earlier this year with Eardrum. Lupe has to stop wanting to be the mainstream consciousness of hip-hop music and actually make a consistent album that can stand up to this ideal. Otherwise, despite his big dreams, he’ll be relegated to the middle of the pack.