Product Description

'The Cool' is the second album from American hip hop star Lupe Fiasco and is loosely based on the track of the same name from his debut album 'Food & Liquor'. The album sees Lupe shift towards a more pop orientated sound while managing to maintain his credibility by employing the production talentsof Soundtrakk, Chris & Drop and Unkle. Guest vocals and playing comes from the likes of Snoop Dogg, Matthew Santos and Queens Of The Stone Age's Josh Homme.

Track Listing

1. Baba Says Cool For Thought - Lupe Fiasco
2. Free Chilly - Lupe Fiasco & Sarah Green/Gemstones
3. Go Gadget Flow - Lupe Fiasco
4. Coolest - Lupe Fiasco
5. Superstar - Lupe Fiasco & Matthew Santos
6. Paris Tokyo - Lupe Fiasco
7. Hi Definition - Lupe Fiasco & Snoop Dogg/Pooh Bear
8. Gold Watch - Lupe Fiasco
9. Hip Hop Saved My Life - Lupe Fiasco & Nikki Jean
10. Intruder Alert - Lupe Fiasco & Sarah Green
11. Streets On Fire - Lupe Fiasco
12. Little Weapons - Lupe Fiasco & Bishop G/Nikki Jean
13. Gotta Eat - Lupe Fiasco
14. Dumb It Down - Lupe Fiasco & Gemstones/Graham Burris
15. Hello Goodbye (Uncool) - Lupe Fiasco & UNKLE
16. Die - Lupe Fiasco & Gemstones
17. Put You On Game - Lupe Fiasco
18. Fighters - Lupe Fiasco & Matthew Santos
19. Go Baby - Lupe Fiasco & Gemstones

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1228 in Music
• Released on: 2008-01-21
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Enhanced, Explicit Lyrics

Amazon.co.uk Review
Will The Cool, the second album from Lupe Fiasco, do what his first couldn't and make this Chicago rap prodigy a star? If the answer must be no, maybe it's just because Lupe's too far ahead of the competition. The Cool gets off to a bit of a bumpy start--"Go Go Gadget Flow" shows off Lupe's quick-lips vocal talents, but it's a bit slight content-wise, while "Superstar" reaches for the crossover card through its somewhat hammy sub-Chris Martin vocal from Matthew Santos. A little further in, though, and Lupe's firing on all cylinders. "Dumb It Down" outdoes Pharrell at his own game, droning synths and ticking drums atop which Lupe dissects an industry built on low expectations. "Hello/Goodbye" shows the breadth of The Cool's scope, borrowing a doom-laden hook from James Lavelle's UNKLE project. And "Little Weapon", produced by Patrick Stump from Fall Out Boy, surprises; a pneumatic, enjoyable production that's the bed for a narrative that sees Lupe morphed into the body of a child solider--although a surprise pull-back at the end suggests it might be about violent computer games. Maybe it's too fragmented to vault Lupe into the league of Kanye and Jay-Z--or maybe The Cool is simply too original and too inspired to resort to hip-hop cliché. --Louis Pattison

Customer Reviews

Some COOL S***
This album is sick, the bomb, ill what ever you what ever you want to call it. It takes a while to get into Lupe The COOL as he has new style & flow which is difficult for new consumers to get hold of. 1st, 2nd, 3rd and even a 4th listen might not catch you but after that you will be hooked. The albums overall production is perfect with no album fillers (unlike many other hip hop albums i have listened to over the years). The track that will grab all is Superstar but now thats the only track i will skip past, Hip Hop saved my life is dope and so is Streets on Fire (has a Rock feel) Intruder Alert has mad dope rhyming, Free Chilly the 2nd track is only 1 minute 2 seconds long and that gives you an overall feel, a lot of the tracks have an indie flavor (cold play, snow patrol & linkin park) and then comes in with some crazy drums which will get you nodding all the way home. Overall Lupe deserves 5 mics a CLASSIC {Dark Boy)

So soft I'd call it RnB
I see a lot of people calling this hip hop but the beats are so slow and there's so much singing that I'd have to say it walks the line of RnB, saying that this is RnB to the highest standard. The tracks are so consistent that there's a real feel that this album is a masterpiece, listening to the album really gives you a good feeling and there's no dips or dives - its just a great experience. The lyrics are clean, poetic and bend towards well structured beautiful chorus'. I must admit I dont think I've heard of any of the collaborations on this album but they're really talented artists that offer so much to Lupe's subtle style. If you're gonna buy a hip hop / RnB album to play into the ground then make it this one.

A Hip-Hop Classic
Been a fan of Lupe Fiasco since Food and Liquor dropped and he's done something not many have been capable of- make an album even better than their already great previous album
The Cool does not have one bad song, mixed with Lupe's pretty much perfect and extremely clever lyrics and the smooth beats makes for a really impressive album which deserves to be put in to the ranks of a Hip-Hop classic, something that is extremely rare in the US now with the fall in the quality of the genre
Lupe Fiasco is one who shows that you don't have to talk about guns, drugs, looking at women with a derogatory view etc. and still make a mind-blowing Hip-Hop album
Lupe is one of the only rappers in the US who is just about keeping Hip-Hop alive over there and it is a great pity that he is apparently going to quit after his third album
Any fan of the genre cannot miss this album and those who don't like it are probably the ones who listen to the terrible songs labelled as Hip-Hop which is killing the dying genre
Also need to say that Lupe is one of those artists that has lyrics where you will keep finding out different things the more you listen and carries on that tradition on this album