8.5

This is not a hip hop record.

While Lupe Fiasco is technically a hip hop artist with a hip hop label, The Cool is something different. With a handful of tracks featuring only sung melodies, and production that sounds like a James Lavelle project (well, there is an UNKLE sample on there), The Cool transcends the limitations of the genre in many ways. According to Lupe, the record was to be a sort-of-concept album that told the story of three characters; The Cool, The Streets, and The Game. He did elaborate pretty extensively on the story of these characters before the album came out, but much of it didn’t translate musically. Though, Lupe admits it’s not a full concept album; which…we did notice.

The album’s first track, “Free Chilly,” ends way too soon, but it does set the stage well for the kind of music making that is to follow. In what sounds like a clip of a song rather than a song itself, Lupe sings over a slow and steady pulsating drum beat and strings that belong on a Moby album. On “Superstar,” the hit pop song that didn’t make Lupe as popular as it should have, his prodigy Michael Santos (think Adam Levine meets…Adam Levine) belts out one of the catchiest choruses of the year; “If you are what you say you are/A superstar/Well have no fear/The camera’s here.” Stadiums should be erupting with this the same way they do for “Stronger.” “Paris, Tokyo” grooves like an old Tribe Called Quest beat, which the Snoop cameo on “Hi Definition” would have been better suited for. It’s still pretty badass.

The second half of the record gets pretty heavy on the subject matter; A bit of social commentary on the similarities between violent video games and war on “Little Weapon” (“We’re calling you/There’s a war/if the guns are just too tall for you/We’ll find you something small to use,” goes the chorus of the surprisingly well produced Patrick Stump track…yeah, Fall Out Boy), a first person account of a cheeseburger in the ghetto (ya know, they don’t eat right in the ghetto), his flat out refusal to dumb down his music to gain a wider audience (“Them big words ain’t cool, nigga”), and the immigration/rape metaphors of “Intruder Alert.” You might even cry.

Then we’re up to the afore-mentioned UNKLE sample on “Hello Goodbye,” which features the entire eerie track “Chemistry” off of War Stories, with Lupe adding some eerie lyrics to match. One of the best songs on The Cool, it pretty much makes you ache for a Lupe Fiasco UNKLE remix album. For a minute, you forget that you’re listening to that hip hop skater dude and wonder if this is one of Radiohead’s In Rainbows disc 2 bonus tracks (yeah, I said it).

Even though Lupe’s characters and story-line are a bit lost on this loose concept album, the concept of making a great record is not. For a rapper who has already announced his final release (L.U.P.End), Lupe certainly has a lot to say. Sadly, he is one of the few mainstream rappers who actually has interesting things to say. Hopefully he’ll re-consider the early retirement.