Album Review: Lupe Fiasco’s “The Cool”

Lupe Fiasco’s debut album Food and Liquor showcased the quick-witted rapper’s penchant for good vibes and G.O.O.D. beats, following in the footsteps of Chicago’s pride and joy, Common and Kanye West. His ambitious coupling of diverse subjects and long narratives (summarized with his heartfelt paean to skateboarding, “Kick, Push”) made for a well-rounded but exhausting listen (the nine-minute “Outro” was a miscalculation).

Being too eager to please all audiences may have stunted Food and Liquor ever so slightly, but not enough to consider it anything less than a good album by a promising artist. Now in 2007, The Cool is upon us.

After a poetry-slam intro and a forgettable, minute-long Akon-esque dirge The Cool picks up where Food and Liquor left off, with Fiasco’s witty wordplay and ever-changing flow dominating “Go Go Gadget Flow,” while “The Coolest” echoes latter-day Jay-Z over brooding synth-work. So far, so-so.

After a less-than stellar first half, The Cool starts to sound like its namesake with “Paris, Tokyo,” where Fiasco stops impressing and cools down over a beat that sounds snatched straight from the crate of Lord Finesse. Even “Hi-Definition,” a bubbly duet with Snoop rapping on its tail-end sounds right, with a day-glo beat and plenty of internal space for the two to weave through.

“Hip-Hop Saved My Life” and “Intruder Alert” are a tad too maudlin for my tastes. The song’s subjects – rags to riches celebration; open-wounds storytelling over a weepy beat – have been done a billion times over to reveal anything new, at least to my ears. The music gets over-dramatic and too thick for Fiasco to penetrate at times; a sparse background would’ve suited both songs much better.

The greatest track on The Cool happens to be the most experimental. “Hello/Goodbye” benefits greatly from production by U.N.K.L.E., one of the better-known pillars of modern electro. The song cannot be charted through its 4:27 length, worming around various styles and rhythms with pure abandon. Some tracks on The Cool could have been considered jewels like “Hello/Goodbye,” but a long album (once again) hampers the overall quality, moving it along at a snail’s pace.

Why do artists feel compelled to include so many tracks on their albums these days? At 19 tracks in total, The Cool could’ve used some serious trimming – about 25 minutes’ worth.

Still, even with its bloated running time and a few duds, The Cool is one of the year’s better hip-hop albums. What does that say about hip-hop in ‘07? You tell me.