lupe fiasco's The Cool ressurects hiphop

now, dont come in this thread if you're just going to bash hiphop music. What I hope this thread does is open some eyes that the music is an actual art form, that it deserves respect as so. What is flooded on the radio is NOT hiphop... its pop.

Hiphop is often criticized for lacking creativity. Lupe Fiasco does not fall under this catergory. please take a second to try and understand how incredibly talented this man is.

"Lupe Fiasco's The Cool expands on the story Lupe told on the track, "The Cool", from his debut album. Fiasco introduces the characters the Streets and the Game. The album tells the story of the little boy from "He Say, She Say" who grew up without a father, and the people that step in to raise him are the Streets and the Game. Speaking on the concept Lupe said:

I expand on the story, I introduce two other characters, the Game and the Streets. The Streets is a female. She's like the action personification of the streets, the street life, the call of the streets. The Game is the same way. The Game is the personification of the game. The pimp's game, the hustler's game, the con man's game, whatever. Then they've got supernatural characteristics. Like the Cool, his right hand is rotted away. The only thing that rotted away was his right hand. It represents the rotting away of his righteousness, of his good. And the Streets and the Cool kind of have a love affair going on. So she's represented by this locket. And the locket has a key and it's on fire. And as a gift to the Cool on his rise to fame, she gave him the key. And the key represents the key to the Streets. So she wears a locket around her neck at all times. And the way the story goes, she has given that key to tons of people throughout time. Al Capone, Alexander the Great, whatever. She's giving them the key to the Streets. Fame and fortune — but also the prices. The Game, he's represented by a stripped-down skull, a skull with dice in his eyes and smoke coming out of his mouth. The billowing smoke is actually crack smoke. It's not a full concept album; it's more spread over like five [tracks], really abstractly."

1. He Say She Say (The Cool as a kid, story of no father)
2. Real Recognize Real (Introduction of The Game and the Streets)
3. I Dont Feel So Good (How The Cool's mom gives in to the game and the streets, she becomes a stripper)
4. The Coolest(Michael Young becomes the cool through the Streets)
5. The Die (The Cool now as a hustler gets killed)
6. The Cool (The Cool came back to life to exact revenge on those who killed him)

other awesome displays of lyrical talent...

"LITTLE WEAPON"

"I killed another man today
Shot him in his back as he ran away
Then I blew up his hut with a hand grenade
Cut his wife's throat as she put her hands to pray
Just five more dawgs then we can get a soccer ball
That's what my commander say
How Old?
Well Im like ten, eleven, been fightin since I was like six or seven
Now I dont know much bout where Im from
but I know I strike fear everywhere I come
Government want me dead so I wear my gun
I really want the rocket launcher but Im still too young
This candy give me courage not to fear no one
To fear no pain, and hear no tongue
So I feel no pain, and I shed no tear
If Im in your dreams then your end is near."

"AMERICAN TERRORIST"

"Don’t give black man food, give the red man liquor
Red man fool, black man *****
Give yellow man tool, make him railroad builder
Also give him pan, make him pull gold from river
Give black man crack, glocks and things
Give red man craps, slot machines"

"KICK PUSH"

"First got it when he was six
Didn't know any tricks
Matter of fact first time he got on it he slipped
Landed on his hip
And busted his lip
For a week he had to talk with a lisp
Like THISSSSS
Now we can end the story right here
But shorty didn't quit there was something in the air
Yea, he said it was something so appealin
He couldn't fight the feelin
Something about it
He knew he couldn't doubt it
Couldn't understand it
Brand it, just the first kickflip he landed
Uh, labeled a misfit, a bandit
*Kakunk Kakunk Kakunk!*
His neighbors couldn't stand it so
He was banished to the park
Started in the morning wouldn't stop 'til after dark
Yea, when they said, "It's getting late in here..
...so I'm sorry young man there's no skating here"

so he kick push kick push kick push kick push coasssssttttt
and away he roll
just a rebel to the world with no place to go..."

"HIP HOP SAVED MY LIFE"

"He said, I write what I see
Write to make it right, don't like what I be
I like to make it like the sights on TV
Quite the great life so nice and easy
See, now you can still die from that
But it's better than not being alive from straps
Agreed
a Mead notebook and a Bic that click when its pushed and a whack ass beat.
That's a track thats weak that he got last week
'Cause everybody in the studio's like "that's that heat"
A bass-heavy medley with a sample from the 70s with a screwed up hook that went "Stack that cheese"
Somethin somethin somethin "Stack that cheese"
Mother sister cousin "Stack that cheese"
He couldn't think of nothin' "Stack that cheese"
He turns down the beat, writter's block impedes
Cryin' from the next room a baby in need of some pampers and some food and a place to sleep
That plus a black Cadillac on D's
Is what keeps him on track to be a great MC"


Lupe Fiasco. The Truth.

 

uhhh.... you talking about master-p, c-murda, silkk the shocka no limit records? "make em say ungggghhhhh" no limit records?

i dont think anyone ever thought no limit would do anything positive for hiphop culture. if anything, they contributed to the bling-bling era of rap.

lupe is a breath of fresh air in the new generation of MCs. Ive been a fan of hiphop since i was 3 years old, back in the days of run dmc, public enemy, fat boyz, tribe called quest, etc... but i literally stopped listening to new hiphop music for the past 4 years or so because of the garbage that was being put out there.

lupe fiasco has brought me back. he has the talent and creative vision to re-define the genre and bring mainstream hiphop lyricism back from the dead.