Lupe Fiasco's The Cool

Overview

• Credits

• Editions

• Promotion

Lupe Fiasco's The CoolStudio album by Lupe Fiasco
Released	December 18, 2007 (2007-12-18)
Genre	Hip hop
Length	70:56
Label	1st & 15th Atlantic
Producer(s)	Chilly (exec.) Lupe Fiasco (exec.) Darrale Jones (co-exec.) Al Shux Chris & Drop Chris Goss Le Messie Patrick Stump Simon Sayz Soundtrakk Unkle
Lupe Fiasco chronology
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Lupe Fiasco's The Cool (shortened as The Cool or LFTC) is the second studio album by American rapper Lupe Fiasco. It was released on December 18, 2007, by 1st & 15th Entertainment and Atlantic Records. It features guest appearances from Ayesha Jaco, Sarah Green, GemStones, Matthew Santos, Snoop Dogg, Poo Bear, Nikki Jean, Bishop G, Graham Burris, and Unkle. Being a loose concept album, it is based on a character derived from Fiasco's song, "The Cool," who is a hustler that comes back to life.

Fiasco said to Billboard, "The one thing that I was for sure trying to do that had nothing to do with Food & Liquor was trying to dodge the sophomore jinx. That was a real thing." This refers to the occurrence where the sequel does not live up to its predecessor. The Cool debuted at number 15 on the US Billboard 200, and within its first week, sold 143,407 copies. It was nominated at the 2009 Grammy Awards for Best Rap Album. In October 2022, it became certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), his first album to do so.

Description

Developing in tandem with his Chi-Town mentor Kanye West, Lupe Fiasco's sophomore effort is a far grander than his debut. "The Coolest," "Little Weapon," "Hello Goodbye," and "The Die" are chock full of sound and syllable, buoyed by the same enormous, inflatable synths as Kanye's Graduation. However, some of the best moments on The Cool hearken back to the nimble mischief of A Tribe Called Quest; "Paris, Tokyo" is Lupe's holler-back to Tribe's classic "Award Tour," while "Gold Watch," with its tricky beat and trickier rhymes, might be the album's best song. As his music grows beyond the simple nostalgia of his 2006 hit "Kick, Push," Lupe weaves what are easily mainstream rap's most ambitious verses. "Dumb It Down" is a portfolio of exploratory rhyme styles: "I'm not a listener or a seer so my windshield smear / Here you steer, I really shouldn't be behind this / Clearly cause my blindness / The windshield is min-strel / The whole grill is roadkill / So trill and so sincere / Yeah, I'm both them there." While songs like "Put You On Game" become too grandiloquent for their own good, there are dozens of verses on The Cool that are as complex and challenging as anything a Grammy-nominated rapper has ventured. ^{– Apple Music}

Background

The reason behind the whole 'The Cool' concept is because I miss my father, Stack Bundles, my auntie and Chill. I found solace in the miracle in itself and it came out in 'The Cool.' I wish the shit was true.

Fiasco in 2007, to Billboard

During the recording of his second album, Fiasco underwent a dark period of his life, which included the loss of his father Gregory Jaco in February 2007, who died of type II diabetes. His friend and business partner Charles "Chilly" Patton was convicted on several drug charges in early June 2007, and his friend Rayquon "Stack Bundles" Elliot was murdered outside his New York City-apartment block on June 11, 2007. He explained to MTV News, "So you lose those people, but you lose them on your way to a show. So you got this weird home that's crumbling, but then right there you have 50,000 people calling your name. You get caught. I still haven't really had time to get into it. It's like jet lag [in a way]. That's what's crazy. The reaction doesn't even fit into my schedule."

He told XXL that he thought of the business aspect for its creation: "Even The Cool itself, making it visual, was a business decision. I think when people finally see the album artwork and see how everything is going to roll out and you see the characters—like the actual 'Cool,' the actual zombie 'Hustler' in real life—it will push it that extra mile so people get it and it's less cryptic. Because, you know, it is a very cryptic album. It's built up from songs that are on other albums and mixtapes and then there are little concepts sprinkled throughout." He admitted that it may be his second-last project, explaining that he loved music, performing, and the fans, but disliked recorded music, record labels, and the industry. He continued, "At a certain point, you're going to have to kind of concede to the darker side of doing business to really succeed or you're going to have to make that song you really don't feel that you should be making to achieve a certain level of success. It's like growing up and really looking at the purpose of life and meaning of life and realizing that this is really minuscule in comparison to everything else. Recorded music is the worst, the absolute worst next to probably slavery. In a lot of respects, it can amount to just that."

In 2015, Fiasco announced of the sequel album, The Cool 2, to be released in Winter 2017. Accompanied by this was an updated image of the character symbols, revealing three new ones. On May 13, 2020, he uploaded the livestream video, "The Cool Wiki," to his YouTube channel. He gave an in-depth overview of The Cool multi-universe, where five pieces, gifted by demons, gave power to the user who obtained them. They could only be given to "true demons," meaning the most corrupt. Fiasco introduced several other characters, where some have a piece in the form of a body part: skull (The Game), left arm (Wild Man/Woman), right arm (The Cool), right leg (The Monk), and left leg (The Hacker/Business Magnate). The individual who collected all five pieces had the power to call upon "Big Death," given the choice to turn the world into hell or heaven. The Winemaker wanted to help one of them create a heaven, or a better alternative; however, the individual who chooses Heaven will die as a result, sacrificing themself for the greater good. He found and mentored The Cool, who is suggested to have a redemption arc.

The album became certified gold in April 2008 and certified platinum in October 2022, to which Fiasco named the latter moment a milestone. He told HipHopDX, "As superficial as it may be, it means a lot, especially in this era. To be in a streaming era and still putting up 192,000 records—it's sitting at 1.1 million—and a lot of that came from streaming, at least to push us over and push us over so hard, it speaks to something that we're still relevant to move units in this era. It gives you some inspiration to keep going, it pays the bills, stuff like that. So I like it. I'm definitely hanging it up." Because of this, he placed The Cool as his number-one record out of his entire discography, based on sales.

Concept and themes

(L-R) The Cool, The Streets, and The Game by Katlego Motaung.

Main article: The Cool Multiverse

There are three prominent characters featured on the album, referred to as "three evil angels" by Fiasco to Pitchfork. Their story ties in thematically across several tracks. He added that it was not a full concept album, this idea only running "really abstractly" through five songs. The Cool, formally known as Michael Young History (My Cool Young History), is a boy who is raised by the two supernatural entities The Streets ("a female embodiment of an urban area's corrupt allure") and The Game ("a male personification of a hustler's damaging influences"). Gradually The Cool grows up corrupt by the hands of his lover, The Streets, and starts drug dealing. At the end, he gets shot, but is resurrected as a zombie.

Fiasco explained this concept to Billboard:

It's about a hustler who dies and comes back to life, only to get robbed by two little kids with the same gun that killed him. I expanded that story by connecting different songs and characters in those songs. "The Pills" introduces the characters The Streets and The Game, at a funeral for The Cool, whom several other songs are related to. Each character has defining attributes: The Game has dice for eyes and blunts for arms. The Streets is a temptress with dollar signs for eyes and tattoos of ex-boyfriends like Al Capone and Alexander the Great. […] ["The Cool"] is actually 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, like how people also say, 'The streets raised me.' It's an answer to that.

The record is noted to be darker in comparison to his previous album, where topics include rape, substance use disorder, and child soldiers. Julian Rubalcaba of The Rap Up analyzed of its core concept, "It is the amalgamation of these more up-tempo songs with catchy hooks and interesting themes underneath, and these hardcore hip-hop tracks about success and gang life and falling victim to your own misplaced ambition." HuffPost's Timothy Cooper asserted how the creation of Michael Young History became a game-changer in hip hop, as "many who listen to rap are accustomed to the gruesome stories of brutality in the music without an explanation, Lupe has laid out the call for every artist who relays violence on wax to be responsible for giving all the aspects of a gangster's life; because in real life, committing murder doesn't just constitute as good material for a dope hook." In addition, Fiasco breaks away from the glorification of hustling that's frequently narrated in rap, where MYH presents a dark reality with themes like loss of humanity, senseless violence, and death.

Release and promotion

The Cool premiered in its entirety exclusively on MTV's The Leak website, from December 12-18. In celebration of the LP's release, Fiasco collaborated with Maharishi and Darren "Dr" Romanelli to create two limited jackets. In December 2007, he held a fan contest in partnership with music social networking website imeem.com, Element Skateboards, and Vapors magazine. Each entry would design a skateboard deck based on the concept album, which was won by Lawrence "Sluglife" Ervin. In promotion, a flash game was created to play on Fiasco's website, where the player has to survive through a cemetery full of zombies. He held an album release party at Irving Plaza in New York on December 18, followed by a hometown concert on December 20 at The Bassment in Chicago, and headlined the event MySpace Presents The Release, held on December 27th at Pipeline Café in Honolulu, Hawaii.

In 2008, he embarked on a promotional concert tour, The Cool Tour, which coincided with Kanye West's Glow in the Dark Tour and Fiasco's own six-date Coca-Cola Refresh Your Flow Tour, and visited across the continents North America and Europe.

In 2022, he went on a North American tour in celebration of the album's fifteenth anniversary. Tyler, the Creator was at the New York show and tweeted out, "Seen lupe do THE COOL in full last night. Amazing performer. gold watch the coolest but paris tokyo with the shoutout to me was….mannnnnnnnnn my heart jetted outta my body. loved." Fiasco also performed The Cool in its entirety at the festivals Riot Fest (2021) and Hyde Park Summer Fest (2022).

Fiasco first launched LFTs in February 2021.

The record was planned to expand into a franchise, with a horror-themed radio program and a comic book. It was also announced by Los Angeles Times of him working with Nathan Cabrera to develop collectible toys based on the characters from The Cool, and his website had detailed descriptions of each character. For the launch of LFT on February 10, 2021, the designs were created by Nicolas Lesaffre and inspired by The Cool, where user avatars were set in this era. The record was intended to "live in as many different mediums as possible," like "a small live action on MTV."

Singles

Lupe Fiasco's The Cool consisted of four singles, all produced by Soundtrakk and accompanied by a music video. The album's lead single, "Superstar" featuring Matthew Santos, was released on September 25, 2007. One of his most commercially successful hits, it peaked at number ten on the Billboard Hot 100. It has been popularly used by athletes as their entrance song, including by Hanley Ramírez, Sean O'Malley, and Ryan Garcia. The music video was directed by Hype Williams, and features The Cool characters, who also exist in the music business.

The second single, "Hip-Hop Saved My Life," was loosely based on Slim Thug and dedicated to his friend Bun B. Detailing the struggles of an aspiring rapper, the protagonist rises above the street life and tries to better the life of people around him. The accompanying Dr. Teeth-directed music video was released on March 18, 2008, and features DJ B-Do as the main character.

The third single, "Paris, Tokyo," was written for his girlfriend at the time. It was first presented at Lollapalooza 2007 in Chicago. The single was serviced to radio stations on April 3, 2008, followed by its digital release days later on April 12. The music video, directed by Erik White, was released on April 13.

The fourth single, "Dumb It Down," features guest vocals from GemStones and Graham Burris. It was initially called "Space Traveling" and had Soundtrakk on the demo version's hook. The A&R disliked the hook and thought the song was too complex for anyone to understand, so being asked to "dumb it down," Fiasco accepted it as the chorus. The music video was directed by Gil Green, which has Fiasco facing off his critics.

Title	Date	Note	Image
	"Superstar"	September 25, 2007	Single
	"Hip-Hop Saved My Life"	March 18, 2008
	"Paris, Tokyo"	April 21, 2008
	"Dumb It Down"	June 5, 2008

Title and artwork

• The grave of Michael Young History
• The Cool
• Tracks 1-13 credits
• The Streets
• Tracks 14-19 credits

1/10

Following his debut album Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor, Fiasco went with a similar naming scheme, this time with The Cool. The idea of the record stemmed from a talk he heard Cornel West give at an event several years ago, where "[West] was like if you really want to effect social change in the world you have to make those things which are cool, uncool. You have to make it hip to be square in essence. You kinda have to reverse those rules and make those cool things to do and you'll see some progression." The title also refers to the fictitious character, who symbolizes the hustler lifestyle.

The album artwork was directed and designed entirely by Nathan Cabrera, who compared it to a Led Zeppelin IV for its iconography. In the very center is Fiasco's name in Thuluth script, a style of Arabic calligraphy, in honor of the rapper's Islamic faith. For The Cool's 15th anniversary, he uploaded some of the concept drawings. Photography was principally done by Andrew Paynter, where the booklet includes inserts of the three characters, modeled by Kadeem Hardison as Michael "The Cool" Young History, Hillary Barbour as The Streets, and Marc Anthony Coddette as The Game. Interestingly, the gravestone of MYH reads 'Micheal," rather than its variant, more common spelling of 'Michael.'

Fiasco explained to Pitchfork that the three symbols shown at each point of the triangle represent the three characters: "[T]hey'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."

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Album of the Year	72/100
Metacritic	77/100
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Entertainment Weekly	A−
NME	9/10
Pitchfork	8.1/10
Q
Rolling Stone
Spin	7/10
The Austin Chronicle	89/100
The A.V. Club	A−
The Guardian

Lupe Fiasco's The Cool received generally favorable reviews from contemporary critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 77, based on 30 reviews. For The Cool's seventh anniversary, DJBooth reflected, "a fearless, risk-taking album that paid off handsomely in the long run. […] There's no denying The Cool's place in hip-hop history and it's overall influence on modern hip-hop music. From ideas such as garnering popular success with a concept album or being able to rise to popularity while still presenting conscious lyricism and having a dedicated fan base throughout everything, Lupe established the idea that an artist can generally stay true to himself and reach new heights of success in popular and mainstream circles. It helped continue the acceptance of experimenting with genre blending and crossover sounds." In another retrospective review, Thomas Hobbs of Noisey believed it to "always be years ahead of its time" and praised, "the fact someone in the mainstream was even attempting something like this felt kind of revolutionary."

RapReviews gave a perfect score of 100, remarking, "Fiasco is the modern day Bob Dylan of hip-hop." Similarly, Andy Kellman of AllMusic wrote, "as far as telling stories with rhymes goes, he's way up there." Chris Willman of Entertainment Weekly gave positive assessment, penning, "It turns out randomness makes for a surprisingly unifying concept." The Guardian stated how The Cool's concept didn't make any sense upon listening, and concluded, "You're left with an album that succeeds despite itself, but succeeds nonetheless." NME said of its subject matter, "keeps high-concept gibberish to a minimum, packing his second album with rhymes about robots and skateboards that nonetheless roll with the sort of swagger which leaves other brainbox rappers red-faced and grasping for their inhalers." Spin's Kyle Anderson posited that Fiasco's concept was "needless, eye-rollingly hokey mythology" and the record itself "will likely alienate casual rap fans," though conceded, "But that's a shame, because Lupe's vision—like Herzog's—is a uniquely challenging one." In similar sentiments, Sputnikmusic called the concept "surprisingly awkward" and confusing. Ahead of its official release date, Ben Westhoff, writing for Vulture, described the concept as "complex" and "lackluster." He added, "Lupe's vocal gymnastic and platitudes get old fast, and for once we've got a rap album that could actually benefit from more guests." PopMatters remarked how it could've been "flawless" with editing it down to a shorter album; the track "Go Baby" seemed like an "unnecessary afterthought" following the vulnerability on "Fighters." They continued, "concept albums are often constricting by definition; thus, is it really a shock that many of The Cool's finest moments arrive when Fiasco abandons the album's themes." They added in positive note of Fiasco being "most versatile" with his subject matter and "diverse production."

Los Angeles Times commended the rapper's lyricism: "remains loyal to his activist message, which is propelled by intricate wordplay and experimental, trip-hop-inspired beats;" however, they critiqued, "he can also be annoying the way an excessively, politically correct person in your social circle can be annoying." The Boston Globe observed, "He's as interested in the negative themes in contemporary hardcore hip-hop as he is in the socioeconomic underpinnings that helped create them and turn them into saleable commodities of urban realism." They added of Fiasco's cerebral lyricism and introspection concerning "angles of the games being played out" for issues worldwide. Pitchfork applauded Fiasco's storytelling, from his skillful lyricism to the theatrical flair. Rolling Stone wrote in comparison of its predecessor album, Food & Liquor, "softer, jazzier R&B hooks, yet the lyrics are even tougher in their street-level attack on hip-hop materialism." The Austin Chronicle also commented upon Fiasco's capabilities, with "narrative gifts and labyrinth flow carry weight." They added how the album would require a group to critically analyze the "encrypted metrical compositions." The New York Times's Jon Pareles described it as a "three-act allegory that's also one of the year's best hip-hop albums."

American basketball player Stephen Curry named The Cool to be the one album he would choose to listen to for the rest of his life. He explained, "[I'm a] huge Lupe fan. I think that album—I don't know how many Top 10 lists that album would come up on, but that for me, the time and place too. And he's an amazing artist."

Accolades

Awards

Year	Award	Category	Result
2007	BET Hip Hop Awards	CD of the Year	Nominated
2008			Nominated
2009	Grammy Awards	Best Rap Album	Nominated

Listicles

Publication	List	Rank	Ref.
The A.V. Club	"Best Music of 2008"	14
HipHopDX	"Top 25 Albums of 2007"	Placed
PopMatters	"101 Hip-Hop Albums of 2007"	39

Certifications

Country	Certification	Certified units/sales
United Kingdom (BPI)	Silver	60,000*
United States (RIAA)	Platinum	1,000,000‡
* Sales figures based on certification alone. ‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

Track listing

Lupe Fiasco's The Cool – Standard edition
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
1.	"Baba Says Cool for Thought" (featuring Ayesha Jaco)	Ayesha Jaco	Lupe Fiasco	0:46
2.	"Free Chilly (Interlude)" (featuring Sarah Green and GemStones)	Sarah Green Wasalu Jaco	Soundtrakk	1:02
3.	"Go Go Gadget Flow"	Rudolph Lopez Jaco	Soundtrakk	4:10
4.	"The Coolest"	Chris Paultre Derrick Braxton Jaco	Chris & Drop	5:12
5.	"Superstar" (featuring Matthew Santos)	Santos Lopez Jaco	Soundtrakk	4:48
6.	"Paris, Tokyo"	Eumir Deodato Lopez Jaco	Soundtrakk	4:30
7.	"Hi-Definition" (featuring Snoop Dogg and Poo Bear)	Alexander Shuckburgh Calvin Broadus Jason Boyd Jaco	Al Shux	3:51
8.	"Gold Watch"	Paultre Braxton Jaco	Chris & Drop	4:12
9.	"Hip-Hop Saved My Life" (featuring Nikki Jean)	Nicholle Leary Lopez Jaco	Soundtrakk	4:02
10.	"Intruder Alert" (featuring Sarah Green)	Green Lopez Jaco	Soundtrakk	4:00
11.	"Streets on Fire" (featuring Matthew Santos)	Paultre Braxton Santos Jaco	Chris & Drop	4:40
12.	"Little Weapon" (featuring Bishop G and Nikki Jean)	Dusean Dunbar Leary Patrick Stumph Jaco	Patrick Stump	4:06
13.	"Gotta Eat"	Lopez Jaco	Soundtrakk	3:24
14.	"Dumb It Down" (featuring GemStones and Graham Burris)	Burris Lopez Jaco	Soundtrakk	4:03
15.	"Hello/Goodbye (Uncool)" (featuring UNKLE)	Chris Goss James Lavelle Josh Homme Richard File Jaco	Goss Unkle Lupe Fiasco	4:26
16.	"The Die" (featuring GemStones)	Barbara Wyrick Lopez Stephen Bogard Jaco	Soundtrakk	3:23
17.	"Put You on Game"	Simon Morel Jaco	Simon Sayz	3:02
18.	"Fighters" (featuring Matthew Santos)	Le Messie Santos Jaco	Le Messie	3:33
19.	"Go Baby" (featuring GemStones)	Lopez Jaco	Soundtrakk	3:36
Total length:				70:56

Lupe Fiasco's The Cool – Deluxe iTunes edition
No.	Title	Notes	Length
20.	"Superstar" (featuring Matthew Santos)	Music video	4:18
21.	"Dumb It Down" (featuring GemStones and Graham Burris)	Video [Live from Chicago]	3:36
22.	"Superstar" (featuring Matthew Santos)	Video [Live from Chicago]	7:21
Total length:			86:11

Lupe Fiasco's The Cool – Best Buy edition
No.	Title	Notes	Length
20.	""Making of Lupe Fiasco's The Cool" Interview"	DVD
21.	""Track by Track" Interview"	Commentary
22.	"Rhapsody Originals in Studio Performance"	Live performances of "The Instrumental" and "Superstar"

Lupe Fiasco's The Cool – Circuit City edition
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
20.	"Blackout"	Lopez Jaco	Soundtrakk	3:57
Total length:				74:53

Lupe Fiasco's The Cool – Japan CD edition
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
20.	"Blackout"	Lopez Jaco	Soundtrakk	3:57
Total length:				74:53

Sample credits

• "Go Go Gadget Flow" interpolates a line from "Don't Get It Twisted" by Lupe Fiasco.
• "The Coolest" samples "Let the Drums Speak" by The Fatback Band.
• "Paris, Tokyo" samples "San Juan Sunset" by Eumir Deodato; interpolates a line from "Ain't No Fun (If the Homies Can't Have None)" by Snoop Dogg.
• "Gold Watch" samples "Do Whatever Turns You on Part. II" by The Prepositions and "You Ain't My Brother" by The Soul Shakers.
• "Streets on Fire" samples "Amen, Brother" by The Winstons and "Clubbed to Death" by Robert Dougan.
• "Little Weapon" samples "De Profundis" by Arvo Pärt; interpolates a line from "Heat Under the Baby Seat" by Lupe Fiasco.
• "Dumb It Down" interpolates "Ignorant Shit (Freestyle)" by Lupe Fiasco.
• "Hello/Goodbye (Uncool)" samples "Chemistry" by Unkle.
• "The Die" samples "The Cool" by Lupe Fiasco and "Damn Your Eyes," written by Stephen Bogard and Barbara Wyrick.

Charts

Weekly charts Chart (2007–08) Peak position Australian Albums (ARIA) 42 Australian Urban Albums (ARIA) 6 French Albums (SNEP) 129 Irish Albums (IRMA) 24 Scottish Albums (OCC) 18 Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade) 93 UK Albums (OCC) 7 UK R&B Albums (OCC) 1 US Billboard 200 14 US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (Billboard) 4 US Top Rap Albums (Billboard) 1

Year-end charts Chart (2008) Position US Billboard 200 81 US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (Billboard) 18

External links

• "The Cool" on TV Tropes
• The Cool Wiki
• Lupe Fiasco's The Cool on Apple Music
• Lupe Fiasco's The Cool on YouTube
• Lupe Fiasco's The Cool on SoundCloud
• Lupe Fiasco's The Cool on Spotify
• Lupe Fiasco's The Cool on Amazon Music
• Lupe Fiasco's The Cool on Tidal