*A little background - At the time this album was released, my analysis skills and fully grasping an entire concept were not at there best. Though I'd heard two singles at the time, and fully understood them, I couldn't remotely tell you about "The Cool". Happy to say that now on a scale from 1 to 10, I'm about an 8.5, sometimes a 9.
A product spawned from the song of the same title on the previous record ("Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor"), this album is what I feel to be a complete conceptual creation, sprinkled with Lupe's masterful lyrical talents. Typing out word for word, a description of each track would do some justice to this piece but, it's nothing in comparison to LISTENING to each song and fully ingesting the words for yourself. For example "Dumb It Down" is ridiculously excellent. Such a play on words and double meanings. The intro track "Baba Says Cool For Thought", a spoken word number, sets the tone for the core content. Here's a video conducted by Joy Daily from Real Talk NY.net with none other than Lupe. I'm the type who likes to here it from the horses mouth, no "he say, she say" type mess. Check it out as he discusses the album.
The culmination of multiple messages that I've come to derive from "The Cool" and Lupe in general is the constant battle between positive and negative. The scale is constantly on tilt. How the media will idealize certain acts and/or lifestyles and brand it into your mind that this is cool. The unfavorable circumstances and surroundings that many unfortunately deal with or come in contact with on a daily basis. For some it's all they see, they become a product of that environment and that becomes "the cool" in a way.
Lupe encourages a change in that monotone mindset through thorough lyrics and headstrong persistence.
Two of my favorite tracks:
"Gold Watch"
"Paris Tokyo"
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