Thursday, March 6, 2008

Lupe Fiasco

Lupe Fiasco's "The Cool" is the best album I've heard since "Hail to the Thief." It's thematically coherent, musically various, beautifully written, and performed by an absolute natural. I first heard Lupe on Kanye West's last record, I forget which song; but I don't forget hearing him. Lupe's part lasted maybe four lines, but I remember besieging a hip-hop savvy student the next day to find who that guy was. Apparently he was a Chicago unknown who accosted Jay Z on the street, demanding an audition right then (this must happen to Jay Z hourly, so who knows how much urban legend is involved here), and impressing him so much that he got signed. I don't know. But I do know that his album, which owes a lot to Kanye, is better than Kanye's—grasshopper has snatched that pebble and is off to the races.

Though I kinda hate to say publicly that I liked it this much, since the fanship of someone like me has to be the kiss of death for his record sales.

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