 Media Credit: Lionel Deluy
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Lupe Fiasco's The Cool figured to be a last-minute entry in the hip-hop album of the year sweepstakes, and sure enough, it comes in at the wire strong enough to contend with the 2007 efforts of Kanye West, Common and Jay-Z for that title. The rapper born Wasalu Muhammad Jaco ups the ante from last year's Food & Liquor, with more rapid-fire rhymes and broader themes. Indeed, The Cool, conceived as an exploration of temptation and all the dangerous places it can take you, sometimes plays like a litany of all that's wrong in the world, on titles like "Gold Watch," "The Coolest" and "Dumb It Down." But The Cool is also full-up with hooks, like the one sung by Chris Martin imitator Matthew Santos on "Superstar," or the nifty guitar figure that propels the analytical "Gotta Eat." Or better still, the chopped-up break-beat groove provided by Unkle, a British production outfit, that Fiasco ever so nimbly rhymes over on "Hello Goodbye (Uncool)."
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