my top 5 and rising.

Talk is swirling around the hip hop heads and bloggers about Lupe Fiasco's place in Hip Hop Hall. Who am I to become so media like but I gotta give something to this fire. Could Lupe be the best? If you say no already, take a breath and think on the validity of your answer. Is Jay your favorite? Is it Nas...Pac maybe or BIG? All great but this is the beginning of a new day…just listen.

Lupe crept from underneath the Chicago debris that Kanye created by dropping hits on the Roc. He made waves with a flow that called to mind so many before him (I.E. all of the aforementioned emcees) but yet what was different was his unique identity. His Schizo-Flow that made it seem like he was influenced and infused with the ingredients that make G’s but that somehow did not outweigh the fact that he had not succumbed to the block’s gaping holes that so many find easy to fall into. The stereotypes he managed to steer clear of.

Lupe Fiasco’s Food and Liquor was the first. “Kick, Push” made him the skateboard kid and he led a generation of hipster hoppers that rapped and wheeled around their suburban hoods tooting their horns of not being thugs. I been a rapper with glasses longer than Lupe has been famous and even I got compared to the dude! Guess it’s the kicks and the denim. He was the go to guy for not so average rap.

Now, Lupe is breaking more rules. You’re supposed to be conscious! You got Snoop on the album? A song called “Hi-Definition” coasts from L.A. to Chicago in such a rhythmatic way that you probably won’t care. But that’s the only big name on the bill. The platform is set for other up and comers like Nouveau Riche’s Nikki Jean, 1st and 15th starter Gemstones (Gemini, you know him) and Matthew Santos in all his splendor, among others. No big name production either and I’ve only listened to half the album. I had to write this to you to tell you how real it is.

I don’t know if he is the best but judging on talent alone this kid is the truth. He’s easily in my top five and he’s kicking dirt in the face of that lyrics-don’t-matter mentality that so many people have. I dig Weezy sometimes, I dig Kanye but Lupe is the best rapper to come out the past 5 years…maybe 7…maybe 10!

Now a word from dude…..


"cool things are what's destructive and what's got us down and depressed. And if you can make it hip to be square, you might really affect some actual social change in the world. So this is like my attempt, very blatant, over-attempt [at that], by naming the album The Cool."




THE ALBUM IS OUT...ITS 9.99 AT TARGET...GO COP!