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Lupe Fiasco has just released his highly anticipated sophomore LP, “The Cool.” He sat down with RealTalkNY to discuss the concepts and characters in the new album. He gave us insight the  process of creating  ideas for songs and lyrics. He talked about inspirations for such songs as, “Dumb It Down,” & “Superstar,” and spoke on how they relate to his life. Lupe goes on to mention his planned retirement after his next album, his work on CRS(w/ Kanye & Pharrell) and comparisons to Nas. Take a look into the mind of the man who has arguably dropped the best rap album of 2007.

Hosted by: Joy Daily
Camera Work by: AJ & Nigel Degraff
Produced by: Nigel Degraff

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Album Review: Lupe Fiasco’s The Cool
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PART 1

Joy: When you were recording this album there was a lot of adversity going on in your life, how was that experience going through that and recording the album at the same time?
Lupe: It was afterwards, kind of the after effects. After all that stuff happened when we started recording the album. It wasn’t really tuff, but it definitely set a back-drop to a life experience I never experienced before, kind of melancholy and defensive. Untrustworthy, because I lot of people I trusted were gone, I was in the in the midst of people that weren’t close to me like that. That was kind of an odd experience. But it was good, I directed all of my energy into the album that’s why the subject is somewhat dark cause that’s somewhat how I was feeling. But it was good though, it didn’t affect me too much.

Joy: Why did you name it The Cool?
Lupe: I called it Cool cause it was a song called “Cool” on my first album, it’s a song about this hustler who gets killed and resurrected and goes back to his old neighborhood and gets robbed by these two kids and they ask him is he scared to die. And he says hustle for death – no heaven for a gangster. And the song cuts off; it’s kind of abrupt so it kind of leaves you like what…what was that? So on this album I kind of expanded on it and explained it out, introduced the character more fuller gave his life story, his rise to power, and his death eventually. That was the premise for this album.

Joy: Okay, let’s get into the three characters. You have Michael Young History – is that a play on words is it saying my cool young history…
Lupe: Yeah
Joy: That’s what that is
Lupe: Yeah

Joy: Tell us a little bit behind the meaning of that character.
Lupe: Nah
Joy: You don’t wanna talk about that?
Lupe: Not on that end, but he is the cool though. He’s actually played by Kadeem Hardisan on the album inserts and in the videos and other stuff we have planned. He’s the quintessential kid who grew up single parent home, led a stray, raised by the game and fell in love with the streets becomes this hustler and gets killed. So, it’s really kind of clichéd life of a gangster. The Cool is Michael Young History. Michael Young History is up to the point where he is alive but his nickname is Cool. The Streets is kind of the female in the story. She’s a temptress. But she is actually like if the Streets were real, what would it look like? Kind of like Nas’s, “I Gave You Power” when the gun was talking but it was the gun at the end of the story. It’s like the Streets is talking, so she’s represented as a female with dollar signs for eyes, she has the tattoo’s of her slain boyfriend across her chest. But as you get closer to her tattoos and read them it’ll say Michael Young History; but then it’ll say Al Capone; and then it’ll say King Tut; and then it’ll say Alexander The Great. So it’s like she’s ancient and been around forever the temptation to live the fast life.
Joy: Very interesting.

Joy: Okay, let’s get into some of the tracks on the album. “Dumb it Down”, tell us a bit about writing that and why you came up with that.
Lupe: It was the first song I wrote after a long hiatus from being on tour. It was just like…all the lyrics came out. So it was mad dense, mad complex. It was the first time I wrote in a long time. We did one hook and it was real basic and my man was like why don’t you do another hook. So we was like alright, what hook we gon’do? Like the verses were mad complex it was dumb it down – dumb it down just started to come out and we just started coming up with a lot of different situations for when people say: Hey Lupe, dumb it down, cause people really say that. Your words are too big it’s too complex, you’re saying too much. So it’s kind of like taking the ammunition from all my nay sayers like I know what I’m doing; I know it’s over your head; I know the words are big; I know it’s some nerdiness. I know it is, but its’ nice.

Joy: Why do you think that radio is afraid to play those profound lyrics?
Lupe: Cause I don’t make radio records. I don’t know how to make a number one record, so I don’t try to. I don’t even attempt to make a number one record. A number one record to me is a record that allows me to go on six world tours and get four Grammy nominations, that’s a number one record. A number one record to me isn’t getting a bunch of spins at radio and that’s it. It’s technically on Billboard at No.1, oh its number one. The experience and the success that we had off a record like Food & Liquor which got no airplay, no real video or anything, we got some press coverage but not no crazy coverage crazy like that and we received phenomenal success – phenomenal critical acclaim and praise, and we toured that album for two years, which is kind of a rarity to do that. So for us it was an achievement to do that. The idea of a number one record is like, well if you get a number one record you get a bunch of spins on the radio and that’s it because everything else that gets associated with a number one record we had without a number one record.

Joy: What about “Superstar”, does that track reflect any aspects of your life or how did you come up with that one?
Lupe: Yeah. It reflects the new found stardom. Is it real…because I still have a personal life and you would think that when you become a superstar that everyday of your life is glamorous or it’s a reality show, but it’s not. It’s like you have all of these successes and you still have like all these personal tragedies and all this stuff that’s going on at the same time too. And it’s kind of like a booster shot almost of an inspiration through the hook – it goes, if you are what you say you are, if you put yourself out like that understand you’re going to get judged for it. The public is going to call you to it; the press is going to call you to it; your fans are going to call you to it. You can’t have any fear; if you put yourself out like that you got to live up to that. So it kind of motivates me and it’s weird because it was motivating other people the response I got from the record was its very motivating, every time I wake up in the morning I listen to “Superstar” and I feel like I can do anything.

PART 2

Joy: It sounds like you put a lot of work into your lyrics, how is your writing process?
Lupe: It’s more than a conceptualizing process, more coming up what to talk about and how to do it. The words kind of write themselves and sometimes it doesn’t need to be that intricate, the concept directs how intricate it’s going to be. I can take a record like “Kick Push” or on the new album a record like “Hip-Hop Saved My Life” – lyrically it’s not complex, virtually no metaphors. So it’s nothing like “Dumb It Down” but the concept didn’t need that it didn’t deserve all that. I kind of do that first, I come up with exactly what I’m about to talk about and it even directs how much you can talk about it, like you can only come up with so much stuff towards the topic. It’s like can he really stay on target and come up with a bunch of metaphors and stay on target? Come up with the conceptualizing first and then the writing process depending on how heavy the concept is or how thoroughly I gotta explain it and that’ll reflect in the lyrics.
Joy: So a song like “The Coolest” or “Gotta Eat”, about how long did it take you from start to finish in terms of coming up with the concept and getting the lyrics and everything?
Lupe: Oh, well I didn’t write down “The Coolest”, I did the “The Coolest” at the mic. But I was had to initially write the first eight bars, I would be driving and building on it…so a lot of those songs on the album were at the mic, it’s a few of that I if you look at my rhyme notebook it’ll just be the first line or another line that’ll be it. You’ll never see a full verse or me reciting out of the book. So, “The Coolest” probably took about three weeks because it was a concept, it was building the concept. And then “Gotta Eat” was fast, once I came up with the concepts I started coming up with the different lyrics for it. It happened pretty fast.

Joy: So, what would you say is the most meaningful song on the album is for you on the album?
Lupe: Probably “Intruder Alert”. Even though songs like “Fighters” which is really personal and really has a deep meaning, but “Intruder Alert” is more important to other people, so I think people would find more meaning in that record than a personal record like “Fighters” which I find meaningful. But “Intruder Alert” is about rape. It’s about a girl who got raped and the after affects of it, becoming normal again if that’s even possible. But she needed some level of normal which is basic as a hug, allowing a man to hug her. Its real short, the verses are real short, so it’s like boom…problem, what’s going on - then solution. And then the second verse is about drug abuse and the third verse is about immigration. It’s all like different intruders; like the drugs were intruders and the guy coming back in her life, kind of breaking those walls down and even really intruders of illegal immigrants. So it’s probably the deepest most meaningful record.

Joy: How have you changed artistically and personally since your first album?
Lupe: Well, personally I’ve become more business wise, I became a little bit harsher on my business a little bit more Dame Dash. I lost my business partner so I had to step up and with that stepping up I had to take on a lot of battles that I normally didn’t take. From being a straight artist and vice president and now I’m being CEO acting for a moment. I had to fight a lot, I saw myself fighting those battles because now the phone calls are coming to me and the battles he would do, I have to do. But artistically nothing really changed. Artistically I’ve been on a run independent of what people think or what critics say, or what new rapper comes out. I’ve been on a creative push this whole time and it even reflects the mixtapes I did during Food & Liquor and before where I was always kind of pushing the envelope. The Cool reflects all of that stuff together. I was like I’m going to take all that stuff that I like and put it all together in The Cool.

Joy: Now, what should we expect as the next single?
Lupe: Probably “Paris-Tokyo”. It’s a song that keeps coming back with the most popularity and feed back, so we’ll probably shoot that. But we’re going to shoot the same way we did “Dumb It Down” and “Superstar” where one was really cheap and for the internet and one was really big and directed by Hype Williams. We’re probably going to do the same thing so we’ll probably pick another record, maybe “The Coolest” and shoot that and then shoot “Paris-Tokyo”.

Joy: Do you have any input in the creative process when creating your videos?
Lupe: Yes, especially with records that has a real heavy narrative like “Paris-Tokyo” which is kind of explanatory. “Superstar” was weird to shoot because it didn’t really have a real solid narrative. But the rest of the records that we’re going to shoot like “Hip-Hop Saved My Life” and “Intruder Alert” have a beginning and an end so it’s real kind of easy to shoot it.

Joy: Do you feel like you’re at the pinnacle of your career?
Lupe: No, I think I’m kind of medium. I think that this album will be the tale of the tape from here on out. How this is album is perceived and received, and I’m going to completely flip on the third album, you thought this weird, wait to you see this. I’m already working on the third album, so for me I’m going to always be pushing and pushing until I’m done.

Joy: This next album, LupEND, is that definitely going to be the last album?
Lupe: Yes.

Joy: And why is that?
Lupe: To pursue other things. I think that the music business has kind of run its course. I will always love music, I’ll continue to do music, but I won’t do it in this format, in the business-record label-music industry format. I’ll still perform as long as I got a promoter that’ll have me perform. And I’ll still be behind the scenes pushing my artist’s Matthew Santos, Gemstones, Soundtrak, the 1st & 15th family; I’ll still be doing that. We still have CRS which is me, Kanye, and Pharrell.

Joy: Are you guys working on the album?
Lupe: Well, is it going to be an album? That’s what we’re constantly in discussion about. How are we going to do it, we really want to do something revolutionary, so we’ll see.

Joy: How do you feel it when you’re compared to Nas?
Lupe: I love it. I love Nas, he’s Da Vincci, he’s Picasso and I’m an upcoming artist looking at his body of work like he’s the master. So to be compared to the masters and revered by the masters like Rakim and Jay-Z on the artistic side, whatever with popularity and fame, but on an artistic side that’s good.
Joy: You have a vast vocabulary, do you read a lot, and if so, what do you read?
Lupe: No, I don’t read a lot. But what I do tend to read is really dense. I read like Nicci, The Koran, and Noam Chomsky and different people, it’s very dense. So, that’s Wasalu Jaco, that’s me outside of Lupe.

Joy: What’s the most important lesson that life has taught you at this point?
Lupe: God first. At the end of the day when all of this is over and all the hoopla is done, you can’t take none of that with you. None of that speaks for you in the next world, it’s the simple things and living your life for God. That’s kind of the thing I learned.