Lupe Fiasco

Lupe Fiasco - The Cool
The name of Lupe Fiasco's sophomore set sounds like a Kanye-ism, and that's fitting: The Cool spills over with Mr. West-style urgency, and it's just about as smart as anything Fiasco's more flamboyant mentor has issued. It could even land Lupe a little too close to the top of the hip-hop heap for Kanye's comfort. The Cool is cool not only for its sober, clear-headed vibe -- Fiasco ponders everything from the apocalypse to poverty to the weight of worldly possessions in these songs, some of them produced with a level of sensitivity uncommon among studio tracks by Soundtrakk -- but also for its potential. Songs like "Dumb It Down," about the music industry's insistence on the same old sorry themes, burn with relatability and realness. But others go deeper. "Little Weapon," produced by Fall Out Boy's Patrick Stump, and "Intruder Alert" shape-shift customary hip-hop dialogue to let the issues of the day come sharply into focus. They make you think. Overall, The Cool is fevered, fierce, and at times furious, but so is Lupe Fiasco, and the album easily earns its spot as one of the top 10 CDs of 2007. --Tammy La Gorce
http://hotfile.com/dl/5528654/f63669a/LF-TC.rar.html

Lupe Fiasco - Food and Liquor
Let's see...a rap artist is hyped insufferably, his music is leaked incessantly, his album is delayed indefinitely, the hype grows, rinse, repeat. Welcome to the world of pop music in 2006, when "unauthorized" Internet seepage can somehow manage to simultaneously make and break an aspiring young performer. Lupe Fiasco's unfinished debut CD was slathered all over the Web for months, like some sort of Lonelygirl15, before finally seeing the legitimate light of day. That said, the Chicago-bred rapper, who rose to prominence thanks to his "Touch the Sky" collab with Kanye West, is hardly a slouch. His skittering, low-key rapping style is truly distinctive, and his lyrics are mostly thoughtful and creative without being heavy-handed. --Marc Greilsamer
http://hotfile.com/dl/5528657/6eccbc5/LF-FnL.zip.html

Lupe Fiasco - Da Exam Mixtape
http://hotfile.com/dl/5528660/8f1bf6e/LF-DEx.rar.html