The Cool 20 07

One year later and one album in, Lupe, by his own admission, is already pondering retirement. Considering in that year-span, he lost two of his greatest supporters and muses; his father transitioned due to succumbing to type II Diabetes, and his main partner and collaborator Charles “Chilly” Patton (an executive producer on Food and Liquor and long-time friend and confidant) to a 44 year jail sentence for alleged drug trafficking, it shouldn’t be surprising. Good friend, Stack Bundles also passed and with the behind-the-scenes shuffling within the industry—by this point, he’d signed deals with Epic, Arista and then Atlantic while also starting his own imprint with Chilly, 1st & 15th— Lupe had been through a lifetime of struggle in a short span. Having already given the world an amazing debut, his second album would almost double down on the morality tales he first penned on “Food & Liquor”.

Lupe said as much claiming this next record was conceptual in nature expanding the story of the young man from “He Say/ She” we now know is named Michael Young History and who would become “the cool”. The allegory extends with two new characters, “The Streets” and “The Game” forming an intimate partnership of convenience and business that Lupe remarks represent who raises the young man (and youth in real life) in the absence of positive role models and a solid familial structure. The album loosely carries out the story of these characters but Lupe’s larger tropes of good and evil are maintained throughout. Songs, such as “Gotta Eat”, that personify fast food as a mobster, and “Put You On Game”, that also gives voice to the evils of the world, continue Lupe’s observations on the ramifications of participating in them. Other songs highlight both personal struggles with vanity (“Superstar”) and larger global issues such as gun violence and how it affects youth in various ways (“Little Weapons”). All of these subjects point to the ills Lupe witnesses or experiences, and his songs are the vehicle he uses to address them.

“The Coolest” is actually where Michael Young History (pronounced “My-Cool”) begins his story, the song is the prequel before he becomes “The Cool” (the corpse that comes back to life on Food & Liquor). The first person narrative relays Michael discussing his relationship to the streets, personified as an irresistible woman, and how she feeds his desire for power, wealth and respect.

I love the seas, and I love the shore

No love for no beach; baby, that’s law

But she doesn’t see, therefore I spoil I trick, I fall, run up in raw I love her with all my heart

Every vein, every vessel, every bullet lodged

With every flower that I ever took apart

She said that she would give me greatness, status

Placement above the others

My face would grace covers of the magazines of the hustlers

Paper, the likes of which that I had never seen Her eyes glow green with the logo of our dreams

The purpose of our scene, an obscene obsession for the bling She would be my queen, I could be her king, together She would make me cool, and we would both rule, forever

In the second verse we meet the game, personified but also symbolized as drugs (Lupe’s biblical play on the name of the forsaken brother Caine adds another layer of symbolism around the ills of the game). The verse is steeped in drug slang to discuss how the cool is running the streets through “flooding” it with cocaine. The metaphors of rain, and storms refer to pushing the product of cocaine, and as the “rain pours” Michael only grows more into the cool.

And so began our reign

The Trinity: Her and I, Caine

No weatherman could ever stand when her and I came Hella hard; umbrella, whatever, put plywood over Pella panes

And pray to God that the flood subside

‘Cause you gon’ need a sub ‘til he does reply

And not one of Jared’s, you think it’s all arid And everyt’ing’s irie, another supply

That means another July inside my endless summer

That was just the eye of the Unger—Felix

‘Cause he is the cleanest amongst the Younger outstanding achieving up-andcomers

The ones that had deadbeat daddies and well-to-do mommas

But not well enough to keep ‘em from us

The ones that were fighting in class, who might not pass Rap record-pressured to laugh at a life not fast

“Can you feel it?” That’s what I got asked

“Do I love her?” Said, “I don’t know” Streets got my heart, game got my soul

One time missing sunshine will never hurt your soul

Towards the end we also get allusions to Michael’s descent, referencing back to the argument between his mother and father on “He Say/ She Say” when she discusses him beginning to fail in school. The second voice is that of the game, asking his new mentee if he’s fallen for his new love, the Streets. The allure of material desire and of power and prestige are too much for him as he admits the Streets have his heart and the game his soul. Lupe’s story of addiction, lust for power and craving for respect gives us the answer to how we found Michael on the first record, undead, lost to the hustle unable to rest in peace and forced to carry on searching in vain to maintain and keep the worldly power and opulence he craved in life, his own personal hell.

“Put you on Game” is where we meet our final character. Lupe has him autobiographical style explain his origins, his reasons for being and the many forms he takes,

Don’t you know that I run this place

And I’ve begun this race, must I rerun this pace

I’m the reason it’s become this way

And their love for it is the reason I have become this praised

(Let me put you on game)

They love my darkness, I make them heartless

And in return they have become my martyrs

I’ve been in the poem of many a poet

And I reside in the art of many a artist

(Let me put you on game)

Some of your smartest have tried to articulate

My whole part in this, but they’re fruitless in their harvest

The dro grows from my footsteps

I’m the one that they follow, I am the one that they march with

(Let me put you on game)

Through the back alleys and the black markets

The Oval offices, crackhouses, and apartments

Through the mazes of the queens

The pages of the sages and the chambers of the kings

(Let me put you on game)

Through the veins of the fiends

A paper chaser’s pager, yo, I’m famous on the scene

One of the oldest, most ancientest things

Speak every single language on the planet, y’all mean?

(Let me put you on game)

As he continues, he lays claims to historical events and traumas, as well as the very ideology and beliefs that create so many of the ills Lupe discusses widely throughout the entire album.

I am the American dream

The rape of Africa, the undying machine

The overpriced medicine, the murderous regime

The tough guy’s front and the one behind the scenes

(Let me put you on game)

I am the blood of this city, its gas, water, and electricity

I’m its gym, and its math, and its history

The gunshots in the class

And you can’t pass if you’re missin’, G

I taught them better than that

I taught them aim for the head and hope they never come back

I’m glad your daddy’s gone, baby, hope he never comes back

I hope he’s with your mother with my hustlers high in my traps

(Let me put you on game)

I hope you die in his trash

The game discusses his followers, and those who have been afflicted by his power and influence. As in the “Coolest”, when Michael is describing who the Streets are, Lupe gives the game a space to tell his own tale and speak of his own legend:

I can’t help it, all I hear when you’re crying is laughs

I’m sure somebody find you tied up in this bag

Behind the hospital, little baby crack addicts had

(Let me put you on game)

Then maybe you can grow up to be a stripper

A welfare-receiving prostitute and gold digger

You can watch on TV how they should properly depict you

The rivers shall flow with liquor, quench your thirst on my elixirs

(Let me put you on game)

I am the safe haven for the rebel runaway and the resistor

The trusted misleader, the number one defender

And from a throne of their bones I rule

These fools are my fuel, so I make them cool (Let me put you on game)

Baptize them in the water out of Scarface pool

And feed them from the table that held Corleone’s food

If you die, tell them that you played my game

I hope your bullet holes become mouths that say my name Cause I’m the-[gunshot]

Lupe remarks, in an interview in Pitchfork, how he was searching for ways to tackle big and important ideas in a way that would get people to listen. The idea of the proverbial “pill inside the food” comes to mind when listening to The Cool. Steeped in allegory and metaphor, his goal to bring truth to life and in living color is achieved.