The Cool has been certified Gold for sales exceeding 500k.

Hip-hop lives.

After weeks of deliberation, the 2007 Rap List is finally upon us. 25 hip-hop critics were asked to pick up to 10 of their favorite ‘07 releases. Points were then awarded to the nominated albums in descending order. As you might expect, the overwhelming favorites were Graduation and American Gangster, with 22 votes apiece. And, no, Curtis didn’t make anyone’s list.

Without further ado, here are the 25 Best Rap Albums of 2007 According to Hip-Hop Critics… (more…)

Lupe explains how he sneaks social commentary into his music. If you still haven’t picked up a copy of The Cool, hurry up and align yourself with this little piece of history while everyone else is still sleeping.

Btw, congrats to Tavis on his 5th year anniversary on PBS.

Emperor Lu and Matthew Santos performing “Superstar” on Dave Letterman’s premiere show of 2008. Dave, Leno and others will sound like rambling old men without their writers.

For those of you who care about these sorts of things, Lupe’s second go-round Lupe Fiasco’s The Cool barely registered on the Billboard 200 Albums chart. It debuted at No. 15 with 143,000. For the rest of us, it’s still the No.1 rap album of 2007.

Bits and pieces of Lupe Fiasco’s The Cool have been flooding my inbox for the past couple of days. However, I will not post these songs on The Rap Up. Let me explain. Just as movies are not leaked scene by scene, concept albums are not…syke!

Here it is: Lupe Fiasco - The Coolest

Is anyone feeling this?

The Cool tracklist looks promising:

1. “Iesha Poem”

2. “Free Chilly”
3. “Go Go Gadget Flow”
4. “The Coolest”
5. “Superstar” (Feat. Mathew Santos)
6. “Paris Tokyo”
7. “High Definition” (Feat. Snoop Dogg and Pooh Bear)
8. “Little Weapons”
9. “Hip-Hop Saved My Life” (Feat. Nikki Jean)
10. “Gold Watch”
11. “Street On Fire” (Feat. Mathew Santos)
12. “Hello Goodbye”
13. “Gotta Eat”
14. “Dumb It Down” (Feat. Gemini and Graham Burris)
15. “The Die” (Feat. Gemini)
16. “Put You On Game”
17. “Fighters” (Feat. Mathew Santos)
18. “Go Baby Go”

In stores December 18.

Lupe Fiasco’s second go-round, The Cool, features an interesting character that was introduced on Food & Liquor. The Cool is a character that was ushered in on the Kanye-produced track of the same name. His last statement on the aforementioned song, “Hustler for death, no heaven for a gangster” left people wondering what happened afterwards. So, Lupe decided to expand on the story. He also built some additional characters around him, including The Game (not you, JT), Michael Young, and The Streets. Child Rebel Soldier has the breakdown of all the characters:

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