Lupe Fiasco's The Cool

Lupe Fiasco’s The Cool, commonly referred to as simply The Cool, is the critically acclaimed second studio album by Chicago hip hop artist Lupe Fiasco, released on December 18, 2007 in the United States. The Cool is a loose concept album, based on a song and its titular character from his debut album Food & Liquor of the same name. The album features production from Soundtrakk, Unkle, Patrick Stump and Chris & Drop, among others. Guest appearances include GemStones, Snoop Dogg, and Matthew Santos. The album debuted at #15, moved a spot up to #14 on the Billboard 200 in its second week. It debuted as the #1 rap record and remained there for 9 weeks. It has been certified Gold by the RIAA.[1]

During the recording of the album, Lupe Fiasco’s father died,[2] his good friend Stack Bundles died, and his business partner and mentor—Charles “Chilly” Patton—was sentenced to 44 years in prison.[3] When asked about the album’s dark side, Lupe Fiasco replied:
Oh yeah. A lot of loss. I lost my father, I lost my business partner to prison, and I lost some friends. It was a very dark period. It still is in some aspects, but you know, I’m kind of coming out of it. But especially during the time that the album was being cooked, in my head it was a very dark kind of period.[2]