HappiestList 2K8: Number #9

Number #9: Lupe Fiasco

Lupe Fiasco is a badass. In 2k8 alone, his stellar rap album--so fresh and cutting it's essentially spoken word set over a shimmering production--gained momentum and led to a tour with Kanye West in one of the most impressive shows of the year.

Lupe wouldn't be on this list if it weren't for "Hip Hop Saved My Life," a track that is not only deeply affecting but catchy and memorable. In the vein of Lauryn Hill's "To Zion," off Miseducation, Lupe tells a heartbreaking story about a Houston man rapping to make a living, going "back to the kitchen" to get "back to the mission" of getting his girlfriend off the streets and his mother out of the ghetto. The human side of rappers is rarely shown, unless you count dicks and prostitutes; Lupe's The Cool is a brave release, and certainly one to be remembered in 2K8.

New York Fashion Week, Britney, and The Cool Kids

...starts today.

This has been one of the most academically stressful and fulfilling weeks of my life. Ironically, it's also my first week at UT. Coincidence, I think not.

Musically, nothing's changed. I lost my debit card two weeks ago--new one on the way, thank God--and thus lost my ability to iTune. However, I have great friends with great music taste. For this brief period of time, I have adopted their music libraries, and I'm thrilled with some of my discoveries.

"88," by The Cool Kids, a Chicago-based hip hop group, offers a refreshingly minimalist interpretation of mid-90s rap and dance. I'm a huge fan of music in the early 90s--and late 90s, for that matter--when bands like No Doubt, Sublime, Sugar Ray and Salt-N-Pepa took the musical concepts of the 80s (synthesizers, music without contextual meaning) and engineered them for a modern, Clinton-era audience. Women were confused about their place in society ("Push It," Alanis Morisette's "Ironic") and in personal relationships; academic success took second place to occupational success (becoming a lawyer, a doctor...); the economy was prospering (Madonna's "Ray of Light," the rise of 14 year-old girls as an actual musical force); and, of course, the Clinton-Lewinsky affair ruptured a major valve in America's value pipeline. ("Isn't the president supposed to be our moral leader?" Sadly, Reagan's trickle-down policies don't quite work here...)

Regardless, "88" is a total blast musically, and I appreciate the clever lyricism and great tone of their lead vocalist. At first listen, The Cool Kids could be Lupe Fiasco with Pharell Williams as producer, but it's a bit too low-key and simple for Williams' ambitious energy.

I was going to talk about Spoon, a band I have inexplicably bought albums of and never listened to, and how I think I've finally reached the right age to appreciate their talents (or, at least their 2007 single "Don't You Evah"), but something else has hit my radar courtesy of Perez Hilton. Britney Spears just may be coming back. I'm no Britney Spears die-hard, but I find her an interesting social experiment indicative of 21st century America. (Amy Winehouse is more the British version, except is actually talented and may actually not survive her next album.) Whatever. "Blackout" was a fine pop album, if you can ignore the image of Britney Spears jiggling and drunk at the VMAs in 2007, with standout tracks like "Get Naked (Got A Plan)," "Radar," and the underrated "Break The Ice."

A video surfaced this afternoon of what appears to be Britney Spears practicing a dance routine to a new song, I guess for a next album--the kind of album they rush out so we forget the last one--but also, possibly for a performance at this Sunday's VMAs. Could it be true? Obviously it's Spears dancing in the video, and dancing very very well (to a very very cool song), but is the Spears' camp really bold enough to present Spears, who was the veritable trainwreck of the century just this June, to the public once again? What's so interesting to me is how Spears was so out on the pop radar that to own her last album was to own the album of some underground band. To know her songs, tracks like "Radar" for instance, was to know undiscovered pop songs of an artist years gone by. It was treated like the latest Hot Chip album, discussed among hipsters in American Apparell--she was so underground she was almost "in," a radio outlaw and newly-minted underdog.

However, with her body back in shape, her children under court protection, and her (least we forget) bipolar disorder under control, (maybe we should forget.) her career is evidently ready for a reboot. I'll be paying attention, because this trainwreck just so happens to be the defining figure of my generation.

Review: Kanye West's Glow in the Dark Tour

So I saw Kanye West, Pharell and N.E.R.D., Rihanna, and Lupe Fiasco Wednesday night in Austin for the Glow in the Dark Tour.

Words can't really describe the quality of what I saw. But I'll try to break it down for you:

The show started promptly at 7:00, which was an unexpected surprise. The crowd at the entire show was not up to par with what I'd expect for $100.00+ tickets ($300.00+ in my case, sadly); mostly there for Rihanna. Which is fine. But poor Lupe was performing an amazing set to an empty stadium.

While he didn't sing "High Definition," my favorite Lupe track, his finale made up for it. His back-up singers were actually quite talented...one in particular could be the next Keyshia Cole.

N.E.R.D. (my mini-highlight of the evening) came on next. Of all I saw during Glow, N.E.R.D.--with Pharell as their clear shining star--stole the show with the relatively small budget they worked with. "She Wants to Move" had me dancing into the aisles, and my brother was jammed inside with a fatty and his schizophrenic sibling gyrating insanely to his right.

A new track, "Spaz," or something like that, was unbelievable. Pharell literally commanded his audience stand up and go crazy with the chorus. Needless to say, I did.

Rihanna then came on, and no amount of costume changes or stage dancers could make up for her obvious lack of hip-hop credibility. N.E.R.D., Lupe, Kanye all have a sense of authenticity, something they've earned over years in the business. Rihanna is still young and impressionable. This was especially clear as she switched albums during the set. "Pon de Replay" (a lowlight, for sure) sounds elementary next to "S.O.S.," which is even more ridiculous after "Don't Stop the Music" came on. She sang well enough, or at least better than I expected; I am a Rihanna fan, mostly because of "Umbrella" and "Breaking Dishes," both of which she performed very well. Even if I won't remember the specifics of her set ten years from now, at least I can say I saw Rihanna live before she went global.


Kanye...I'm not sure what I can say that won't degrade the creativity, energy, and sheer inspiration his set brought to Glow. He actually had a narrative to follow throughout his set: he was crash-landed on a planet with his robot computer Jane as his only accomplice. We followed Kanye through planetary identification ("I Wonder"), reminiscing on "crashes" of the past ("Through the Wire"), exploring the power of shooting stars ("Flashing Lights"), and even his loner-induced horniness ("Goldigger," a highlight). If you weren't a fan before the show started, there's no way on earth (lol, lol) you could not worship the brilliance that is Kanye West by the show's end two hours later.

When he sang "Champion" halfway through the set, I finally bought into all the self-created hype about his fame. He really is, low and behold, a superstar. "Did you realize/that you were a champion in their eyes?/Yes I did."

So do I.

Mad Style: Lupe Fiasco's "High Definition"

Because I'm seeing the Glow in the Dark tour in Austin later this month (which got a stellar review from the Seattle Times this morning--"bringing the idea of a concert to another level, another planet"), I'm trying to catch up on all the artists before the show. N.E.R.D. I know fairly well--or, at least I know plenty about Pharell. But Lupe Fiasco is an artist I have hardly listened to at all. Now I see my mistake.

I'm not 100% down with hardcore rap (that is, rap without commercial hooks), a genre I'm pretty sure most of Lupe Fiasco's The Cool falls into, but there are a decent number of cuts from the album I cannot get over. "High Definition" is my favorite track on the album, and is, in my opinion as an avid music listener, the most well-produced cut as well.

Snoop Dogg appears during the chorus (which breaks through the melody like a shining light), and to great effect. Lupe's rapping is a bit unfocused, but in this track the feelings elicited from listening is all that matters. Unlike most horrid numbers that pass as "rap" nowadays ("Low," "Lollipop," "Party People"--all putrid), "High Definition" combines the best elements of rap, traditional hip-hop, and the shimmery club trimmings necessary for modern radio.