Lupe Fiasco Wants To Hear More Interesting Stories

Lupe Fiasco was in Toronto in December for a couple of performances to promote his new album, The Cool, and he was eager to talk about the disc and his views on creativity in today's hip-hop.

"We live in a fast culture — McDonald's and immediate gratification," he says."We have iTunes because it's about one song. It's about a single. It's not about an album. You sell the single first. iPod shuffle — it's about the shuffle lifestyle. You wanna hear this, then you wanna hear that, then you wanna hear that, and then you wanna hear that. Then when you go back to the album, there is no cohesion. There isn't anything there. Either somebody is trying to get money or they are really trying to say something. And it's rare when there are people who are actually trying to say something."

The Cool is a conceptual album that's meant to be listened to closely. Fiasco's lyrics tell the story of street life through three characters — The Streets, The Cool and The Game — who you follow through the record. The messages he conveys are what Fiasco feels are the most important elements in his music, which is something that so many of today's rappers have forgotten.

"There are a lot of people not trying to say nothing," says Fiasco. "And I don't want to say it's a lot of people because everybody's got their story to tell.

"Rich Boy's got a story to tell. Soulja Boy's got a story to tell. It may not be as interesting as Nas' story or Mos Def's story or Common's story, but it's still a story. To him, it's important and relevant to what he's doing. I can't knock him for that, but it's like, compete, you know? Take a little bit of time, maybe.

"There is a saturation of music right now. You really have to be this really outstanding person for people to really listen to what you're saying. To me, 50 Cent is kind of an enigma. I'll just sit and listen to G-Unit Radio where he'll just talk, but I can't get through one of his albums. I love 50, but it's like you hear all that intelligence, all that charisma and funniness coming out in him just sitting around and talking about people, but then you get the music and it's just like 16 bars, hook, 16 bars."