Hip-Hop

The latest CD release reviewed

LUPE FIASCO The Cool Atlantic ****

Since Windy City rapper Lupe Fiasco first made the grade swapping rhymes with Kanye West on Touch the Sky, he's proved his prowess as both a wordsmith and a finely tuned musical mind.

With West falling into the classic hip-hop pothole of writing tunes about how rich he is and how bad this is, the second album from everyone's favourite skateboarding Muslim MC shows that he's still got it all in check.

Keeping faith with Chi-Town producer Soundtrakk was a smart move by Fiasco, ensuring the orchestral splendour and slick, funky rhythms are still in play.

Fiasco fuses his street-side themes, ruminations and commentaries with a sense of what makes a track really pop.

Even when the inevitable guests come along (UNKLE, for instance, pop up on a not-shabby- at-all Hello/Goodbye), the focus and flow are kept tight and on point. www.lupefiasco.com  - JIM CARROLL

Download tracks: Paris Toyko, Dumb It Down