No One Wants to Smoke a Blunt with Lupe Fiasco

The Cool is a showcase for Fiasco’s restless ambition, an hour-and-10-minute sprawl that encompasses double-time rapped odes to his hometown (“Go-Go-Gadget Gospel”), Midnight Marauders–esque love ballads (“Paris, Tokyo”),novelistic portraits of everything from aspiring Houston rappers (“Hip-Hop Saved My Life”) to conscripted African child soldiers (“Little Weapon”) and even a call for better health in the ghetto, rapped from the perspective of a cheeseburger. Somewhere in between is a convoluted mini-concept album featuring characters called The Streets, The Game and The Cool. The fact that he makes it work is both a testament to Fiasco’s inherent genius, inordinate technical rapping ability and vertigo-inducing wordplay. Even if Fiasco might never make the old guard want to smoke a blunt with him or even call him up on the land line, it’s all right. He’s prospering in the age of the iPhone.

Lupe Fiasco performs at House of Blues on Thurs., Jan. 17.