Following his Grammy-nominated debut album, Food and Liquor, Chicago rapper Lupe Fiasco is due to return with his new album next month. Called The Cool, it's supposedly going to be (eek!) a concept album which acts as a "sequel" to his debut effort. Hmm, sounds a bit prog-y to me.

But then Mr. Fiasco (not his real name), while operating outside the hip-hop mainstream, isn't averse to the sort self-mythologizing moves beloved of his more commercial contemporaries.

For instance, in a recent interview with Billboard he pulls the old "this might be my last record, you know" move. Which, I'm sorry, is old and tired. Nobody believed Jay-Z when he said it, so why would we believe a talented 25-year old with just a couple of albums and a fraction of the sales behind him?

Anyway, it's just the latest part of an eventful lead-up to the new album's release. If you thought indie music types were big on authenticity, you should read up on the furore that followed Lupe's admission that he hadn't been especially into "conscious" rap pioneers A Tribe Called Quest. Messing up a performance of one of their tracks didn't help, either. Oopsy. Still, having a scandal named after him can't hurt publicity-wise - "Fiascogate" may not be the catchiest moniker ever, but if it helps him get more exposure I'm sure his record company won't mind.

All of which brings us to the first single from The Cool. The video to new single "Superstar" - which you can see below - might make fans of his bling-free reputation worry. It features red carpets, ticker tape, "honeys", limos... Could he be following fellow erstwhile "backpack" hip-hopper Kanye into the glittering mainstream? But then I suppose those motifs do go along with the theme of the song, so let's not get carried away....

[Video provided by bloodflavour]

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