Lupe Fiasco’s headlining slot at last year’s Bumbershoot was a
star-making performance. Lupe, wearing all white, owned the stadium,
shaking its foundations with deep, bass-bomb beats and flying
around the stage while still nailing his intricate rhymes. His
sophomore album, The Cool, is a conflicted
record—misfired cheeseburger rap gives way to a comic-book
narrative starring characters named the Cool, the Game, and the
Streets—but it’s wall-to-wall dexterous wordplay and grand,
summer-blockbuster production. (Showbox at the Market, 1426
First Ave, 628-3151. 8 pm, $22.50 adv/$25 DOS, all ages.)