Graduation by Kanye West

November 15, 2007 by darrell.holmes
Filed under: Blog Entries, Entertainment & Sports, Music Reviews

OUR CONDOLENCES GO TO KANYE WEST AND HIS FAMILY DURING THEIR TIME OF BEREAVEMENT OVER THE LOSS OF DR. DONDA WEST.

Kanye Omari West is a 30 year old rapper/producer from the city of Chicago. Originally known for his production skills, Kanye has traded his place behind the boards for one on the stage. His credits as a producer include Jay-Z, Alicia Keys, Common, and Jermaine Dupri along with introducing John Legend. His awards are numerous with several Grammys credited to his name. After two critically and commercially acclaimed albums, Kanye returns with his 3rd major release titled Graduation.

If you haven’t already heard about this album you REALLY need to get out more. Kanye and release-date mate 50 Cent have a wager on who’ll sell the most albums with 50′s career pushed to the middle of the betting table. In my humble opinion, the only things mainstream hip hop has had going this year has been “Internation Player’s Anthem” by UGK, decent efforts by artists like TI and Common, and a whole lotta bubblegum that all of which wasn’t necessarily bad. Graduation is expected to restore balance by backpackers and music pundits alike.

The album starts off with the track “Graduation” which is very…Kanye-esque? It replaces the comedic skit from Late Registration featuring Bernie Mac and has a rhythmic flow. Somewhat solemn but also upbeat at the same time. A good opening track. Maybe my fave line of the whole album is here; “Good mornean look at the valedictorian scared of the future while I hop in the DeLorean”. You’ll never lose me with 80s Michael J. Fox references.

Next is “Champion”. One of the best two tracks on the album for, again, it’s upbeatedness. The track is a little light on lyrics, but I guess I was expecting more based on the title. Still, Kanye doesn’t completely miss the opportunity to point out times in his life where he felt uplifted and became a champion.

****STAR TRACK****

If you’ve heard the album you likely saw this coming. “Good life” is the best offering on this whole record and offers the most star potential far beyond the other offerings for several reasons. It has all Kanye’s key ingredients of a HOT sample(P.Y.T. of Michael Jackson fame), Kanye comedy, ‘Ye bravado, great beat, and he even made me like T Pain though I usually am drawn away from the majority of Talladega Pain’s features. This song has longterm single potential that will carry it for years on the ringtones of tweens all over the world.

“Can’t Tell Me Nothing” is quite the quandry for me. The track has major flaws just for the fact that is makes no sense and Kanye’s rap has tons of rough protruding lines that are forced. Then he has Jeezy laughing like an old, assistant principal watching Judge Judy in the teacher’s lounge in the background, BUT the song works because the hook is so dang addictive. It’s like crack. I almost want to ask Kanye why did he leave that song so unpolished but he’d probably laugh and tell me I can’t tell him nothing.

One song that will fly well below most radars that I really enjoyed was “Flashing Lights”. Major shoutout to my man Dwele on the feature even though he didn’t get to flex his muscle at all. This was really the only song where you get a nice change of pace that gives a little plot or story. A good, well-rounded song that didn’t skimp in any one department.

One thing you will notice listening to this album is that the production is out of sight. Surprised?? Kanye has never lost the production battle and likely never will. I was thoroughly disappointed by the lyrics honestly. Kanye was growing a lot in this department and I set myself up for disappointment by expecting more, but he really took a step back. His delivery may have gotten slightly better, but only in spurts. Also, his content is even more about lavish lifestyles and lesbians than ever before and this song didn’t have that heavy, thought-provoking ground breaker like “Diamonds from Sierra Leone” or “Jesus Walks”. It also didn’t quite have that emotional tugger like “Heard ‘em Say” even though “Homecoming” and “Champion” are valiant efforts.

Also, this album had a few too many major stumbles like “Drunk and Hot Girls” and how long it takes for you to be able to get into “I Wonder” even though the beat is bananas.

In many ways, Kanye seems to be his own worst enemy on Graduation. 9 out of his 13 tracks have such near-flawless production they make up for some of his other mistakes and even “Can’t Tell Me Nothing” overcomes itself by still being a hot track. Even though Kanye may have taken a step back as a rapper he mixes in enough quips and memorable bars to keep you somewhat interested in what he actually says and not get lost in just the beats. Chances are Mr. West lost whatever remaining “backpacker” fans he had remaining with this album, but we all know that catering to a core base of backpackers won’t pay for Jesus pieces. You also gotta respect the fact that Kanye didn’t try to “recreate” the formula from previous efforts to find success with Graduation. Kanye’s evolution has gone more mainstream, but his sales are at the top of hip hop albums for the year which shows that this album scratched an itch that no other artist has been quite able to reach in ’07.

I give this album a B+ rating. His really good tracks are really good but there were just too many major mistakes for this to be an A-. I may change my opinion over time but that’s my initial assessment.