Graduation

by

Kanye West

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Kanye West is thoughtful ("Everything I'm not, made me everything I am," he explains on "Everything I Am") and has a voice like honey and a breathtakingly broad musical palette.

On his third album, West wants that acceptance on a big piece of paper, rolled up in a ribbon and presented to him in front of the applauding world. To make sure that everyone had the date in their diary, he pulled the release forward to clash with his nemesis, 50 Cent. But why bother? If anyone was going to get the prize for coming top of the class right now, it would be West.

"Graduation" sums up the qualities that made West a star: smart sampling, funny pitched-up vocals, a new found maturity, sagacious rapping and a finely attuned ear for infectious beats and rhythms.

There are also a couple of new ingredients: steely, electro synths from Daft Punk on "Stronger" and Caribbean lilts on "Good Life".

He's even got rappers' favourite indie boy Chris Martin doing his best Gilbert O'Sullivan impression on "Homecoming".

Despite all this, something about "Graduation" feels a bit cold.

The goofy glamour of "Gold Digger" and "Touch the Sky" have been edged out by over-earnest, gratingly repetitive self-promotion and an underlying sense of isolation and paranoia. And for all his right-on credentials, "Drunk & Hot Girls" veers close to hip-hop's tired old misogyny.

Kanye West is a 'conscious' rapper whose album samples Steely Dan and kraut rock beards Can; who muses on the stress of success; and who likes speeded up chipmunk vocals.

"Graduation" will leave some fans cold (it's a pop album that takes hip hop further into mainstream dance culture).

The album has magnificent moments (the Daft Punk-sampling "Stronger", the wonderfully upbeat "Good Life") but is weighed down by navel-gazing and pales in comparison to "Late Registration" and "College Dropout".

And yet, the record is beguiling and addictive: you want to go back and listen again as all those shiny, unexpected layers reveal themselves.

"Graduation" might yet to turn out to be as important as West thinks it is.

After two amazing solid hip hop albums just recently released this year, Common's Finding Forever and Talib Kweli's Eardrum, (both in which had an appearance with Kanye) one could only look foward to the next big album. This album was Kanye's Graduation. Unfortunately, this album was a mixed bag for me. As a producer, Kanye is one of the greats and he undeniably will be one of the best for some time to come. As a lyricist, I was definitely disappointed. Kanye is still better then most, but for this album I felt he didn't bring his A game. After hearing Common's and Talib Kweli's albums, this one seem very lackluster in the lyrical department. Either way, this is easily one of the best hip hop albums this year surpassing 50's Curtis.