Kanye West – Graduation
Kanye West is ambitious, and he has no problem telling others about it. In a recent issue of Blender, the rapper states, “I want to be the worldwide top artist. You can quote that. I want to be the No. 1 artist in the world.”
On his latest album, Graduation, West tries to take a few steps toward his goal. It’s shorter and less indulgent than his first two releases, and it attempts to add more variety to West’s practice of ripping soul song samples and laying them over a pounding beat. Still, the variety and tighter organization don’t make Graduation any better than his previous albums, The College Dropout (2004) or Late Registration (2005).
In fact, Graduation may be West’s weakest effort. He mars the production on much of the album with overly lush synthesizer arrangements that constantly threaten to overpower the beat. This is particularly evident in “Flashing Lights,” where wavering strings and techno-style synthesizers turn a song with a heavy, pulsing beat into European one-hit-wonder dance pop. On “The Good Life,” featuring T-Pain—singer of “Buy U a Drank”—West attempts to channel “We Don’t Care” from Dropout in a self-righteous celebration (“50 told me go ‘head and switch the style up/and if they hate then let ‘em hate/and watch the money pile up”), but too much electronic gloss is added, and it buries West’s rapping and T-Pain’s crooning under layers of high-pitched chirps.
And let’s talk about West’s larger-than-life ego. Arrogance may be common in the world of hip-hop, but West’s arrogance is his trademark, and it’s all over Graduation. Too often, though, the uninspired production limits the impact of West’s self-praise. The only time his cockiness and production mesh is on “The Glory.” West clobbers a sped-up Laura Nyro sample with a pounding beat while spitting lines of self-aggrandizing venom: “So yeah at the Grammys I went ultra Travolta/Yeah that tuxedo mighta been a little Guido/ but with my ego, I can stand there in a Speedo/and still be looked at like a fuckin’ hero.”
Beneath the clouds of synthesizers on Graduation, moments like this are hard to find. And, unfortunately, these moments are where West is at his best, when his cockiness mixes with celebratory soul loops to create catchy anthems of self-praise. If West wants to be the world’s top artist, this is what fans need to hear. It’s a shame that they can’t hear it more clearly on Graduation.
