Spring Break
Kanye's Graduation: a well-crafted hip-hop dissertation
Jeremy Kollie
Issue date: 9/18/07 Section: Entertainment
- < prev Page 2 of 2
The scene then becomes dramatic when the first "Laaa, La, La, La's"' of "Can't Tell Me Nothing" come seeping through the speakers. Samples of Indian vocals and Young Jeezy's infamous adlibs set the backdrop while West gets his tough talk on with lines like, "Excuse me, are you saying something?/ Uh-Uh, you can't tell me nothing."
The album takes its first dips with the Lil' Wayne-assisted "Barry Bonds" and the Mos Def-featured "Drunk and Hot Girls." The former makes use of a lackluster Weezy F. Baby verse that the album, in all honesty, could have done without.
The latter, unless you are in the mood to hear about drunk and hot girls (repeatedly, I might add), gets a bit annoying after a while and reduces lyrical savant, Mos Def, to singing backup.
West is able to right the ship, however, as he delivers the brilliant Dwele-featured selection "Flashing Lights," in which he speaks on that all-to-common celebrity relationship killer, the Paparazzi.
West addresses his haters with the ragtime-piano sampling on "Everything I Am," a beat that G.O.O.D. music artist and Common passed on and West "made into a jam."
West does a good job of describing just how entranced people are with his every move with lines like, "People talk so much **** about me at barbershops, they forget to get their hair cut."
The "Louis Vuitton Don" picks it up with "The Glory," a track that lets fans know just why West does what he does with bars like, "The hood love to listen Jeezy and Weezy, and oh yeah Yeezy ... I did it for the glory."
Mr. West winds the album down with probably two of the most brilliantly written songs of his career, save for "Jesus Walks" and "Through the Wire." The first, "Homecoming," which features the styling of Coldplay's Chris Martin, serves as a story about West's beloved hometown Chicago, much in the same vein of Common's classic "I Used to Love H.E.R.".
West even goes as far to borrow the opening lines from his label mate as he spits, "I met this girl when I was three years old, and what I loved most she had so much soul / She said 'Excuse me, little homie, I know you don't know me, but my name is Wendy (Windy) and I like to blow trees.'"
The last song on the album, "Big Brother", is an ode to label head and longtime collaborator and friend, Jay-Z, who West admits he has always strived to be like with rhymes like, "At the Grammy's I said 'I inspired me', but my big brother who I always tried to be."
Kanye makes his point with Graduation and lets the world know that he's a far cry from that nervous freshman just trying to make a name for himself.
Now he's a confident, (and sometimes cocky) senior and if he keeps churning out records like this, he has a very bright future in the institution of music.
The album takes its first dips with the Lil' Wayne-assisted "Barry Bonds" and the Mos Def-featured "Drunk and Hot Girls." The former makes use of a lackluster Weezy F. Baby verse that the album, in all honesty, could have done without.
The latter, unless you are in the mood to hear about drunk and hot girls (repeatedly, I might add), gets a bit annoying after a while and reduces lyrical savant, Mos Def, to singing backup.
West is able to right the ship, however, as he delivers the brilliant Dwele-featured selection "Flashing Lights," in which he speaks on that all-to-common celebrity relationship killer, the Paparazzi.
West addresses his haters with the ragtime-piano sampling on "Everything I Am," a beat that G.O.O.D. music artist and Common passed on and West "made into a jam."
West does a good job of describing just how entranced people are with his every move with lines like, "People talk so much **** about me at barbershops, they forget to get their hair cut."
The "Louis Vuitton Don" picks it up with "The Glory," a track that lets fans know just why West does what he does with bars like, "The hood love to listen Jeezy and Weezy, and oh yeah Yeezy ... I did it for the glory."
Mr. West winds the album down with probably two of the most brilliantly written songs of his career, save for "Jesus Walks" and "Through the Wire." The first, "Homecoming," which features the styling of Coldplay's Chris Martin, serves as a story about West's beloved hometown Chicago, much in the same vein of Common's classic "I Used to Love H.E.R.".
West even goes as far to borrow the opening lines from his label mate as he spits, "I met this girl when I was three years old, and what I loved most she had so much soul / She said 'Excuse me, little homie, I know you don't know me, but my name is Wendy (Windy) and I like to blow trees.'"
The last song on the album, "Big Brother", is an ode to label head and longtime collaborator and friend, Jay-Z, who West admits he has always strived to be like with rhymes like, "At the Grammy's I said 'I inspired me', but my big brother who I always tried to be."
Kanye makes his point with Graduation and lets the world know that he's a far cry from that nervous freshman just trying to make a name for himself.
Now he's a confident, (and sometimes cocky) senior and if he keeps churning out records like this, he has a very bright future in the institution of music.
