Graduation [Explicit]

Kanye West - Graduation (Roc-A-Fella, 2007)

It's no secret: critics love Kanye West. The media loves Kanye West. Whatever wrongs he do in public are forgiven by them and each of his albums end up on some annual "Best of" list. Everybody else, however, has their own criticisms: he can't rap, he gives his best beats away, he's too cocky, etc. Well, this album, Graduation, probably won't change the naysayers' opinions but it is another well-rounded effort from Mr. West.

What you may notice is that this album is more condensed than his other albums (read: no stupid skits). It gives the listener more time to listen to 'Ye's lyrics. And he doesn't disappoint, especially on "Can't Tell Me Nothing", where he sums up the argument about how hip hop ain't how it used to be: "Old folks talkin' 'bout 'Back in my day'/But homey this is MY day". In other words, quit living in the past. Other great songs come in the forms of "Good Life" (any artist + T-Pain = instant hit), "Everything I Am", the funny "Drunk and Hot Girls" and the revealing "Big Brother" about Kanye's previous jealousy of Jay-Z.

Unfortunately, Kanye still has a way of trying to introduce old material to the masses, thinking that we never heard a certain rap before. One of The College Dropout Proper Advance's tunes, "Home", which used a girl as a metaphor for the city of Chicago, shows up on here called "Homecoming" and does an injustice to the original. And I'm not gonna lie, The College Dropout will always be Kanye's best album to me. Still, if you haven't yet, attend Kanye's Graduation because it's a special event. -EJR

This is not a review as such of Kanye West's "Graduation" album. Not a whole lot more that I can say about the album that hasn't been said somewhere in the hundreds of other reviews here. Instead, I wanted to comment on the disaster that was Kanye's performance at Bonnaroo in June, which I witnessed first hand.

Kanye was originally scheduled to perform at 8:15 PM Saturday evening, at the same time that Jack Johnson was scheduled to perform on the main stage. Claiming that he wanted to make sure it was dark enough for his stage show, Kanye requested that his set be moved to a 2:45 to 4 AM slot at the main stage (even though by 8:30 Central time, it's pretty much complete darkness). His request was granted (this was the first time ever that such a late performance would be held at the main stage). The headliners of the evening, Pearl Jam, ran over by 30 min. and finished their set at exactly 1 AM. Then the waiting started. 2:45 AM came and went with no sign of Kanye. The waiting went on and on and on... People were getting very frustrated, for obvious reasons. Lots of people simply left. Finally, at 4:25 AM, Kanye came on stage, no explanation given, no "thanks for hanging in there", like nothing was wrong. The set started with "Good Morning", and how appropriate it was as dawn started to break. By the time Kanye finished at 5:25 AM, it was complete daylight. So much for glow in the dark!

I had heard a lot about the Glow in the Dark tour, and was very curious to see what the brouhaha was all about. Well, color me mightily disappointed! The 'special effects' came across cheaply, for one. Separate from the faux pas for not apologizing for being so late, the show is just a one man performance, dancing and singing to pre-taped music (not a single 'live" instrument), just like on the Disney channel! Very disappointing. Later I read that Kanye blamed the fiasco on the Bonnaroo organizers "who clearly don't know how to put on a show". Sure, Kanye! Me personally, I think that "Kanye don't like white people"...

i had to listen to this a few times, but i like most of the tracks on it.

This will be short but sweet. So much hip-hop today, almost all of it is garbage. There is an overflow of so-called rap artist in todays music market, and hip-hop is being destroyed. Even though Kayne West is more in the "pop" areana of hip-hop, this album is pretty enjoyable and catchy. Kayne doesnt lay down wanna be gangster tracks here, so he gets bonus points just for that. The sampling of some of the songs is done well, and the lyrical content of the album is solid. Perfect? No, Solid, Yes, and worth a listen even for non-hip hop fans or those as myself who mostly like oldschool (almost everything up to 2002, then after, most everything sucks) might enjoy some of the catchy tracks
Overall Grade- B-

Kanaye West Graduation is the first cd of his I have ever bought or even wanted to buy as his release approached I was looking past his effort to a man who had held my attention for several years 50 cent . So I picked up 50's effort first and while not as strong as his first efforts I felt it was still a solid effort but as I heard more of Kanaye's effort stronger, welcome to the goodlife and flashing lights really moved me to purchase this cd . Seems to me Kanaye kinda reinvented himself and atleast to me put out a better product . I would say he narrowly edged out Jay-Z for best rap cd of 2007 . Kanaye spits inpressivly and beats are strong while bring in T-Pain for good life appears to have been brillent . Go out and get Graduation