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Album Review: Kanye West, "Graduation" (Def Jam)
No, the answers to life are not contained on Kanye West 's "Graduation." However, the album--his third and most uneven collection to date--does serviceably distract listeners from the mundane realities of existence.
And in this, West deserves credit, finally, for having changed music. He's meant as much to hip-hop as Google has to your computer. West found a new way to be transgressive, as an articulate American of African descent unleashing a trio of immortal albums who's abiding theme is screw school, at least in the institutional sense. "Graduation"'s themes are overtly hopeful, an evolution from the spiteful, back-of-the-classroom smartypants personas that dominated his first releases. "Stronger" and the other monster singles "Can't Tell Me Nothin'" and "The Good Life" all are powered by inspirational, quasi-gospel energy, a direct contrast from the hits that define West's Sept. 11 competitor, 50 Cent.
West's wit and taste drive the album, in sampling terms as well as lyrical. The Daft Punk, Steely Dan and Michael Jackson bites are showy and effective--but the fact that West samples well is far from revelation. What's new is the way keyboards flourish more powerfully than they did on "Late Registration," which was a huge step up from West's debut. Here, the man experiments to the verge of musical abstraction--in the past a no-no for crossover-minded hip-hop artists--on "Flashing Lights" and the Mos Def collaboration "Drunk and Hot Girls."
But, yes, there is, above all else, West's controversial vocal approach. Never the most technically proficient MC, he makes up for a sometimes uneven delivery style with insider-y, kaleidoscopic lyrics. The album opener, "Good Morning," contains the lines "Did you even see the test?/You got D's, motherf---er, D's/Rosie Perez," and they all at once work as self-mockery, film reference ("Do the Right Thing"), Brooklyn shout-out and tit joke. Kanye's occasionally overbearing style, never more erratic than on "Graduation," gets over because its owner is so densely brilliant.
