At first listen i was appauled at what i heard on this new album "Graduation". The day before i had listened to "Late Registration" and knew i was listening to something amazing, especially tracks like "We Major". Now listening to "Graduation" i didn't know what to make of it. The beats felt forced, and the lyrics weren't up to his usual quality. Which were always best when just talking about everyday life in a clever and witty way. Going through the first 3-4 tracks i heard a couple hits, but it just kept getting weaker and weaker as it went on. One thing to note for all future artists....DON"T PUT LIL WAYNE ON A TRACK! I dunno what he was thinking with that. So at first listen, NO, i didn't like it.
Then the other day i listened to it again, thoroughly, and felt like i could finally give some decent thoughts. I still don't think it's a classic album, but it's better than i originally thought. The beats are below his usual work. It sounds like he gave all his best stuff to Common and didn't know what to use for himself. On one track he says how common passed on the beat, so he made it into a jam. Far from it. Something i realized on this album was that a lot of the beats were so slow, and Kanye rapped over them kinda slowly which makes them less appealing to me. For an example of this listen to "Drunk and Hot Girls" and "Everything I Am". The latter is lyrically pretty good, but the beat just doesn't do it for me. "Drunk and Hot Girls" is a waste of a track, and doesn't use Mos-Def the way he should be used. You give a verse to Lil' Wayne on a track, and have Mos-Def singing your chorus on another? Come on Kanye.
The album peaks at track #6, and then is just so so the rest of the way. The only thing that kinda saved the album for me was to find the bonus tracks from the iTunes version. One song that did it for me was "Bittersweet Poetry". You may have heard the song a couple years ago on the VMA's, but Kanye never released it. But the beats on this song are up to par, and John Mayer is just a cool voice to have on your track.
So yeah, i'm not fully impressed with this. Compared to his first 2 albums, Kanye should view this one as a failure. There's no way it will win Album of the Year, but of course Kanye will still cry like a baby about it. Here's some advice, go back to college as a 5th year senior and graduate with something better next time around.
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I'm not a huge Kanye fan; I've only skimmed his other albums at best, and he's kinda off-putting in general with his whining. But, because of the whole publicity stunt with that gorilla who missed the last few stages of evolution and the fact that I actually enjoyed "Stronger," I decided to check it out. I really didn't like what I heard but, I also got the feeling that maybe it was just a bad time to jump on the Kanye wagon. I feel like Kanye hits the mark when he's talking about something important. And, not even important on a grand scale, just something important to him. I feel like that's when he delivers, when he shines. On "Graduation," for the most part, he's talking about himself. And we all know that he admits to this love affair with himself. But, honestly, acknowledging your ego doesn't make it any more endearing or less obnoxious. All that being said, he's still one of the few rappers that I'll listen to. But, I agree, that fifth year may be necessary... here's hoping he comes harder next time.
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