Chicago hip-hop star Kanye “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” West is no stranger to controversy – his 2005 post-Katrina comments managed to leave even seasoned improv veteran Mike Myers speechless. He exudes arrogance (or “confidence,” as he likes to call it) on at least half of the songs he writes, in which he frequently and smugly asserts his superiority over other emcees.
And, let’s face it: Kanye is kind of a tool. You could make a drinking game – and get shit-faced doing it – taking a shot every time he references high-dollar fashion brand Louis Vuitton on his latest record, Graduation.
So why do college kids, music critics and Grammy Awards all seem to be inescapably drawn to him? The answer is simple: Because Kanye is one of the hardest-working emcee-producer combos in the business. His third full-length, Graduation, is a testament to this work ethic, even with its flaws and shortcomings (and, oh yes, it has both).
Graduation’s first single, “Can’t Tell Me Nothing,” features the usual trademarks of Kanye’s boisterous style: “So if the devil wear Prada/ Adam, Eve wear nada/ I’m in between but way more fresher/ But way less effort.” The chorus is just as catchy as expected, but loses some of its serious tone after you see the song’s hilariously absurd video with comedian Zach Galifianakis and mustachioed indie-folkster Will Oldham lip-synching while dressed in bizarre farm attire.
Released this past summer, the Daft Punk-sampling second single “Stronger” features a wonderfully bass-heavy beat over a sample of “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger.” The chorus dominates as Kanye’s beat and lyrics merge effortlessly with the sample for an undeniably head-thumping hook. He still gets a few clever rhymes in during the verses: “So how the hell could you front on me/ There’s a thousand yous and only one of me” and the potentially offensive, yet still hilarious, “Heard they’d do anything for a Klondike/ Well I’d do anything for a blonde dyke/ And she’ll do anything for the limelight.”
Unfortunately, the album features some irritating and awkward tracks as well, seen most evidently in “Drunk and Hot Girls,” an ill-fitting recollection of interactions with exactly what the name implies. Not only is it repetitive and set to an obnoxiously slow tempo, but the song is also the longest one on the album and will leave you with just one question: Why the hell did Mos Def lend himself to such a terrible collaboration?
Two songs later, Kanye fails again in “Everything I Am” – another slow-paced piano ballad that just doesn’t work. Lyrically, it has potential, with Kanye reflecting on his life and the plethora of criticism he faces. But Kanye is plagued by an uncomfortable delivery in the first half of the song, in which he is neither singing nor rapping – and half-sung spoken word simply isn’t Kanye’s thing.
Kanye recovers by the end of the album, however, with “Homecoming,” which features Coldplay’s Chris Martin. Cross-genre collaborations are generally either mind-blowingly good or painfully bad, and this one happily ends up the former. It’s impossible to not bob your head and sing along to Chris Martin’s chorus over the Phil Collins-esque, piano-driven beat.
With two critically-acclaimed hip-hop albums already under his belt, it’s a little unfair to expect Kanye West to deliver anything too perfect. Graduation is at least the next best thing – at times great, at times not-so-good, but always identifiably Kanye.
fallopia@umd.edu
