On a day where two of rap’s most well known names went head to head in an album dropping contest, Kayne West might have just pushed 50 Cent (a.k.a Curtis Jackson a.k.a I got shot nine times Curtis Jackson) into an early retirement.
Kayne’s Graduation puts the hip-hop/rap genre to a place few have ever taken in. The album opens with arguably the best intro song on a rap album since Young Buck dropped I’m a Soldier from Strait Out of Cashville. The song combines an original beat with lyrics that climb out of the hole of the money, drugs, and murder into which rap music has fallen.
While his rival 50 Cent continues to harp on hackneyed lyrics that proclaim his street credit, Kanye pushes the borders of rap music into places it’s never been. Songs like Champion and his hit single Stronger, which topped I Tunes singles list when it debuted, show Kanye’s personal quest to improve himself as a musician and a person as a whole.
Graduation only gets better the further into the CD you let your ears slip. Kanye brings one the R’B’s hottest rising stars T-Payne (Buy You a Drink) onto a track called Good Life which will be the next single Kanye drops. Kayne drops a 50 Cent lyric in the chorus and lets anyone who hears the song that he won’t back down from his newly appointed biggest musical rival.
The Good Life opposes the songs by preceding it by making you want to move yours hands around in the air and go out and have a good time. The way songs which hold such different meanings are fixed simultaneously on the album is one of the many ways Kanye shows his supremacy of the rap game.
Songs like Barry Bonds which features Little Wayne are more traditional rap songs that deliver messages through lyrics that must be sifted through in order to understand. Rap enthusiasts who follow Wayne’s every move are sure to throw this track on repeat numerous times because the words flow so effortlessly with the beat behind it.
Kanye lightens the mood of the album with his song Drunken Hot Girls. The song is about exactly what the title says it’s about drunken hot girls. One avid Kanye fan Mike Palombo’ 10 said “The song should have been faster paced. The song puts you to sleep. It’s the only flaw on the CD.”
Kanye also makes it clear that Coldplay and homosexuality do not always belong in the same sentence (think 40 Year Old Virgin). Homecoming features Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin and furthers Kanye’s desire to expand rap music into new realms.
The album closes with Big Brother, as Kanye shouts out to his biggest influence Jay Z. While he doesn’t drop his mentor’s name, he makes enough hints that anyone who knows anything about his past will know who he is speaking of.
Graduation is by far Kanye’s best album to date. If he continues on the path he has forged thus far, Kane West can, and will enshrine his name as one of the pioneers of the rap industry.
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