August 30, 2007

Kanye West - Graduation (Review)

I hate to admit it, but I'm actually kinda disappointed at this Graduation album. I mean its straight, but there's nothing really THAT special about it. There's really no track on here that blows me away like majority of the tracks on The College Dropout or Late Registration did. Okay, well first off there is only 13 songs and that had me like WTF when I saw it because The College Dropout had 15 and Late Registration had 16 (both numbers without the skits of course...hell this album doesn't even have skits! Weird). Once I got past that and pressed play it was pretty lackluster and really just made me wanna go listen to Late Registration.

On top of that, Graduation featured two possible worse for Kanye albums: 1. Drunk And Hot Girls was terrible and possibly the worst song featured on a Kanye album 2. Lil Wayne's verse on Barry Bonds was terrible and possibly the worst verse featured on a Kanye album lol (people think I'm "hatin" on Lil Wayne, but he's really just not that hot anymore, sorry). Oh yeah, and what the hell was up with Homecoming??? Those were the same damn lyrics from Home with John Legend and that shit has been on the net since around the time College Dropout dropped. Quite frankly, I liked the original better, I mean Chris Martin did his thing but John Legend KILLED that shit and the beat isn't as soulful.

I dunno maybe I'm just being a bad fan and had too high of expectations... who knows but its time to give this shit a 2nd listen, peace.

AFTER THE 2nd LISTEN...

Okay, after the 2nd listen I felt a little more connected to the music, but that's pretty much the only difference. I'm still not blown away [like I expected to be] like when I heard Late Registration, The Black Album, or The Eminem Show (a few albums that I loved instantly). Drunk And Hot Girls was still awful (aside from Mos Def's part, but he didn't even rap), Lil Wayne's verse was still trash (he sounds WAY out of his league on the song, and album in general), no DeRay skits was just awkward, and I'm still indifferent about Ye recycling Home for Homecoming. Personally, I think The Glory should of been the last song, Drunk And Hot Girls shouldn't have made the album (or have even been made for that matter lol), and Barry Bonds could've been replaced by a new Kanye/Hov or Kanye/Nas collabo. Oh well, hopefully it'll grow on me more because I'm still gonna cop it to support good music since it is better than every other album this year besides Finding Forever.
4/5

2 comments:

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

Yeh i definitely agree with you.
i mean i enjoyed the album, and the tracks had real nice beats, but i wasn't as "moved" as i was when i listened to the college dropout.

I think what i miss most about kanyes music are the intensity and length of his verses, most of which are from college dropout. For me in this album, his lyrics dont have as much structure to them as before. But i guess on the other hand its something new and different.

I think maybe i was expecting a "Jesus Walks" track to be on this album, but there wasnt so in that respect im a little let down.

Again, i cant agree with you more about the drunk girls track and lil wayne being the low points of the album.
I hate lil wayne, his voice, his face, just pisses me off. He looks as if he tried to escape from the jungle but never quite made it out.

I dont think hes ever gonna release any album that outdoes the college dropout, i think that album was just too good. But as long as he keeps releasing albums, moving in new directions and making new (homecoming?) music that we all wanna listen to, im just too happy to have another one of kanyes albums in my ears.