And then, in a flash, Kanye was everywhere, transformed from respected producer to big-name producer/MC, throwing a fit at the American Music Awards, performing "Jesus Walks" at the Grammys, wearing his diamond-studded Jesus piece, appearing on the cover of Time, running his mouth 24/7. One thing that remains unchanged is Kanye's hunger, even though his head has swollen to the point where it could be separated from his body, shot into space, and considered a planet. Raised middle class, Kanye didn't have to hustle his way out of poverty, the number one key to credibility for many hip-hop fans, whether it comes to rapper turned rapping label presidents or suburban teens. And now that he has proved himself in another way, through his stratospheric success -- which also won him a gaggle of haters as passionate as his followers -- he doesn't want to be seen as a novelty whose ambitions have been fulfilled. On Late Registration, he finds himself backed into a corner, albeit as king of the mountain. It's a paradox, which is exactly what he thrives on. His follow-up to The College Dropout isn't likely to change the minds of the resistant. As an MC, Kanye remains limited, with all-too-familiar flows that weren't exceptional to begin with (you could place a number of these rhymes over College Dropout beats). He uses the same lyrical strategies as well. Take lead single "Diamonds from Sierra Leone," in which he switches from boastful to rueful; more importantly, the conflict felt in owning blood diamonds will be lost on those who couldn't afford one with years of combined income. Even so, he can be tremendous as a pure writer, whether digging up uncovered topics (as on "Diamonds") or spinning a clever line ("Before anybody wanted K. West's beats, me and my girl split the buffet at KFC"). The production approach, however, is rather different from the debut. Crude beats and drastically tempo-shifted samples are replaced with a more traditionally musical touch from Jon Brion (Fiona Apple, Aimee Mann), who co-produces with West on most of the tracks. (Ironically, the Just Blaze-helmed "Touch the Sky" tops everything laid down by the pair, despite its heavy reliance on Curtis Mayfield's "Move on Up.") West and Brion are a good, if unlikely, match. Brion's string arrangements and brass flecks add a new dimension to West's beats without overshadowing them, and the results are neither too adventurous nor too conservative. While KRS-One was the first to proclaim, "I am hip-hop," Kanye West might as well be the first MC to boldly state, "I am pop."
Haven't bought 'Ye's new album. I don't really like what I've heard from it so far. All the hype about it got me to stick Late Registration back in my player though, and I finally figured out why it is I love "Gone" (track 19)."Gone" kicks off with a vocal and piano samples from Otis Redding's rendition of "It's Too Late." These volley back and forth with Jon Brion composed classical-styled str...
More >
For anyone curious as to how Kanye West has been coping with the death of his mother, Donda West, this footage from the hip-hop star's first performance since her passing should give you an idea. While West delivered "Good Morning" "Through The Wire" to a sold out crowd at Paris' Zenith, it was towards the end of the evening when he tried to dedicate a song to his late mother that he broke down. A
More >
Given that both days of my Yoko Kanno posts and my Hip-Hop Thursday post were considerably behind schedule, I think this track is particularly appropriate...
More >
Looks like someone at Absolut Vodka's ad agency just saw 1999's "Being John Malkovich" for the first time and thought the world of it.MrFrost beat me to the punch on this video by a good margin. I just saw the subway ad tonight, which is studiously as cheesy as all the other low-rent subway ads (and is almost impossible to identify as a vodka ad), and that might be interesting for you if MOG w...
More >
Kanye's old 'Behind The Beats' mixtape, is available for download over at *"The Smoking Section":http://smokingsection.rawkus.com/TSS/?p=3865* . The mixtape was created and released before Kanye West turned into an international superstar, and if you're a new fan of his it should be a really good listen. The mixtape basically consists of Kanye talking in the "Storytellers" format, and speaking...
More >
Haven't bought 'Ye's new album. I don't really like what I've heard from it so far. All the hype about it got me to stick Late Registration back in my player though, and I finally figured out why it is I love "Gone" (track 19)."Gone" kicks off with a vocal and piano samples from Otis Redding's rendition of "It's Too Late." These volley back and forth with Jon Brion composed classical-styled str...
More >
Entertainment Weekly broke news yesterday that HBO were in talks to bring a Kanye West reality show to their network.I'm over the whole celeb reality show thing but a blog entry on Kanye West's official website reminded me why such a show would probably be unintentionally funny. The title of Kanye's post read a little something like this."THIS IS KIND OF A BIG DEAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THANK YOU SO MU...
More >
How does Kanye West have time to create new music, tour, and juggle his personal life while furiously updating his blog with 10 entries everyday? That's been the question around the music blogosphere this week. Rumors circulated that Kanye is employing a "ghost blogger" to troll the internet and udpate the website under Kanye's name. The image directly below is a person claiming to fill that ro...
More >
The days of million dollar videos on MTV are just about over. Hip Hop artists are making waves with successful low budget straight-to-the-web releases.With the emergence of user generated web communities like YouTube and Google video, artists are able to have complete creative freedom, and not have the pain of making edits to fit MTV & BET's standards. According to A&R Jeff Sledge, todays artis...
More >
| Title | Lyrics | Buy |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Wake Up Mr. West |
|
|
| 2 Heard 'Em Say |
|
|
| 3 Touch the Sky |
|
|
| 4 Gold Digger |
|
|
| 5 [Untitled Track] |
|
|
| 6 Drive Slow |
|
|
| 7 My Way Home |
|
|
| 8 Crack Music |
|
|
| 9 Roses |
|
|
| 10 Bring Me Down |
|
|
| 11 Addiction |
|
|
| 12 [Untitled Track] |
|
|
| 13 Diamonds from Sierra Leone [Remix] |
|
|
| 14 We Major |
|
|
| 15 [Untitled Track] |
|
|
| 16 Hey Mama |
|
|
| 17 Celebration |
|
|
| 18 [Untitled Track] |
|
|
| 19 Gone |
|
|
| 20 Diamonds from Sierra Leone [*] |
|
|
| 21 Late |
|
|
Click to purchase…
© 2006-2009 Mog Inc. All Rights Reserved
 "Late Registration")
