Never one to be out of metaphors, I have derived that a good hip-hop album is like Voltron. Five pieces are needed to put together any album, and depending on how well those pieces are put together, they can make an unstoppable force of nature. Or music. Or whatever. The legs are the beats of the album. Because even with the hottest lyrics out there, nobody likes a song with booty beats (see: Talib Kweli). The arms are the hype for the album, how the artist reaches out, and gets people interested in his/her work. The torso and head is the artist. Much like the legs, a hot beat with a terrible artist doesn\'t quite work (see: Young Jeezy).
Somewhere in Chicago, a man wearing funny looking sunglasses, and clothes that may have been stolen off the set of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, calls on his own version of the mighty hip-hop robot. And thus we have Kanye West\'s Graduation.
Kanye\'s third album offers his soulful, yet, egotistical attitude in 14 tracks of pure gold. Or platinum considering the way the album sold in its first week. Graduation starts out fresh, with the somber intro "Good Morning", and quickly changes into the hand-clap-heavy, feel good track "Champion". The album continues the party with the chart topping "Stronger". The song is derived from Daft Punk\'s classic "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger", and uses the repetitive chorus throughout the entire song. The boys of Daft Punk made an appearance in the video, and have given much praise for the song. So like the song says, "Take this, haters!"
The album does fall into the pattern that a lot of artists are following these days, such as the obligatory track with America\'s favorite synthesized voice T-Pain, ("The Good Life") and the routine track with Lil Wayne ("Barry Bonds"). The only truly sour note on the album is the droning debacle known as "Drunk and Hot Girls". It\'s one of those experimental tracks that makes you want to grab a rolled up newspaper, and smack Kanye on the nose, while repeating " No! Bad Kanye!"
Despite that, tracks like "The Glory", "Everything I Am" and "Homecoming" make the album more than an afternoon delight. The big number on the album is the introspective "Big Brother", where Mr. West pays homage to surrogate big brother Jay-Z, but at the same time reflecting on how Jay-Z held him back. The song never comes off as bitter, as Kanye states he was walking in the shadow of a giant, and eventually stepped out on his own. He goes on to state that he will eventually beat Jay-Z, rounding out their relationship as pure sibling rivalry.
Overall, Kanye keeps a pretty steady pace when it comes to his music. Graduation has very few guest spots, and is completely produced by Kanye. His lyrics are as introspective as they are clever, though they do come off corny.
An Example from the track "The Good Life": Have you ever popped champagne on a plane/While getting some brain/Whipped it out/she said "I never seen snakes on a plane".
In a strange way, I think Kanye fans have come to accept corny lines as a part of his style. This is the same guy who can be quoted saying "Mayonnaise colored Benz/I Push Miracle Whips." Does this make it a bad album? No, not at all. While Kanye hasn\'t quite been on the level since his debut album "The College Dropout" he continues to bring a fresh spin on the game. And considering the alternative is something along the lines of The Shop Boyz, or god forbid 50 Cent, I\'d say Graduation is Valedictorian of the hip-hop\'s class of 2007.
"Graduation" is on sale September 11, 2007 from Def Jam.
