I'm a business, man

Whoa, Kanye, holy shit.
That was going to be my whole review, but maybe I'll say a little more. Late Registration, I think, was my most highly anticipated album in a while, at least since Frances The Mute (not counting Make Believe, because that was more fear than excitement). And, thank god, Kanye refuses to disappoint. This is serious shit: a fully formed extension of and maturation from The College Dropout. The "am I conscious or am I a club banger?" dichotomy is still evident, most exemplified by the two versions of "Diamonds From Sierra Leone" (note to Kanye--a different verse does not a remix make, and I'll stand by that opinion like I have since "All About The Benjamins"). Jon Brion adds a totally new dimension to the production. It remains indubitably soulful Kanye, but deeper and more layered and fascinating, like OK Computer (Jesus, did I just do that? Fuck it, I'm going with that comparison). I don't think the sound is going to change the face of mainstream hip hop, like the Neptunes or Lil Jon sounds did when they blew up, because the production here is just too damn complex for some cut-rate Just Blaze wannabe to imitate.
There are some unbelievable cuts here, and I'm almost going to do it track-by-track, impressionistically. First, I'm all for pussy white boys, like John Mayer or Kanye's bro Adam Levine, doing hooks on rap tracks. It works for me. I was driving down Santa Monica when the "Move On Up" (one of my all-time favorite soul songs) dropped into "Touch The Sky," and I nearly had to stop. Jamie Foxx thinks he's Ray Charles now, but "Gold Digger" is a serious bumpin' tune. The skits are annoying, and I'm just skipping over them. The Game's spoken word thing at the end of "Crack Music" can stand toe-to-toe with Common's tune on the album (which itself sounds like an outtake from Be, in the best possible way), as far as consciousness goes: who would have thought? "Drive Slow" is Kanye, Dirty-Dirty style; the screwed-n-chopped end of that track cracked me up in its genius. Only negative thing: Brandy blows ass, and so does "Celebration;" sorry, you're not Dave Chappelle. I wanted to dislike "Hey Mama" because it initially sounded sappy, but it reminds me of a Paul Simon song with the vocal melody. Also, I wanted to hear Kanye sing again since "The Food," so that was cool.
One of my favorite things: how incredible are Jay-Z and Nas's verses? It's like anybody, from Lupe Fiasco (who? exactly...) on up has to throw down the best they have on a Kanye album. Hov calls himself both the Rock of Gibraltar and Jesus in the span of two lines, which I can't particularly argue with; I got chills even when he was going "uh-huh" behind Kanye's rap. Nas wonders about the pressure of being so well-regarded for so long, and can't decide whether to rap about hoes or politics, and ends up doing a meta-verse. Hot shit, like Really Doe's hook-that's-really-a-verse.
For sure, this is a hip hop classic. Kanye can't be stopped.
Yesterday, my mom told me they should nationalize the energy industry. I called her a pinko commie.