Good goddamn, Kanye's a crazy fuck. Did you see him on SNL a few weeks back, where he forgot his lines and started spitting a totally atrocious freestyle? Or last year, at the Europe VMAs, where he shit-talked Justice and essentially everyone in Europe (after which he bit their style and their video director; see below)? Or two years ago, on that Katrina telethon, when he blurted out his (entirely rational and justifiable) feelings about our dear Presidente? Yeah? Who the fuck cares. Continue making music this fine, and it really doesn't matter what E! and various hip hop bloggers have to say. Consider it thus: he's certainly less clinically disturbed than Brian Wilson, Daniel Johnston, Don Van Vleit, etc., and we don't question their street cred. Phil Spector (allegedly) murdered someone, for chrissakes, and we still love him for his production skillz. Kanye: yeah, he's got an ego, but at least he isn't on trial for second degree murder.
Graduation isn't as musically dense or satisfying as Late Registration, which could be due to Jon Brion's notable absence (he's around, but not to the same degree). However, it's still a fascinating, forward-thinking, solid record. Kanye seems to approach his craft as a producer the way Radiohead (yep, I said it) approach their song creation: the ultimate focus is the furtherance of their art and the cohesion of their work. If the resulting record is critically acclaimed and/or a chart-topper, all the better. And no, it's not an electro record (if you haven't heard it yet; I was slightly surprised), but it does abound in synths. Italo-disco-style synths, to get more specific, as opposed to Swizz-Beats-style synths. That's where his newfound love of electronic music, beyond the overplayed Daft Punk sample, comes in. "Flashing Lights" is a hip-hop-meets-house club banger in the style of the Streets "Blinded by the Lights." Several other tracks utilize the same aesthetic, and these are by and large my favorite on the album, none more so than the outstanding "Good Life" (linked below). Granted, there are weak spots (every hip hop album has them): Lil Wayne has a lame, out-of-place cameo on the unremarkable "Barry Bonds," and Kanye wastes a perfectly good beat on the head-scratcher "Drunk and Hot Girls," an argument against the titular ladies, as if there was some unknown party out there straight representin' for shitfaced sluts. Then there are the odd, tender moments, especially the closing "Big Brother," a song-length love letter to Kanye's mentor Jay-Z. Never before, and likely never again, will we hear such vulnerability from a rapper; it's totally against everything hip hop careers, including Kanye's, are built on. It's these moments, though, that set Kanye apart. Any rapper alive can pull off the swagger and braggadocio, most less successfully, but few even bother baring their souls this way.
I would be remiss in not also sharing the video for this track, somewhat ironically directed by Ed Banger art director So-Me:
