Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Kanye West - Late Registration (August 30, 2005)

Kanye West - Late Registration

For Kanye, following up his Grammy Award winning debut album, The College Dropout, was going to be tough. In the attempt to do so, Kanye enlisted Jon Brion, a producer who earned Grammy nominations for his scores of the films Magnolia and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, to help create cinematic beats.

Once Kanye had the cinematic production down, he called back GLC, Consequence, Common, Jamie Foxx, and Jay-Z to appear on his sophmore album. He always called upon a couple new guests, Adam Levine, Lupe Fiasco, Paul Wall, The Game, Brandy, Nas, Really Doe, and Cam'ron.

When you discuss Kanye West's album Late Registration, it's kind of hard to ignore the controversial statement that Kanye made a couple days after the album's release. Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans the day before Late Registration dropped. It caused severe damage to the city, causing the need for several fundraisers. One of them happened on September 2nd. A Concert for Hurricane Relief was aired live on NBC, featuring Kanye West (alongside Mike Myers) as a presenter. After Kanye deviated away from the skip, complaining about how the media portrayed African-Americans ("I hate the way they portray us in the media. You see a black family, it says, 'They're looting.' You see a white family, it says, 'They're looking for food.'"). After a surprised Mike Myers continued to read from the script, Kanye West delivered the controversial statement that would shock and surprise many Americans ("George Bush doesn't care about black people.") The camera quickly cut over to Chris Tucker, but the statement was still made.

But this review isn't about what Kanye said on September 2, 2005. It's about the album that dropped on August 30, 2005. Let's begin...

1. Wake Up Mr. West
DeRay Davis, best known for appearances on Nick Cannon's Wild 'N Out (you know you're not doing well when you need to credit Nick Cannon for most of your fame), drops by for another Bernie Mac-esque intro.

2. Heard 'Em Say (feat. Adam Levine)
Produced by Kanye West & Jon Brion
I'm not a huge fan of Adam Levine on this track (or any track for that matter), but Kanye's rhymes are good enough for me to ignore his chorus. Odd note, this song makes me really tired for some reason. But then, that could be the three hours of sleep I got talking. Also, when the song gets into the last forty seconds, which are all instrumental, I typically click the skip button, leading right into...

3. Touch the Sky (feat. Lupe Fiasco)
Produced by Just Blaze
The best damn song on Late Registration. And the only track that has Kanye not receiving production credits. This beat is one of the reasons I love Just Blaze as a producer (also see: "December 4th" and "Public Service Announcement"). The song can be credited for making Lupe Fiasco's career (after this verse, Lupe dropped two awesome albums, the first of which I feel like reviewing sometime soon). God, I love this song.

4. Gold Digger (feat. Jamie Foxx)
Produced by Kanye West & Jon Brion
Why Kanye West brings in Jamie Foxx to impersonate Ray Charles in the beginning of the song... when he samples the original throughout the song confuses me. Also, how this song got so damn popular, while "Touch the Sky" only peaked at 42 on the Billboard 100 confuses me. I'll never understand people who listen to the radio. Oh, the song. It's good. But you've heard it before, so I'll just dive out... now.

5. Skit #1
Skip.

6. Drive Slow (feat. Paul Wall & GLC)
Produced by Kanye West
I will never understand why Kanye West is such an awesome MC (yes, I said it, deal with it), but has questionable taste in hip-hop (Lil' Wayne, Paul Wall, T-Pain, Young Jeezy...). It's just weird. I know that somewhere there's a remix with T.I., that I believe was released on a special edition of his album King. GLC drops by and makes me wonder why he hasn't dropped an album yet (Love, Life, & Loyalty will not be released this year. Calling it.) Paul Wall also drops by and makes me wonder why he's released four albums to date.

7. My Way Home (feat. Common)
Produced by Kanye West
This is weird. Common comes into the studio to lay down a verse that sounds like it would fit on "Homecoming", the track from numerous Kanye mixtapes and Graduation. However, Kanye just decides to put the verse alone on the album, with no Kanye at all. Common sounds good, as always. Plus, the last 40 or so seconds where Kanye lets the sample play out is awesome.

8. Crack Music (feat. The Game)
Produced by Kanye West & Jon Brion
Apparently, The Game actually recorded a verse for this track, along with his half of the chorus, but for some reason, Kanye decided that it didn't fit or maybe The Game didn't sit with him at lunch, I don't know, but Kanye deleted the verse, but decided to keep The Game's chorus. I wonder if the version with The Game is available on the internet, I'm guessing it is. I mean, what isn't available on the internet? He'd probably sound good over the beat.

9. Roses
Produced by Kanye West & Jon Brion
I really like this song. But you have to admit it's kinda eery when you think about what happened to his mother.

10. Bring Me Down (feat. Brandy)
Produced by Kanye West & Jon Brion
Brandy hasn't been relevant in forever. So why did Kanye go with her when he probably could've gotten nearly any songstress he wanted? (Mary J. Blige... just saying.)

11. Addiction
Produced by Kanye West & Jon Brion
I don't know why I like this song so much. I just do. Don't judge me.

12. Skit #2
See track #5.

13. Diamonds From Sierra Leone (Remix) (feat. Jay-Z)
Produced by Kanye West & Jon Brion
You can find the original towards the end of the album. After being learned on conflict diamonds, Kanye decided to remix the track, bringing along his big bro to drop a verse. Jay decides to completely the entire concept of the remix and rhyme about how awesome he and Roc-A-Fella are. Plus, he has the line "I'm not a businessman, I'm a business, man!" and that just kicks ass.

14. We Major (feat. Nas & Really Doe)
Produced by Kanye West & Jon Brion
The longest song Kanye has this side of "Last Call". Really Doe provides the chorus, while Nas drops a scene-stealing verse. It sounds pretty good the first few minutes, but ultimately, it goes on way too long. And you'll find yourself skipping to the next track (which you'll also skip).

15. Skit #3
See track #12.

16. Hey Mama
Produced by Kanye West & Jon Brion
You may find this song hard to listen to after what happened to his mother. One thing I'll remember about this song was a couple years back, I didn't have any money for a Mother's Day gift. Lucky for me, my mom will take the simplest gift for Mother's Day and find joy in the thought that I put time and thought into it. I remember copying this song into Word and editing some of the stuff to make it more for her and then printing it and giving it to her. Although, it wasn't much, she enjoyed it. Also, I suggest you track down the "Grammy Remix" of this track, which is a studio version of the live version that Kanye performed at the Grammys. Also, R.I.P. Donna West.

17. Celebration
Produced by Kanye West & Jon Brion
You can skip this. You won't really be missing anything.

18. Skit #4
See track #15.

19. Gone (feat. Cam'ron & Consequence)
Produced by Kanye West
I really like this song. While I'm not the biggest fan of Cam'ron (except for Come Home with Me and Purple Haze), he really sounds good on this song. Consequence also sounds good. I've yet to hear him sound bad out of the (four or so) songs I've heard him on. For Kanye's second verse, the beat switches up, sending us into the bonus tracks...

The next two tracks are considered bonus tracks...

20. Diamonds From Sierra Leone
Produced by Kanye West & Jon Brion
Despite being the actual single, the original "Diamonds from Sierra Leone" is stuck back in the bonus tracks. This is good song, but I personally prefer the remix with Jay-Z, which you can find above.

21. Late
Produced by Kanye West
This a good song... and I'd review it further. But I wanna get to bed. So I'll leave it at that, excuse the lazyness.

Conclusion: You really should buy this album. It's definitely the best album Kanye's put it out to date, and one of the best albums of the decade. And I really mean that. This album proves why Kanye is my favorite mainstream MC of the 2000s.

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