Kanye West

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Just wondering - anyone heard Late Registration yet? I'm picking it up tonight, and the reviews from the States have been VERY enthusiastic so far.
 

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Catfish Jake

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#2
Haven't heard it yet, but I am looking forward to if for sure. I really liked his first album, some great stuff on there.

If anyone is interested here is the review from US Rolling Stone: Five stars...

If anything, Kanye West is too modest. Yeah, he's got an ego or two -- he's liable to compare himself to Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali, Bill Gates and Prince, sometimes in the same sentence. But he pours all that ego into musical ambition. As he says, "I ain't putting nothing out unless I can talk ******** afterward." On Late Registration, the Louis Vuitton Don doesn't just set out to create pop music -- he wants to be pop music. So he steps up his lyrical game, shows off his epic production skills, reaches higher, pushes harder and claims the whole world of music as hip-hop turf. He aims for what he calls "that Coldplay, Portishead, Fiona Apple style" in his mad quest to explode every cliche about hip-hop identity. Can he get it done? Yes, he can. And like Reggie Jackson used to say, it ain't bragging if you can do it.
West blew up last year with the bling/backpack synthesis of The College Dropout, the preppy-fabulous debut smash that people still can't stop arguing about. For some, Dropout proves hip-hop is in a rut, as an example of what everybody else isn't doing; for others, it proves hip-hop is still evolving, as music nobody outside hip-hop could make. Whatever your pet theory on the state of hip-hop, Dropout gave you a challenge, flaws and all. But Late Registration is an undeniable triumph, packed front to back, so expansive it makes the debut sound like a rough draft. West has turned into a real MC, earning the right to boast about opening a store for aspiring Kanye wanna-be's: "But if they ever flip sides like Anakin/ You will sell everything, including the mannequin/They got a new bitch, now you're Jennifer Aniston."

All over Late Registration, he indulges his sentimental R&B-poet side ("Roses"), his Seventies slow-jam love jones ("Celebration"), his wit ("Gold Digger"), his hard-ass politics ("Crack Music") and his love of Maroon 5 ("Heard 'Em Say," featuring Adam Levine). He calls in the heavyweights: Jay-Z, Common, Brandy, Cam'ron, Consequence, the Game, Paul Wall. But his MVP is Fiona Apple producer Jon Brion, whose previous hip-hop experience is zero. A bold move, yet a brilliant one -- Brion brings in live orchestrations and weird instruments as raw material for West's imagination. Give 'Ye a harpsichord and he will make it funky.

If this album has an emotional stunner a la "Jesus Walks," it's "Hey Mama," where West honors his mother, who had to work nights to keep on the lights. It loops a simple la-la-la vocal hook into a soul-sonic force, like Side Two of Prince's Sign 'o' the Times after aliens hacked into it. It's the best family-affair tearjerker since Ghostface's "All That I Got Is You," as West raps, "Can I cry, please?/Gimme a verse of 'You Are So Beautiful to Me.'" He also promises her he'll go back to school, though we'll believe it when we see the tuition check. "Gone" builds a totally mental funk loop out of an Otis Redding groan. Even weirder, "Diamonds From Sierra Leone" flips a James Bond theme into an ominous lament for slave labor in Africa.

"We Major" is the high point, but it's a close call on an album where nothing sucks except the skits. It's a splashy Love Boat disco groove, featuring a guest rap from Nas -- a megasurprise considering that West produced Jay-Z's Nas-bashing classic "Takeover." Midway through, the music fades to silence and then West asks, "Can I talk my ******** again?" The beat kicks back in and West proudly talks his ********, still going strong as the groove rolls on past the seven-minute mark. After the triumph of Late Registration, he can talk all he wants.



ROB SHEFFIELD
(Posted Aug 25, 2005)
 

Knowledge

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Is it out in stores already? ******** I thought it didn't come out for a while. Anyway I loved College Drop out and diamonds are forever which is a single from Late registration is baaaaaaaaanggggggggggging. So I will get my hands on it asap.
 
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Picked it up on my lunch break and am listening to it now - about half way through.

So far it's awesome.

More to come.
 

vantheman32

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kanye west is a very well established and accomplished artist in such a short MC career, one day people will compare him to the great dead man 2pac
 

Knowledge

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#8
vantheman32 said:
kanye west is a very well established and accomplished artist in such a short MC career, one day people will compare him to the great dead man 2pac
It's because he was a producer turned MC
 

rick James

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Just bought it, lsitening to it through some ********ty stereo. need to play it through teh subs before i get a proper feel for it.
 

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Early impressions - Brilliant opening: everything from Heard 'Em Say (just a gorgeous song) to Roses is top notch. After that Bring Me Down and Addiction wander a litte. Diamonds even better than single version with new first verse (that explains the title, unlike the single). And then the album really takes off...We Major is perfect slow-strut horn-laden music. Glorious. After that its one great song after another - Hey Mama, Celebration, Gone...

Album of the year? I'd like to hear something better than it.

No really, I would.
 

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Matching Mole said:
Early impressions - Brilliant opening: everything from Heard 'Em Say (just a gorgeous song) to Roses is top notch. After that Bring Me Down and Addiction wander a litte. Diamonds even better than single version with new first verse (that explains the title, unlike the single). And then the album really takes off...We Major is perfect slow-strut horn-laden music. Glorious. After that its one great song after another - Hey Mama, Celebration, Gone...

Album of the year? I'd like to hear something better than it.

No really, I would.

God damn, sounds good i really gotta get my hands on it ASAP.
 

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#14
Wow. I just downloaded it ant will purchase it tomorrow. All i can say is WoW.
This is amazing.

Hey mama nearly made me cry. That song is so ********ing good.

There is only a couple songs I don't like so far.

Definatly the best mainstream stuff I've heard in a long time.
 

rick James

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#15
A couple of song's i'm not feeling THAT much. But the highlight's are amazing:

Gone - OTIS! what a great track, even Killa Cam is good on it.
Hey Mama - Great track, no need to go into detail, this will be a huge single imo
Diamonds - both versiosn are great, but the remix with jigga man is just crazy, jay is one of my favourite rappers and that line about not being a business man, I'm a BUSINESS man etc had me cracking up, his wordplay is just insanse
heard em Say - Great use of the singer from maroon 5.


Gotta give the other tracks more of a listen, but the above are definitely the highlights imo.
 

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Picked it up today, based on what I read here, and after a few tracks... I have to agree.

Will have to buy Dropout in quick fashion.
 

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I got this on wednesday evening but have yet to give it a decent spin. First impressions, like everyone else who has commented, are that it's pretty damn good.
 

DoubleA

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#23
I've given it many a decent spin, and this album is a killer. Drop-Out wasn't bad, but this one just takes the cake. So far the faves are Gold-Digger and also the track before gold digger Touch the Sky, with thoes killer trumpets.

I actually don't mind the skits, bit of a laugh a few of them, but thats Kanye's things thoes skits so they won't be stopping anytime soon.
 
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#24
Got it last monday. and have been listening to it solidly since. Tough to say whether I like it more than "The College Dropout". Love the Diamonds remix with Jay-Z, and Hey Mama like everyone else on here it seems
 
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