Graduation [PA] by Kanye West

Make one great album, people take notice. Make two great albums, you've got some serious bragging rights. Make THREE great albums, consecutively, in a space of three and a half years? Can't blame that on dumb luck.

So let's face facts. Kanye West is one of, if not THE premiere hip-hop artist of his generation. Even though he's still not a tremendously skilled emcee, he makes up for technical skill with wit and humor. As a producer, he's helped bring a certain soulful musicality to the traditional boom-bap of hip-hop music. And he's done it without compromising who he is, which is admirable considering how easy it is for most rappers fall into street cliche. Subtract the last couple of OutKast albums, and Kanye West is easily the most avant-garde rapper to sell millions of albums. While the man's ego (and you've gotta give the guy props for at least being self-aware about this) has earned him many detractors, the man's music speaks for itself. "Graduation" isn't flawless by any stretch of the imagination, but there's not one dud among it's thirteen tracks, and the album finds Kanye doing some serious sonic exploration, as well as reigning in some annoying excesses that marred his first two otherwise-excellent albums.

First off, Kanye seems to have taken a lead from his man Common and trimmed his album size. As a result, "Graduation" (13 tracks in about 52 minutes) is the first Kanye album that leaves you wanting more. He's dispensed with the overflow of guest artists, and even though there are lots of big names here (Jay-Z, John Legend, Ne-Yo, Timbaland), they're relegated to background roles that you wouldn't even notice unless you read the album liners. Thankfully, he's also gotten rid of the interludes and spends the album delivering banger after banger with no interruptions.

While Kanye's first two albums found him in a bit more of an introspective place-"Graduation" is first and foremost about one thing: Kanye West and his bad self. For most artists, this would suggest ego run amok-which is usually a bad thing. However, Kanye's witty and self-deprecating enough that this doesn't seem like the rap version of, say, Michael Jackson's "HIStory". It's kind of hard to believe that a man with six Grammys and two multi-platinum albums would still have a huge chip on his shoulder, but songs like "I Wonder", "Can't Tell Me Nothin'" and "Stronger" find West on a mission to establish himself as a musical force. You've gotta admire his sense of purpose. He's obviously pushing himself in a way that most commercially successful rappers don't-he's obviously not getting the musical equivalent of fat and happy.

From a production standpoint, "Graduation" is undeniable. Musically, the album's pretty forward-thinking and creative, and also represents something of a stylistic switch: jumping from the warm soul samples that were the primary sound of his first two albums to a more icy, synthesizer-driven sound. Even the songs with vaguely familiar samples twist those samples in a way that people who know the original songs have gotta give props to. On "Stronger", West turns Daft Punk's post-disco "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" into a more effective cross between hip-hop and sci-fi than anything Pharrell or Timbaland has done yet. (Quick sidenote: how many of the idiots calling "Stronger" a commercial sample-jacking pop song actually know what the original song sounds like? Because believe me, it wasn't a hit) "Good Life" manages to cram a track from the best-selling album of all time and a cameo from one of the most ubiquitous artist of the year into what might be 2007's's most undeniable single. The Michael Jackson "PYT" sample is artfully mainpulated-Kanye slows the instrumental down while keeping the vocal at normal speed, adds air-raid siren-sounding synthesizers, a vocal from T-Pain (which, seriously Kanye could have sung himself), and winds up with a celebratory anthem that would have been the soundtrack to the summer of 2007 had it not been released with a week of summer left. I've had this song on repeat on my iPod literally all day today.

As versatile as "Graduation" is, the different sounds mesh well together. The bass-heavy "Barry Bonds" suggests an early Nineties jeep beat, but could just as easily have been a jazz record back in the day. On the very next track, "Flashing Lights", 'Ye goes techno on us, with synths and strings giving a vibe akin to walking down a New York city street on a Friday night after having a few too many drinks.

Lyrically, let's just say that Kanye will never be KRS-ONE or Rakim, as much as he may aspire to be so. The man who considered his style to be "more like spoken word" back in 2004 is still not a fantastically proficient rhymer, even resorting back to what I consider the cardinal sin among emcees and rhyming the same word at the end of two consecutive lines. But, as I said before, Kanye makes up for his lyrical faux pas with a wit and a sense of humor that rappers with three times his skill couldn't conjure up. Lines like "In two years I went from Dwayne Wayne to Dwayne Wade" and way-left pop culture reference (who remembers Chauncey from BLACKstreet?) gave me more than a couple of "I can't believe he said that" smiles of recognition.

But there's an easy way to make up for technical skill: with feeling. There are plenty of more talented emcees, but not many who make better records. "Graduation", for me, jumps from the league of "very good" into the league of "Damn near excellent" with the four songs that close the album. The piano groove of "Everything I Am" finds Kanye reflecting on his past and feeling grateful for walking a different path in his career. "The Glory" uses a sped-up sample (Kanye's stock-in-trade) and choral male vocals to give a spiritual addition to the celebratory vibe previously visited on "Good Life".

'Ye ends the album with two love letters: "Homecoming" takes a page from Common's "I Used To Love H.E.R." and creates a love song where the interest ends up being his home city of Chicago. The crowd noise and gospel-etched piano backing conjure up images of a "Rocky" movie, and while I love Coldplay, I can't help but think Kanye should have used a vocalist that was actually from Chicago. Was Chaka Khan not available?? What the hell does Chris Martin know about fireworks on Lake Michigan?

Finally, there's "Big Brother", which is a pretty open-hearted song directed towards Jay-Z. While some of the more immature and testosterone-laden fans of hip-hop might scoff at the idea of Kanye dedicating a song to his boss, mentor and benefactor, I agree wholeheartedly with this line from Kanye:

"If you admire somebody, you should go 'head, tell 'em
People never get the flowers while they can still smell 'em"

More black men and people in general need to express this kind of emotion, in music and in everyday life.

The only vague misstep on "Graduation" comes with "Drunk & Hot Girls", on which Kanye (briefly joined by Mos Def, last seen looking for the remnants of his rap career) sings (yes, sings) about...well, "Drunk & Hot Girls". It sounds almost like a studio goof, a move that makes it both endearing and kind of annoying. It doesn't really subtract from the album's quality, but it's the only song that doesn't add to it.

The things I like about Kanye from a personality standpoint-his arrogance, his outspokenness, his emotional nakedness (qualities I certainly identify with), would be worth nothing if his music wasn't as good as it is. While I'd probably stop short of calling him a genius (as he refers to himself on "Barry Bonds"), the fact remains that "Graduation" is Kanye's third consecutive excellent album (and quite possibly the best hip-hop album I've heard in 2007)-something that's a rarity in music PERIOD . This album couldn't have a more appropriate name-Kanye West is without a doubt the valedictorian of current hip-hop.

"Graduation" by Kanye West
Released 2007 on Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam Records
Rating: 4 1/2 out of 5 stars (rounded down because I've promised myself to never give an album 5 stars until I've lived with it for a considerable amount of time)