Graduation [Explicit Lyrics]

Kanye West | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 11, 2007)
• Original Release Date: September 11, 2007
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Explicit Lyrics
• Label: Roc-A-Fella Records
• ASIN: B000RG1FMO
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (317 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,989 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #6 in Music > Rap & Hip-Hop > Experimental Rap
  • #11 in Music > Rap & Hip-Hop > East Coast
  • #54 in Music > Rap & Hip-Hop > Pop Rap

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Kanye West's third in a whimsical trilogy of "scholarly" albums, Graduation wears its predecessors' badges of success on its sleeve. Matriculation has its rewards, apparently, and it's time to take stock. Lyrically, there's plenty of self-congratulation to attend to, but the real fun comes in the collabs, and West chooses co-conspirators like a kid in a candy store--John Legend ("Good Life"), Coldplay's Chris Martin ("Homecoming"), Mos Def and the Section Quartet (both adorable choices for the foreboding "Drunk and Hot Girls")--and plucks samples with A-list braggadocio: Elton John, Steely Dan, Daft Punk, Can, Michael Jackson, Public Enemy. Nothing here quite captures the superlative symbiosis of West's past best beats (think "Gold Digger"), but the central motif remains: No one ever accused Kanye West of being too cool for school, and Graduation still knows how to party. True, Kanye West will happily whine about the pitfalls at the top of the heap, clear his throat and try to rhyme it with Barry Bonds, or diss fish in a barrel all day, but that can't stop a shameless good time, and Graduation maintains an unshakeable knack for producing it. --Jason Kirk

Product Description

Graduation is the 3rd installment in the Kanye West series of ground breaking albums, targeting every school kid, from those that have dropped out (Debut Album, College Dropout), to those late registrants (sophmore album Late Registration), to those that have gone on and completed school (current album Graduation). Though technically this earmarks a junior year, West's approach to crafting this album was very much senior. Kanye teams up with veterans Daft Punk and Edwin Birdsong on Stronger- Graduation's forthcoming single; as well as enlisting a little help from current chart topper T-Pain on Good Life. Chris Martin of Coldplay appears on a track called HomeComing as well. Kanye has continued to prove his understanding and appreciation for a wide array of music and musical influences. What makes GRADUATION so special? Like most Kanye titles, his fearlessness and blindness to inhibiting boundaries, coupled with his fan driven core competence is evidence that he knows exactly what people yearn for...great music, perspective, and a voice to be heard.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

74 of 87 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A more conscious and mature effort. September 10, 2007

By jazzy modes

Format:Audio CD

Kanye West is thoughtful ("Everything I'm not, made me everything I am," he explains on "Everything I Am") and has a voice like honey and a breathtakingly broad musical palette.
On his third album, West wants that acceptance on a big piece of paper, rolled up in a ribbon and presented to him in front of the applauding world. To make sure that everyone had the date in their diary, he pulled the release forward to clash with his nemesis, 50 Cent. But why bother? If anyone was going to get the prize for coming top of the class right now, it would be West.
"Graduation" sums up the qualities that made West a star: smart sampling, funny pitched-up vocals, a new found maturity, sagacious rapping and a finely attuned ear for infectious beats and rhythms.
There are also a couple of new ingredients: steely, electro synths from Daft Punk on "Stronger" and Caribbean lilts on "Good Life".
He's even got rappers' favourite indie boy Chris Martin doing his best Gilbert O'Sullivan impression on "Homecoming".
Despite all this, something about "Graduation" feels a bit cold.
The goofy glamour of "Gold Digger" and "Touch the Sky" have been edged out by over-earnest, gratingly repetitive self-promotion and an underlying sense of isolation and paranoia. And for all his right-on credentials, "Drunk & Hot Girls" veers close to hip-hop's tired old misogyny.
Kanye West is a 'conscious' rapper whose album samples Steely Dan and kraut rock beards Can; who muses on the stress of success; and who likes speeded up chipmunk vocals.
"Graduation" will leave some fans cold (it's a pop album that takes hip hop further into mainstream dance culture).
The album has magnificent moments (the Daft Punk-sampling "Stronger", the wonderfully upbeat "Good Life") but is weighed down by navel-gazing and pales in comparison to "Late Registration" and "College Dropout".
And yet, the record is beguiling and addictive: you want to go back and listen again as all those shiny, unexpected layers reveal themselves.
"Graduation" might yet to turn out to be as important as West thinks it is.

47 of 54 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars It's hard to resisist : Kanye is way ahead of the pack. September 10, 2007

By steamy blues

Format:Audio CD

Even if you're hopelessly alienated from American rap and hip-hop, Kanye West is extremely hard to resist if there is a musical bone in your body.
On this excellent record, he duets with Coldplay's Chris Martin on "Homecoming" and teams up with the young Grammy-winning blues guitarist John Mayer on "Bittersweet Poetry".
What makes these collaborations so good is that Kanye West is obviously not looking for crossover acceptance, rather he is demonstrating how he can excel in such distinguished company.
There's deft sampling of anyone who serves the cause, from Steely Dan and Elton John to reggae lion U-Roy and Daft Punk, and a new found maturity that ensures the swaggering but warm "Graduation": is that rarest of things: a keyboards-led hip hop album. It's tip top.
It's mature, adventurous, addictive.
With "Graduation", Kanye West proves once again that he is way ahead of the hip-hop pack.
Album's highlights: "Drunk and Hot Girls", "Can't Tell Me Nothing", "I Wonder" and "Stronger".
I'm loving it!

51 of 60 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Kanye is a better producer then he is a lyricist. September 11, 2007

By Eric Chan

Format:Audio CD

After two amazing solid hip hop albums just recently released this year, Common's Finding Forever and Talib Kweli's Eardrum, (both in which had an appearance with Kanye) one could only look foward to the next big album. This album was Kanye's Graduation. Unfortunately, this album was a mixed bag for me. As a producer, Kanye is one of the greats and he undeniably will be one of the best for some time to come. As a lyricist, I was definitely disappointed. Kanye is still better then most, but for this album I felt he didn't bring his A game. After hearing Common's and Talib Kweli's albums, this one seem very lackluster in the lyrical department. Either way, this is easily one of the best hip hop albums this year surpassing 50's Curtis.