Kanye West retrospective, part 2: Late Registration

Kanye Goes Baroque.

Late Registration was Kanye's second studio album, and it was even more successful than the first. Critics loved it, and its sales were through the roof. Even before release, it was one of the most pre-ordered albums in the history of iTunes, and it delivered on the hype in every respect.

Late Registration explores an even broader range of themes than The College Dropout. "Diamonds from Sierra Leone" is about blood diamonds, "Gold Digger" is about... well, gold diggers, "Hey Mama" is a tribute to Kanye's mother, etc. This gives the album a broader scale, although Kanye's initial persona starts to show its cracks here. While Kanye strives to continue being an everyman and have a song for everyone, his obscene wealth does catch up to him. Perhaps the ordinary person can't relate to his diamond-related plights, or to all the gold diggers. All the same, Kanye's own cleverness and personality manage to make that inconsequential.

Kanye's beats mark quite a change from the squeaky soul sampling of The College Dropout, instead creating a more baroque sound while still making excellent use of samples. This reaches its peak in the grandiose "Diamonds from Sierra Leone", sampling the theme song of the James Bond film "Diamonds are Forever", while also containing a reference to "Ms. Jackson" by OutKast. This all goes over a brilliant beat, with electronic elements, and soaring brass.. Many other songs, for example the excellent hit single "Gold Digger", show less of a scale, but still show Kanye's brilliance, as its enduring popularity and acclaim can attest to. 

Also of note is the dramatic improvement of the skits. The opening skit leads cleanly into the first song, "Heard 'Em Say", featuring Adam Levine of all people. Later skits show the story of the parodic fraternity Broke Phi Broke, and they're consistently amusing if a bit dumb. They show an arc, with their basis on poverty being set up at first, and eventually culminating in Mr. West being kicked out for daring to make beats on the side and get new shoes. It's all quite silly, yet reasonably amusing.

Late Registration stands proud as another fantastic effort from Kanye West. Depending on who you ask, Kanye's golden age ended either here or with his next album, Graduation. However, the Kanye that uses clever lyrics and a relateable persona to discuss various topics would soon be gone. No matter who you ask, Late Registration is the second of Kanye's masterpieces. Next we'll talk about Graduation.