It seems unbelievable now, but only a year and a half ago, Kanye West was merely one of hip-hop's best and most wanted producers. His breakthrough debut album The College Dropout changed all that, turning the focus from Kanye the producer to Kanye the witty, versatile emcee.
His recently released sophomore effort, Late Registration, seems set to change the public perception of Kanye again. While his lyrical versatility has remained constant, one thing has not-the quality of production on his songs, which has gone from excellent to downright jaw-dropping.
A good example is \Diamonds of Sierra Leone,"" perhaps the album's best song. Lyrically, Kanye addresses his ambivalence toward diamonds. Sure, bling is a thrill to own and wear, but diamonds are frequently the product of bloody slave labor in third world countries-""I thought my Jesus piece was so harmless, 'til I saw a picture of a shorty armless.""
His rhyme is somehow both poignant and absurd, but the real breath-taker is this single's production. Simply put, it has everything: a wildly odd sample (the deliciously cheesy theme from the '60s James Bond film ""Diamonds Are Forever""), a deep groove, orchestral flourishes, some Outkast flavor and an ultra-guest-star appearance courtesy of Jay-Z.
With great lyrics but even better music, ""Diamonds of Sierra Leone"" perfectly represents the album as a whole. Sure, there is nothing wrong with Kanye the emcee, but the uncontested star of Late Registration is the production, which seamlessly combines hip-hop, soul, smooth R&B, light jazz, top forty pop and orchestrations. This is hip-hop in a world where Whodini are the fathers of modern rap, not Run-D.M.C.-where the hook is more important than the beat or verse.
Fortunately, this works incredibly well. ""Touch the Sky"" is a killer taste of mid-seventies soul-funk with a Curtis Mayfield sample that doesn't quit; ""Gold Digger"" melds hip-hop to Ray Charles' ""I Got a Woman"" and creates the best groove on the record. ""Addiction"" and ""Drive Slow"" are jazzy slow jams; ""Crack Music"" flaunts Kanye's reasonably pissed-off politics and a guest appearance from The Game-unsurprisingly, this is the record's hardest song, even though it still has a good share of ""la-la-la-las.""
Of course, the inevitable question must be addressed: How does Registration compare to the stellar Dropout? The answer to that depends on how you like your hip-hop. Without a doubt, the eclectic music on Registration trumps the beats of Kanye's debut. Plus, Registration features a stronger set of songs-no tracks feel like filler (with the notable exception of the tepid ""Bring Me Down""-thanks Brandy), and the song sequencing works much better than on Dropout. While the last half of Kanye's debut had a tendency to meander, at no point on Registration do things start to drag.
Then again, one thing sadly missing from Registration is the freshness of Kanye's verses on Dropout. Gone is the flashy up-and-comer desperate to prove himself, replaced by a cocky ego-maniac completely aware of his worth. Was this transformation inevitable given his talent? Perhaps, but that absence does leave something empty in Registration that no state-of-the-art production can make up for.
While undoubtedly this is the best hip-hop record we are likely to hear for some time, and a great leap forward in Kanye's creativity, that does not mean it's particularly more fun to listen to than Dropout. Still, in Kanye's words, Late Registration is ""better than head on a Sunday afternoon.\
