Late registration by Kanye West. Opinions?

[oversoul]

I haven't digged an hip-hop album like this for quite some time, I didn't quite catch with the "gold digger" single at first, but man, when I heard Curtis sampled on "touch the sky" I went and get the whole record! This guy really likes his soul sampling.

[FunkKing]

For a commercial Hip Hop album its okay. Its better than the stuff 50 cent and co. have been churning out. Kanye West is a better producer than rapper though. Check out Common's recent album 'Be'. West produced it. The title track has a completely sweet Upright bassline.

Stuff like this is only the tip of the metaphorical Hip Hop iceberg. There's a billion great contemporary Hip Hop artists never given the time of day by MTV.

[Against Will]

It's ok, I liked College Dropout better, though there were a few dud tracks, the bangers really banged. Late Registration feels like it took the bangitude (technical term) and evenly spread it out over all the tracks. The average of the album is higher, but the stand-out tracks are less outstanding. I respect what Kanye's doing and it's cool that he's making his own way in the hip-hop world, I wouldn't mind if there were more people doing something other than 'gangsta' rap. It's just gotten so phoney and cliched.

My vote for best hip-hop album of the year is DangerDoom. Great album, not as deep as Madvillainy but more accessible and still great in all respects.

[oversoul]

Originally Posted by FunkKing

For a commercial Hip Hop album its okay. Its better than the stuff 50 cent and co. have been churning out. Kanye West is a better producer than rapper though. Check out Common's recent album 'Be'. West produced it. The title track has a completely sweet Upright bassline.

Stuff like this is only the tip of the metaphorical Hip Hop iceberg. There's a billion great contemporary Hip Hop artists never given the time of day by MTV.

I may like some ponctual things by 50 (if I ignore the gangsta lyrics) but my roots on hip-hop come from...the roots and stuff from Def Jux like Mr. lif, El-P or the extinct cannibal ox project. Kanyes work has a kind of a vintage hip-hop vibe, this kind of oldies sampling is a bit left behind on a lot of recent stuff.

[Squidfinger]

I watched the "making of" it on MTV. It seemed like all Kanye's musical contribution was was listening to his producer who was making all the actual music and telling him what he liked and didn't like. I didn't see Kanye play one fricking note, even on a synth. Then I listened to Kanye philosophize on how rap samples in a few seconds what it takes a dedicated player years to learn.


Let him be famous, let him become the biggest performer in the world, let him be on the cover of every magazine, but let us not praise him as a great musical talent.


Flame on.