Kanye West’s 3rd album, Graduation is locked and loaded for
a September 11, 2007 release on Hip-Hop Since 1978 / Roc-A-Fella
Records. One of the most anticipated albums of the year, Graduation features the smash singles “Stronger” and “Can’t Tell Me Nothing,” accompanied by
the groundbreaking videos co-directed by West and acclaimed director Hype Williams. As “Can’t Tell Me
Nothing” – the DJ Toomp banger
featuring a newly remixed verse from Young Jeezy and an unlikely alternate
video from comedian Zach
Galifianakis
– heats up in
the streets, the clubs, and urban radio stations across the country, its
synth-heavy, Daft Punk-sampling counterpart “Stronger,” is blazing
trails at Rhythmic Top 40 and pop radio.
PASTE
Magazine writes: “Graduation is merely excellent, easily
among the year’s best. And the album feels better and better the more you
contemplate its place in the pop canon. After all, thematically and musically,
The College Dropout, Late Registration
and Graduation constitute
something of a trilogy. All three are marvelous in their own ways, and their
combined impact is overwhelming.”
On Graduation, West continues to break rules and
obliterate boundaries, pushing the music and the genre forward as only he can.
Heavy synth patches surface throughout, as the influence of global pop culture
and a retro-future aesthetic seeps into Kanye’s signature, soulful, sample-laden
sound. Lyrically, West vacillates between the contemplative and the irreverent.
On “Good Life,” Graduation’s third single, Kanye and T-Pain encourage us to “throw ya hands
up in the sky” over a lazy, irresistible, PYT-sampled beat. On “Homecoming,” a sparse, piano-and-drum
driven track co-written by and featuring Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Kanye continues to pay
homage to his native Chicago as Martin asks “Do you think about me now and then?
Well, I’m comin’ home again….maybe we can start again.”
The Village
Voice recently commented:
“Kanye is pretty much the only pop star working
right now who treats pop stardom as something serious, as a holy vocation.”
Indeed, Kanye takes the visual component to his art very seriously. From his groundbreaking,
visually-stunning videos to the photography and packaging concepts that
accompany his albums, tours and merchandise, West is very much a visual artist. To that end, Kanye has
brought in the world famous Japanese pop artist Takashi Murakami to design and
illustrate the entire album packaging, including the single covers for
“Stronger” and “Can’t Tell Me Nothing.” Murakami has also animated a full-length
video clip of the album’s opener “Good
Morning.”
On the
strength of a 5 week pre-order campaign launched on August 7, Graduation is already the #2 album on
iTunes, and “Stronger” has reached #2 on the iTunes singles chart. Last week,
MTV announced Kanye as a VMA performer and multiple nominee, taking away 5 nods
including “Video Of The Year” for “Stronger.” The VMAs air live on September
9th.
Kanye
West’s last album, 2005’s Late Registration, debuted at #1 on the
Billboard charts with over 860,000 copies sold in its week of release, was
nominated for the Grammy for Album of The Year, and won the Grammy for Rap Album
of The Year.
Stay
tuned for more on Kanye West, including developing information on Graduation, live performances,
television appearances and more….. |
Big Jon Platt
