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Kayne West's Graduation- A Critique

Kayne West Graduation

Kayne West released his third album titled Graduation on September 11th, 2007. It was planned to be released on September 18th, but Kayne changed it to the 11th to compete with 50 Cent’s new album titled Curtis. The 11th would be known as the big showdown between the two heated rival hip-hop artists, to show which one is really the best mainstream rapper. 50 Cent claimed that if Graduation were to sell more records than Curtis, he would stop releasing solo albums. Since both albums were released last September, Graduation topped the Billboard charts and has since gone double platinum, leaving 50 Cent in the dust. 50 was asked about his comments on losing to Kayne’s album, and would later dispel his comments about stopping his solo work, because he got handled by Kayne’s album like a whiny little bitch. Not only does his dominance over other hip-hop artists show that his new album is the greatest hip-hop CD ever, it is also a great piece of lyrical mastery and of West’s creative genius. Like its predecessors, West's Graduation contained extensive sampling of music by eclectic and often obscure artists, including "Champion," taking its hook from a snippet of Steely Dan's "Kid Charlemagne," and "The Glory," which uses as its foundation Laura Nyro's "Save the Country." The album Graduation has a message, and its purpose is to help the black man’s struggle against the white man. He sends messages throughout a variety of his tracks, but I think that the tracks Champion, Good Morning, and Stronger are the most influential tracks. In the track Champion, Kayne says, “When it feel like livin's harder than dyin'
For me givin' up's way harder than tryin'
Lauryn Hill say her heart was in Zion
I wish her heart still was in rhymin'
'Cause who the kids gon' listen to? Huh?
I guess me if it isn't you
Last week I paid a visit to the institute
They got the crop out keepin' kids in the school
I guess I'll clean up my act like Prince'll do...