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By Justin Rennolds
jrennold@mscd.edu

Kanye West is back and doubters beware: the man is a force to be reckoned with-now and for the foreseeable future.

 

On his sophomore album Late Registration, West goes for broke and dramatically alters his sound. He has kicked up his rhyme skills, enlisted equally talented guests and matured his production by light-years.

The album isn't as fun as College Dropout but it lives up to the hype and cements West's place as hip-hop's premier producer. The beats are darker and more drum heavy, less reliant on his trademark soul sampling and relatively smoother. It helps that he's a master when it comes to matching beats to rappers.

West does a stellar job mastering this album. The beats and rhymes are equally prevalent. The sequencing is genius; there is a clear beginning, middle and end to this record.

His rhymes and the metaphors therein are complex and deep. Gone are the cheap and corny lyrics that littered College Dropout; on Late Registration, West brings his A-game. "Good morning, this ain't Vietnam / Still people lose hands, arms and legs for real / It was known in Sierra Leone and how it connects to the diamonds we on," West spits in his native Midwestern tone. The rhymes may be controversial, but they work. With luck, numerous replays will spark some fans to research the historical context of the subject matter.

Like most hip-hop albums, this one is full of big-name guests. Nas, Jamie Foxx, Cam' Ron, Game, Adam Levine of Maroon 5 and Consequence have been recruited to help out. The most notable appearance has to be Cam'Ron on "Gone."

He lays down a sweet verse that would make even your grandma's head spin. All the guests work well together and contribute to the strength of the album.

There are a few minor missteps. West's production is fantastic but it is hard to understand the motive behind letting the instrumental seemingly play out after everybody drops their lines, then bringing the rapper back to drop an out-of place "outro" 30 seconds later. It's hard to get used to, but it's a minor complaint, especially with a producer like West who constantly pushes boundaries by messing around and trying new things.

The guest appearances, production and lyrical content are all mesmerizing. There's not one dull track on this album and every beat invokes some head-knodding. Late Registration is the rare album that lives up to and even exceeds its own hype.