Graduation (album)
Encyclopedia
Graduation is the third studio album
by American hip hop
artist Kanye West
, released September 11, 2007 on Roc-A-Fella Records
. Recording sessions for the album took place during 2005 to 2007 at Chung King Studios
and Sony Music Studios
in New York City
and at Chalice Studios and The Record Plant in Los Angeles
. It was primarily produced by West and DJ Toomp
, and features guest contributions from artists including Mos Def
, Dwele
, T-Pain
, Lil Wayne
, and Chris Martin
of Coldplay
. The album's cover artwork was designed by Japanese artist Takashi Murakami
.
Inspired by Irish rock band U2
and other musical groups to make more inspirational, anthemic hip hop music, West incorporated synthesizer sounds into his production and dabbled with electronic music
, while sampling a wider spectrum of musical genres. Lyrically, Graduation is more introspective in comparison to its predecessors, as West dedicated much of the album towards analyzing himself and conveying his ambivalent outlook on his newfound fame. It continues the education theme of West's previous two studio albums, The College Dropout
(2004) and Late Registration
(2005).
The album debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200
chart, selling 957,000 copies in its first week. The coinciding release dates of Graduation and rapper 50 Cent
's Curtis
generated much publicity over the idea of a sales competition, resulting in record-breaking sales performances by both albums. Graduation received generally positive reviews from most music critics and earned West several accolades, including a Grammy Award for Best Rap Album
. The album has sold 2,166,000 copies in the US and has been certified double platinum
by the Recording Industry Association of America
.
of education-themed studio albums, which West subsequently deviated from due to the events surrounding the conception of his fourth album, 808s & Heartbreak
. The album demonstrates yet another distinctive evolution in West's musical style and approach to production. After spending the previous year touring the world with U2
on their Vertigo Tour
, Kanye felt inspired to compose anthemic rap songs that could operate more efficiently in large arenas. To accomplish this "stadium-status" endeavor, West incorporated synthesizer
into his hip hop production
, which also finds him utilizing slower tempo
s, experimenting with electronic music
and influenced by music of the 1980s
. In addition to U2, West drew musical inspiration from arena rock
bands such as The Rolling Stones
and Led Zeppelin
in terms of melody
and chord progression
. Additionally, West further expanded his musical palette by abstaining himself from his customary R&B
/soul
samples and instead utilized a more eclectic variety of interpolations from music genres encompassing pop rock
, Euro-disco
, electronica
, progressive rock
, house
, and dub
. For much of the album, West adopted a dilatory, exuberant rap
delivery in emulation of Bono
's operatic vocal stylings.
. By late September 2005, he had already completed three songs for the album, which he intended to contain a total of twelve tracks. Around the time of the recording of the studio album, Kanye listened to songs by folk
singer-songwriters Bob Dylan
and Johnny Cash
in hopes of developing methods to augment his wordplay and storytelling ability. The former had been recommended to him by multiple friends, including English disc jockey
Samantha Ronson
, who all claimed that the way West dealt with the press reminded them of Dylan. Kanye also listened to his favorite alternative rock
bands, including The Killers, Radiohead
, Modest Mouse
, and Keane for ideas on making his music more stadium-friendly.
In comparison to previous albums, Graduation includes fewer guest apperarances. T-Pain
, Detroit R&B
singer Dwele
, and New York
rapper Mos Def
are featured within individual tracks to sing hooks
and choruses.
Multiple songs on the album contain background vocals provided by Connie Mitchell
of the Australia
n electronic
group Sneaky Sound System
. The collaboration came about when Kanye met Mitchell's bandmates Angus McDonald and Daimon Downey at a diner in Sydney, Australia. Seeking musical inspiration, West asked McDonald for ideas, who suggested that he be introduced to Mitchell. Mitchell later admitted that while she previously didn't know who Kanye was and never really cared for hip-hop
, the collaboration had changed her views. In January 2007 interview with Billboard, West revealed that he had collaborated with Coldplay
lead vocalist Chris Martin
on "Homecoming", and that the song might possibly be released as lead single of Graduation. The collaboration came about the year before when the two met during an impromptu jam session at Abbey Road Studios
. The song itself is a revamping of the song “Home” taken from Kanye’s Freshmen Adjustment
mixtape. Though he originally intended Graduation to be completely devoid of guest rap verses, Kanye later invited New Orleans rapper Lil Wayne
on the track "Barry Bonds." At the time, the two had been collaborating, with West working on the production of Tha Carter III
.
The album started taking definite form around the time of the filming of the music video
for "Stronger", whereas prior West had been "aimlessly making songs." The sci-fi
imagery of the Hype Williams
-directed video inspired West to take his music in a more futuristic direction. After the filming of the video, which begun before West had even written the song's second verse, he went back to redo and re-record various portions of "Stronger", watching films like Total Recall
for ideas. West cites "I Wonder" as one of his three favorite tracks from the album. He considered releasing it as a single but released "Flashing Lights
" instead. The album sees the return of multi-instrumentalist Jon Brion
—who had played a key role as co-execute producer on Late Registration
—for the track "Drunk and Hot Girls." The beat of "The Glory" was originally conceived for West's G.O.O.D. Music associate, close friend, a fellow Chicago
an MC Common, whose seventh studio album Finding Forever was being produced and recorded by West simultaneously with Graduation. As was the case with their previous albums, certain tracks West originally crafted for Finding Forever that Common passed on subsequently ended up on his own album. "Everything I Am" was yet another song made for Common that he passed on, a fact which West addresses within the song's intro. Though "Bittersweet Poetry" appears as a bonus track
on the album, the recording had actually been one of the very first tracks made for Late Registration. After seeing the 2004 biographical film Ray
together, Kanye and John Mayer
decided to collaborate on a recording and immediately went back to the studio to compose the song "Bittersweet". The two had previously worked on Common's "Go!", which had come about when Mayer went to visit West at The Record Plant in Los Angeles
.
samples of The College Dropout and the lush chamber pop orchestration of Late Registration and moved towards a more atmospheric, rock
-tinged, electronic
soundscape. The musical evolution arose from him listening to musical genres encompassing Europe
an Britpop
and Euro-disco
, American
alternative
/indie rock
, and his native Chicago house
. Towards this end, Kanye retracted the live instrumentation that characterized his previous album and had it replaced with heavy, gothic
synths. West injected distorted synth
-riffs, rave
stabs, house
beats, electro-disco
rhythms, and an array of modulated electronic sound effects into his hip hop production. Despite the dominant synthetic attributes, the emphasis on organic string arrangements that accentuated Late Registration remained a significant factor on Graduation. Also, similar to its predecessor, the album didn't relegate itself to simplistic looping
techniques typical of conventional hip hop and instead continued to implement sudden musical shifts within its multi-layered song structures and express intricately composed introductions
, bridges
, and codas
. Under the belief that his previous album had been too indulgent and poorly arranged, West fashioned Graduation to contain less ornate production, made the album completely devoid of skits, and sequenced it in such a way that it produced a more cohesive package.
", retaining metallic percussion and a simplistic chorus in which West recites "Good Morning" backed by a melody laced with synthesizer and a nonverbal vocal sample of "Someone Saved My Life Tonight
" by Elton John
. The anthemic "Champion" contains slight jazz-pop
influence, eschewing trumpets in favour of bright synthesizers and featuring breezy hooks provided by a chopped up vocal sample of "Kid Charlemagne
" by Steely Dan
. It also contains a reggae
-flavored bridge delivered by Connie Mitchell
of the Australia
n electronic
group Sneaky Sound System
. More than any other song on the entire album, "I Wonder" was most influenced by U2
, as West elaborated that he had sought out to make a hip-hop equivalent to the band's "City of Blinding Lights
" with the track. It begins with a piano
-led introduction
that contains a hook
provided by a vocal sample of "My Song" by British
jazz-folk
poet Labi Siffre
, before transforming into a convoluted synthesizer
riff punctuated by a distorted beat and ethereal electronic keyboards. During the song's bridge, the chord progression alternates, its organic piano keys return, and it adopts a string section
which replicates the melody
of its synths. The composition then enters a coda where its instrumental plays alongside a sweeping string arrangement before finally drawing itself to a close. "Good Life
" utilizes multi-tracked, interlocking vocals that harmonize with guest singer T-Pain
's auto-tune
d voice. The song's melody
is based on sampled keyboards from P.Y.T. by Michael Jackson
, with the tempo
slightly decreased and the pitch
raised to the point its sound resembles squealing shrieks.
"Barry Bonds" is built on a moaning bass line and Gothic organ, while punctuated by wailing sampled from "Long Red" by Mountain
.
"Drunk and Hot Girls" exhibits a sluggish waltz
pitched with the rhythm
of an Eastern European drinking song
. It contains a mix of dark
orchestration and detuned electronics with elements of "Sing Swan Song" by German
progressive rock
band Can
. West claimed that while listening to the song, he heard the line "drunk and hot girls" in place of the actual "drunky hot bowls" lyrics. Rather than rap, West and guest artist Mos Def
sing along to the song's melody. Opening with a gradual, rising crescendo of symphonic strings
, "Flashing Lights
" emits synth twinklings before transforming into a moderately-paced, synth
-driven beat. After the introduction
, in which Mitchell's processed vocals repeat the titular hook
four times, West raps the two verses, each one followed by the chorus
sung by Dwele coupled with the hook. Following a break
, the song enters a passage where its heavily manipulated hook echoes in and out before the coda
draws the composition to a close. The tracks "Everything I Am" and "The Glory" experience an ephemeral, nostalgic return of West's past production techniques. "Everything I Am" gradually alternates between two piano loops accentuated by soulful cooing, coupled with a scratched
hook formed with a vocal sample containing the line, "Damn, here we go again" from "Bring the Noise
" by Public Enemy provided by DJ Premier
. The uptempo "The Glory" revisits the "chipmunk soul" that once defined Kanye's early production, displaying a defiant, sped-up vocal sample of "Save The Country" by Laura Nyro
backed by uplifting string arrangements and a gospel choir symphony. Coldplay
lead vocalist Chris Martin
sings choruses and provides gospel
-style piano tapping on "Homecoming", where the chatter of a noisy crowd can inexplicably be heard in the background. "Big Brother
" expresses slow, rock
-tinged production, featuring mid-tempo drum programming embellished with melodic synthesizer
and backed by rhythmic, distorted guitar chords. The album's final track "Good Night" expresses production characteristics that would be the foundation of West's next musical evolution. Within the minimalistic song, Kanye juxtaposes the crude, mechanical sounds of 8-bit music with the elegant, traditional sound of a classical
piano
.
s for more straightforward verses while concentrating on speaking volumes with sparser wording on Graduation. Having committed a significant amount of time towards elevating his storytelling ability time by listening to folk
musicians, Kanye manages to form a lyrical narrative within nearly every song on the album. West dedicated a majority of the album towards conducting an analysis himself and conveying his ambivalent outlook on his newfound wealth and fame. As such, Kanye's subversive songwriting fluctuates between playful self-aggrandizement and critical self-doubt. While confident, extroverted and celebratory at face value, many songs contained on Graduation were thematically distanced and retained melancholic subtext. Some music critics remarked that compounded with Kanye's urgent, emotional rap
delivery, the record sounded as if he were experiencing an existential
crisis.
The free-associative
"Champion" is primarily composed of motivational lyrics, but Kanye also briefly touches on the strained relationship he had with his father–who divorced from his mother when he was just three-years-old–eventually reaching the conclusion that even with their ups and downs, in the end, his father was a champion in his eyes. West described "Stronger
" as an "emancipation", as he uses the song to vent his frustration over mistakes he has made in the past. "I Wonder" carries an introspective tone, retaining a chorus about finding one's dreams, while West uses the verses to describe the struggle a person experiences in determining the meaning behind their life and achieving those dreams. Inspired by watching Bono open stadium tours, West concentrated on speaking volumes without using too many words on the song and delivers his raps in an exuberant, staccato
manner. Using the same vocal stylings, "Flashing Lights
" tells the operatic narrative of man contemplating the complexities of a tragic relationship. "Can't Tell Me Nothing
" serves as West's reflection on his fame and is characterized by bitter remorse and defiant self-awareness. West begins the song by expounding his conflicted feelings regarding wealth and desire, describing a compulsion to spend that overwhelms any and all other objectives in life. He ties this into his perceived overall inability to keep himself together even as he grows into an increasingly prominent figure in the public eye.
West regains his lyrical dexterity on "Barry Bonds", a competitive, though friendly battle with Lil Wayne
in which the two MCs exchange braggadocios rhymes. The song uses Major League Baseball
player Barry Bonds
as a metaphor for West’s ability to create music hits. "Drunk and Hot Girls" is a first-person narrative that illustrates a man courting an intoxicated woman in a club but gets more than what he bargained for. "Everything I Am" is a song of self-examination, in which Kanye attempts to confront his fallacies by surveying the consequences of his outspokeness ruminating over various ways people expect him to conduct himself. In the track, Kanye addresses his indifference towards constructing a gangster
persona, his refusal to dress and act like every other rapper, his inclination towards socio-political commentary, and his lack of self-restraint. Kanye comes to the conclusion that while he will never be able to live up to people's expectations and will always be disadvantageously flawed, its all these imperfections and more that serve to make up who he is. When writing the song, West thought of a young girl in high school
dealing with people coming down on her.
"Homecoming" serves as a tribute to Kanye's hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Using an extended metaphor
that personified the city as a childhood sweetheart named Wendy, West rhymes about his guilt over leaving Chicago to pursue stardom. The song's opening lines lyrically reference "I Used to Love H.E.R.
", a similarly metaphoric hip hop song made by West's close friend and labelmate Common
, who later appeared in the single's music video. Kanye dedicated "Big Brother
" to Jay-Z
, whom he feels so close to that he sees him as a brother. Within the song, West dually details his love and admiration as well as his envy and antagonism towards Jay-Z, metaphorically equating their relationship to that of a sibling rivalry
. West also uses the song's chorus as a subsidiary dedication to his mentor No I.D.
, who first taught him how to produce music. Similar to its musicality, the songwriting characteristics of the album-closing track, "Good Night" alludes to West's next musical evolution. The majority of song is composed of repetitive recitations of its choruses and bridges by Mos Def
and Al Be Back
. West melodically raps only one single verse in which he nostalgically reminisces over taking trips to the museum with his grandparents. As his verse draws to a close, West chastises that a person can't dwell on the past and charges himself with living his life like he has no tomorrow. In retrospect, with the death of his mother Donda West less than two months after the album was released in addition to the dissolution of his engagement with fiancée Alexis Phifer, the trace amounts of melancholy found scattered throughout Graduation would all but envelop West's next studio album, 808s & Heartbreak
.
contemporary art
ist Takashi Murakami
to oversee the art direction of Graduation as well as design the cover art for the album's accompanying singles. Often called "the Warhol
of Japan," Murakami's surrealistic visual art is characterized by cartoonish creatures that appear friendly and cheerful at first glance, but possess dark, twisted undertones. The collaboration between the two came about when West visited Murakami's Kaikai Kiki
studio in Roppongi Hills
during a brief trip to Tokyo, Japan in the midst of touring the year before. The album artwork expresses colorful, pastel imagery influenced by Murakami's affiliation with superflat
, a postmodern art
movement influenced by manga
and anime
. Its production process took place over the course of several weeks, with West constantly visualizing new images and emailing the ideas to Murakami and his team. Bringing the educational theme expressed by West's previous albums to a close, the visual plotline of the images contained within the liner notes
lead up to a graduation ceremony that takes places within a fictional college institution situated within a futuristic metropolis called Universe City. Murakami explained the metaphor behind the artwork saying:
The artwork's storyline centers around "Dropout Bear," West's anthropomorphic teddy bear
mascot. The illustrations chronicle Dropout Bear overcoming various obstacles in an effort to reach his college campus in time for his ceremony. The story begins on a rainy day with Dropout running out of his apartment to his car, modeled after a DeLorean
. When the car's engine dies, he is forced to find an alternative method of transportation. Dropout attempts to hail a cab but it speeds right past him, soaking him with puddle water, he then tries to get onto a metro rail but just misses it as it pulls away. With no other options, he is reduced to pursuing his goal on foot. As Dropout races down sidewalks populated with multi-eyed, living mushrooms, he is pursued by a monstrous rain cloud that attempts to swallow him whole. Eventually, Dropout Bear arrives at the university and makes it to his graduation ceremony to stand before his colleagues, a variety of anthropomorphic creatures like himself. The visual story concludes with Dropout Bear being catapulted from the university into the sky on the back cover. The cover art for Graduation was cited as the fifth best album cover of the year by Rolling Stone
. The designs of the album artwork were later brought to life by Murakami through the use of cel-shaded animation
within a three-minute animated music video
for "Good Morning
".
", West released a free mixtape under the same name
onto the internet in promotion of the album on May 27. The mixtape featured preview clips of certain songs that would later appear on Graduation and showcased various artists signed onto West's G.O.O.D. Music label as well as collaborations with other unaffiliated musicians. It also contained the debut song "Us Placers
", the first song made by Child Rebel Soldier
, a new supergroup that West had formed with Lupe Fiasco
and Pharrell Williams
. At the end of May, Island Def Jam pushed the album's release date up to an unspecified late August date, a decision West first announced on the introductory track of his Can't Tell Me Nothing
mixtape. On July 19, the release date of Graduation was changed once more and moved to September 11, 2007, the same US release date as New York
rapper 50 Cent
's Curtis
. When first presented with the proposal of his label moving Graduations release date yet again as well as the idea of a sales race between him and 50 Cent, West initially expressed his indifference towards the thought, saying, "When I heard that thing about the debate, I thought that was the stupidest thing. When my album drops and 50's album drops, you're gonna get a lot of good music at the same time." However, then Def Jam president and CEO Jay-Z
welcomed the competition, feeling that it would be prosperous for hip hop and the date became permanent.
The album's release generated much publicity over a sales competition with 50 Cent's Curtis. Three months prior to the September 11 release date, West extended his gratitude towards 50 Cent for the enthusiasm and excitement that the friendly competition produced. Though confident that he would emerge victorious, West stated that he would be perfectly fine with losing to 50 Cent, saying that he'd rather, "be #2 on that day rather than come out and be #1 on a day nobody cares about." In an interview for USA Today
, 50 Cent expressed his view on the idea of a sales competition, stating "It's great marketing — for Kanye West. But I sell way more records than Kanye West, and I generate way more interest than Kanye West. They think they can match us up, but they'll find out when that week goes by and the sales come back. This is no rivalry." A month later, on August 10, 50 Cent stated during an interview with SOHH that he would end his career as a solo artist if Graduation sold more copies than Curtis in the United States
. However, he later retracted his statement within an MTV
interview due to contract agreements with Aftermath Entertainment
and Interscope Records
. Incidentally, West and 50 Cent later joined each other onstage to provide a surprise performance before an audience of over 20,000 people for a show held on August 22 in Madison Square Garden
during Ciara
and T.I.
's Screamfest '07
tour. On August 28, 2007, West hosted an album listening session for Graduation at New World Stages
in New York City
, where he explained his influences and aspirations for the album and played songs over clips from a variety of futuristic sci-fi films
, including Tron
, Akira
, 2046
and 2001: A Space Odyssey
. In a survey conducted by Billboard
, results displayed that an estimated 44% of readers predicted that Graduation would sell more units over 50 Cent and Kenny Chesney. Sales projections for first week scans based on early store sales reports indicated towards the 575,000–700,000 range for Graduation, while Curtis was projected in the 500,000–600,000 range.
chart, grossing a total of over 957,000 copies in its first week in the United States alone. Graduation became West's second consecutive studio album to top the Billboard 200 and also debuted at number one on the album charts in the United Kingdom
and Canada
. It was within the very same week that "Stronger
" topped the Billboard Hot 100, giving West his third number-one single. Upon its release, Graduation achieved the highest first week sales week for any album in 2007, topping Linkin Park
's Minutes to Midnight
, which sold 625,000 units. The album was also West's highest first sales week to date, surpassing the 860,000 opening week of his previous album Late Registration
. It registered the best first-week sales totals of any record released within the last two years, with the last being West's own Late Registration. Additionally, Graduation became ranked as the fifteenth highest sales week for an album since Nielsen SoundScan
began tracking data in 1991, as well as the highest sales week at the time of its release for an album since 50 Cent's The Massacre
(2005). It also set the record for the largest week of an album digitally downloaded, registering over 133, 000 paid downloads, beating Maroon 5
's previous set record of 102, 000 for It Won't Be Soon Before Long
. Graduation' s first week sales of 957,000 and Curtis' s first week sales of 691,000 marked only the second time ever since the inception of Nielsen SoundScan that two albums debuted within the same week with totals surpassing 600,000 copies in the United States. The first occurrence of such an event was in September 1991, when Guns N' Roses
conjunctively released Use Your Illusion I
, which sold 685,000 copies, and Use Your Illusion II
, which sold 770,000 copies. The first week sales totals of Graduation and Curtis have outsold the first week sales totals of Guns N' Roses' two albums. After years of slumping sales, the album competition between the two releases and the resulting record breaking performances both albums displayed was considered to be a "fantastic day for hip-hop."
In its second week on the Billboard 200, Graduation slid to number two with the release of Reba McEntire
's Reba: Duets
, selling 226,000 copies while maintaining its dominance over Curtis, which sold 143,000. The next week, with the releases of over 40 new albums, Graduation dropped three spaces to number five and registered 133,300, reaching a cumulative total of 1.3 million copies by October 3. Selling 92,400 units, the album descended two spots the following week to reach number seven. During its fourth week on the chart, Graduation experienced a slight rebound and rose from number seven to six on October 17, selling 71,000 copies. The following week, the album began to descend once more, selling an estimated 54,000 copies and dropping three places to reach the ninth position on October 24. By year's end, Graduation was the third most-downloaded and best-selling album of 2007 on iTunes Store
. Graduation became West's third consecutive studio album to sell over two million units in the United States, and it was certified double platinum
by the Recording Industry Association of America
(RIAA) on October 18, 2007. Exactly one year after the fact, as of September 12, 2008, Nielsen Soundscan reported that Graduation had grossed over 2,166,000 copies in the United States, securing its eclipse over Curtis which sold over 1,336,000 copies and had since been surpassed by Kenny Chesney
's Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates
which sold over 1,424,000 copies.
, which assigns a normalized
rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average
score of 79, based on 32 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews." Allmusic editor Andy Kellman stated "Those who have admired Kanye as a sharp producer while detesting him as an inept MC might find the gleaming synth sprites ... to be one of the most glaring deal-breakers in hip-hop history. Though the synthesizer use marks a clear, conscious diversion from Kanye's past productions, highlights ... are deeply rooted in the Kanye of old, using nostalgia-inducing samples, elegant pianos and strings, and gospel choirs [...] He's being his shrewd, occasionally foolish, and adventurous self." Pitchfork Media
's Mark Pytlik complimented the accessibility of West's sonic experimentation, noting his visionary proficiency with interweaving seeminly disparate elements and bridging musical gaps. Hillary Crosley of Billboard
viewed it as a logical step in the musical progression that West initiated on his debut, calling it "an impressively creative hip-hop album that will hopefully inspire West's peers to try new sonic avenues." Greg Tate
of The Village Voice
dubbed West "the most genuinely confessional MC in hiphop today" and commented that "bouts of narcissism aside, Graduation contains killer pieces of production".
Spin
called the album "mesmerizing and alienating, like all the purest forms of pop culture
." Rolling Stone
s Nathan Brackett complimented the continuously evolving and increasingly experimental
, genre-bending sonancy of West's production and wrote that, "As a lyricist, West will never possess the pure cool or formal mastery of his mentor Jay-Z
, but he's grown as a writer [...] And given the lousy year hip-hop has had, the music needs his spazzed-out, neurotic creativity more than ever." Dorian Lynskey of The Guardian
gave the album four out of five stars and stated "the music is never timid or conventional. Only as a lyricist does West sometimes disappoint [...] More often, though, he undercuts rap cliches with wit and ambivalence". In his consumer guide for MSN Music
, critic Robert Christgau
gave the album an A- rating and wrote that "every single track offers up its momentary pleasures—choruses that make you say yeah on songs you've already found wanting, confessional details and emotional aperçus on an album that still reduces to quality product when they're over." Los Angeles Times
music critic Ann Powers
gave the album three-and-a-half out of four stars and interpreted the subtle, nearly undetectable dark tone of the album to be the byproduct of West enduring the inevitable psychological toil that comes with paving the way for the progression of his genre as a whole:
Dave Heaton of PopMatters
commented that the album is "a simpler affair than the previous two albums, less attention-grabbing. The songs aren’t as richly dressed, and he doesn’t seem to be trying as hard. He sounds less like he’s pushing to create something epic, and at that he succeeds—as good as Graduation is, it doesn’t have the larger-than-life presence of Late Registration. It’s more manageable, more everyday." NME
gave it a six out of 10 rating and wrote, "Graduation isn’t a bad album [...] But sometimes you feel hip-hop’s saviour is taking the maxim “genius steals” rather too literally." Slant Magazine
's Eric Henderson wrote that "the lyrics are only transparently expressive and the hooks grab your ear on the first listen (notably bypassing your brain), your balls on the second, and your soul from there on out [...] the double-spaced sampling choices... remain basically citational, even as his production has adopted a beefy, synth-glam sheen." Entertainment Weekly
s Neil Drumming commented that "West's vocal mediocrity wouldn't be so glaring if the production were more of a diversion [...] most of the music just seems uninspired." Stylus Magazine
's Jayson Greene stated "the music still overflows with West’s trademark generosity, but there are fewer moments of bloat than on the caloric Late Registration [...] In some ways, Graduation serves as a document of West’s maturation. Musically, at least, it’s the most accomplished thing he’s ever done."
Critics' Poll. Time
listed Graduation as the tenth best album of the year. A year-end poll conducted by Entertainment Weekly
cited Graduation as the best album of 2007. It was also hailed as the best album of the year by ‘’USA Today
’’, which wrote, “The Louis Vuitton Don may major in rap, but he liberally borrows from other music schools to create a much broader soundscape”. The album was listed as the fourth and eighteenth best record of the year by Spin magazine and Pitchfork Media
respectively. PopMatters
also listed Graduation as the fourth best album of the year." Graduation was listed at number thirty-five by The Observer on its best fifty albums of the year. The Daily Telegraph
ranked it number fifteen on its list of "Pop CDs of the Year," writing, "Kanye West finally grew up on this album, delivering more inventive, precision-tooled hip-hop but wearing a much more furrowed brow as he explored his existential anxieties. Dark and addictive." Pitchfork Media placed Graduation at number 87 on their list of top 200 albums of the 2000s. Graduation was cited as the second best album of the entire decade by Complex magazine.
At the 50th Grammy Awards
, West led the field with a total of eight nominations, including Album of the Year
, Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for "Good Life
", and Best Rap Song
for "Can't Tell Me Nothing
". He won the Grammy awards for Best Rap Solo Performance for "Stronger
", Best Rap Song for "Good Life", and finally Graduation received the award for Best Rap Album
. At the 34th annual American Music Awards
, West received the awards for Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Male Artist as well as Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Album for Graduation. However, West offered the former to Lil Wayne
, who he felt was more deserving of the award due to his musical efforts in 2008. Praising the artistry expressed by Graduation, the success of its singles, and the imagination of its accompanying international tour
, MTV
crowned West as the year's #1 Hottest MC in the Game on May 16, 2008.
Rock band U2
has asserted that touring with West on their Vertigo Tour
had a significant effect on their own music as well in regards to No Line on the Horizon. Bono elaborated that West's rapping inspired him to utilize more percussive consonants for his songwriting and vocal performance. The album, particularly with the singles "Stronger" and "Flashing Lights", has been accredited to not only encouraging hip hop artists to incorporate house and electronica
elements into their music, but also for playing a part in the revival of disco
and electro-infused music in the late 2000s. West also received praise for his ability to appeal to diverse audiences such as indie rock
listeners and rave
enthusiasts without alienating hip hop audiences.
Ben Detrick of XXL
cited the outcome of the sales competition with 50 Cent as being responsible for altering the direction of hip hop and paving the way for new rappers who didn't follow the hardcore
-gangster
mold, writing, "If there was ever a watershed moment to indicate hip hop's changing direction, it may have come when 50 Cent competed with Kanye in 2007 to see whose album would claim superior sales. 50 lost handily, and it was made clear that excellent songcrafting trumped a lack of street-life experience. Kanye led a wave of new artists—Kid Cudi
, Wale
, Lupe Fiasco
, Kidz in the Hall
, Drake
—who lacked the interest or ability to create narratives about any past gunplay or drug-dealing. Similarly, in a retrospective article, Rosie Swash of The Guardian
viewed the album's sales competition with 50 Cent's Curtis as a historical moment in hip hop, writing that it "highlighted the diverging facets of hip-hop in the last decade; the former was gangsta rap for the noughties, while West was the thinking man's alternative.
(**) designates additional production
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
by American hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
artist Kanye West
Kanye West
Kanye Omari West is an American rapper, singer, and record producer. West first rose to fame as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records, where he eventually achieved recognition for his work on Jay-Z's album The Blueprint, as well as hit singles for musical artists including Alicia Keys, Ludacris, and...
, released September 11, 2007 on Roc-A-Fella Records
Roc-A-Fella Records
Roc-A-Fella Records is a record label founded by Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter, Damon "Dame" Dash, and Kareem "Biggs" Burke. Today it operates as a subsidiary of Universal Music Group, and is distributed by Island Def Jam Motown Music Group.-Formation and Early Years:...
. Recording sessions for the album took place during 2005 to 2007 at Chung King Studios
Chung King Studios
Chung King Recording Studios, formerly known as The Chung King House Of Metal, is a New York City recording studio founded by John King with financial backing of the Etches brothers and engineer expertise of Steve Ett became a site of many classic punk and hip hop recordings...
and Sony Music Studios
Sony Music Studios
Sony Music Studios was a well-known former music recording and mastering facility in New York City. The music and broadcasting complex was located at 460 W. 54th St., at 10th Avenue, in the Hell's Kitchen section of Manhattan...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and at Chalice Studios and The Record Plant in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
. It was primarily produced by West and DJ Toomp
DJ Toomp
Aldrin Davis, better known as DJ Toomp, is an award-winning American record producer and DJ who works in Atlanta, Georgia. In the late 1980s he was MC Shy-D's DJ and went on tour with him and the 2 Live Crew as they performed at various venues across the country with other artists such as N.W.A...
, and features guest contributions from artists including Mos Def
Mos Def
Dante Terrell Smith is an American actor and Emcee known by the stage names Mos Def and Yasiin Bey. He started his hip hop career in a group called Urban Thermo Dynamics, after which he appeared on albums by Da Bush Babees and De La Soul. With Talib Kweli, he formed the duo Black Star, which...
, Dwele
Dwele
Andwele Gardner , better known by his stage name Dwele is a soul singer, songwriter and record producer from Detroit, Michigan.-Biography:...
, T-Pain
T-Pain
Faheem Rasheed Najm , better known by his stage name T-Pain, is an American singer-songwriter, rapper, record producer, and actor, currently signed to Young Money Entertainment. His debut album, Rappa Ternt Sanga, was released in 2005. In 2007, T-Pain released his second studio album Epiphany,...
, Lil Wayne
Lil Wayne
Dwayne Michael Carter, Jr. , better known by his stage name Lil Wayne, is an American rapper. At the age of nine, Lil Wayne joined Cash Money Records as the youngest member of the label, and half of the duo, The B.G.'z, with B.G.. In 1997, Lil Wayne joined the group Hot Boys, which also included...
, and Chris Martin
Chris Martin
Christopher Anthony John "Chris" Martin is an English song-writer, who is the lead vocalist, pianist and rhythm guitarist of the band Coldplay. He is married to actress Gwyneth Paltrow.-Early life:...
of Coldplay
Coldplay
Coldplay are a British alternative rock band formed in 1996 by lead vocalist Chris Martin and lead guitarist Jonny Buckland at University College London. After they formed Pectoralz, Guy Berryman joined the group as a bassist and they changed their name to Starfish. Will Champion joined as a...
. The album's cover artwork was designed by Japanese artist Takashi Murakami
Takashi Murakami
is an internationally prolific contemporary Japanese artist. He works in fine arts media—such as painting and sculpture—as well as what is conventionally considered commercial media —fashion, merchandise, and animation— and is known for blurring the line between high and low art...
.
Inspired by Irish rock band U2
U2
U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...
and other musical groups to make more inspirational, anthemic hip hop music, West incorporated synthesizer sounds into his production and dabbled with electronic music
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
, while sampling a wider spectrum of musical genres. Lyrically, Graduation is more introspective in comparison to its predecessors, as West dedicated much of the album towards analyzing himself and conveying his ambivalent outlook on his newfound fame. It continues the education theme of West's previous two studio albums, The College Dropout
The College Dropout
The College Dropout is the debut album by American hip hop artist Kanye West, released February 10, 2004, on Roc-A-Fella Records. It was recorded over a period of four years, beginning in 1999. Prior to the album's release, West had worked on rapper Jay-Z's The Blueprint , which showcased his...
(2004) and Late Registration
Late Registration
Late Registration is the second studio album by American hip hop artist Kanye West, released August 30, 2005, on Roc-A-Fella Records. Recording sessions for the album took place over the course of a year at various recording studios located in New York City and Hollywood...
(2005).
The album debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
chart, selling 957,000 copies in its first week. The coinciding release dates of Graduation and rapper 50 Cent
50 Cent
Curtis James Jackson III , better known by his stage name 50 Cent, is an American rapper, entrepreneur, investor, record producer, and actor. He rose to fame with the release of his albums Get Rich or Die Tryin and The Massacre . Get Rich or Die Tryin has been certified eight times platinum by...
's Curtis
Curtis (50 Cent album)
Curtis is the third studio album by American rapper 50 Cent, released September 11, 2007, on Aftermath Entertainment and Interscope Records. The album features production from Dr. Dre, Eminem, and Timbaland, among others...
generated much publicity over the idea of a sales competition, resulting in record-breaking sales performances by both albums. Graduation received generally positive reviews from most music critics and earned West several accolades, including a Grammy Award for Best Rap Album
Grammy Award for Best Rap Album
The Grammy Award for Best Rap Album is an award presented to recording artists for quality albums with rapping at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards...
. The album has sold 2,166,000 copies in the US and has been certified double platinum
RIAA certification
In the United States, the Recording Industry Association of America awards certification based on the number of albums and singles sold through retail and other ancillary markets. Other countries have similar awards...
by the Recording Industry Association of America
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...
.
Background
Graduation is the third installment of Kanye West's planned tetralogyTetralogy
A tetralogy is a compound work that is made up of four distinct works, just as a trilogy is made up of three works....
of education-themed studio albums, which West subsequently deviated from due to the events surrounding the conception of his fourth album, 808s & Heartbreak
808s & Heartbreak
808s & Heartbreak is the fourth studio album by American hip hop artist Kanye West, released November 24, 2008 on Roc-A-Fella Records in the United States. Recording sessions for the album took place at Glenwood Studios in Burbank, California and Avex Recording Studio in Honolulu, Hawaii during...
. The album demonstrates yet another distinctive evolution in West's musical style and approach to production. After spending the previous year touring the world with U2
U2
U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...
on their Vertigo Tour
Vertigo Tour
The Vertigo Tour was a worldwide concert tour by the Irish rock band U2. Launched in support of the group's 2004 album How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, the band visited arenas and stadiums from 2005 through 2006. The Vertigo Tour consisted of five legs that alternated between indoor arena shows in...
, Kanye felt inspired to compose anthemic rap songs that could operate more efficiently in large arenas. To accomplish this "stadium-status" endeavor, West incorporated synthesizer
Synthesizer
A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
into his hip hop production
Hip hop production
Hip hop production is the creation of hip hop music. Though the term encompasses all aspects of hip hop music, it's most commonly used to refer to the instrumental, non-lyrical aspects of hip hop. This means that hip hop producers are the instrumentalists involved in a work...
, which also finds him utilizing slower tempo
Tempo
In musical terminology, tempo is the speed or pace of a given piece. Tempo is a crucial element of any musical composition, as it can affect the mood and difficulty of a piece.-Measuring tempo:...
s, experimenting with electronic music
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
and influenced by music of the 1980s
1980s in music
For music from a year in the 1980s, go to 80 | 81 | 82 | 83 | 84 | 85 | 86 | 87 | 88 | 89For a history of music in all times, see Timeline of musical events....
. In addition to U2, West drew musical inspiration from arena rock
Arena rock
Arena rock is a term used to describe rock music that utilised large arena venues, particularly sports venues, for concerts or series of concerts linked in tours...
bands such as The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
and Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...
in terms of melody
Melody
A melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity...
and chord progression
Chord progression
A chord progression is a series of musical chords, or chord changes that "aims for a definite goal" of establishing a tonality founded on a key, root or tonic chord. In other words, the succession of root relationships...
. Additionally, West further expanded his musical palette by abstaining himself from his customary R&B
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
/soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
samples and instead utilized a more eclectic variety of interpolations from music genres encompassing pop rock
Pop rock
Pop rock is a music genre which mixes a catchy pop style and light lyrics in its guitar-based rock songs. There are varying definitions of the term, ranging from a slower and mellower form of rock music to a subgenre of pop music...
, Euro-disco
Euro disco
Euro disco is an all encompassing colloquial term used to describe a variety of European electronic dance music that first originated from disco in the 1970s; incorporating elements of pop, New Wave and rock into disco-like continuous dance atmosphere...
, electronica
Electronica
Electronica includes a wide range of contemporary electronic music designed for a wide range of uses, including foreground listening, some forms of dancing, and background music for other activities; however, unlike electronic dance music, it is not specifically made for dancing...
, progressive rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
, house
House music
House music is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in Chicago, Illinois, United States in the early 1980s. It was initially popularized in mid-1980s discothèques catering to the African-American, Latino American, and gay communities; first in Chicago circa 1984, then in other...
, and dub
Dub music
Dub is a genre of music which grew out of reggae music in the 1960s, and is commonly considered a subgenre, though it has developed to extend beyond the scope of reggae...
. For much of the album, West adopted a dilatory, exuberant rap
Rapping
Rapping refers to "spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics". The art form can be broken down into different components, as in the book How to Rap where it is separated into “content”, “flow” , and “delivery”...
delivery in emulation of Bono
Bono
Paul David Hewson , most commonly known by his stage name Bono , is an Irish singer, musician, and humanitarian best known for being the main vocalist of the Dublin-based rock band U2. Bono was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, and attended Mount Temple Comprehensive School where he met his...
's operatic vocal stylings.
Recording
West began working on Graduation immediately after the release of his second studio album Late RegistrationLate Registration
Late Registration is the second studio album by American hip hop artist Kanye West, released August 30, 2005, on Roc-A-Fella Records. Recording sessions for the album took place over the course of a year at various recording studios located in New York City and Hollywood...
. By late September 2005, he had already completed three songs for the album, which he intended to contain a total of twelve tracks. Around the time of the recording of the studio album, Kanye listened to songs by folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
singer-songwriters Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
and Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash
John R. "Johnny" Cash was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century...
in hopes of developing methods to augment his wordplay and storytelling ability. The former had been recommended to him by multiple friends, including English disc jockey
Disc jockey
A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...
Samantha Ronson
Samantha Ronson
Samantha Judith Ronson is an English singer-songwriter and disc jockey who lives in Los Angeles, California.-Biography:Ronson was born in London and raised in St John's Wood...
, who all claimed that the way West dealt with the press reminded them of Dylan. Kanye also listened to his favorite alternative rock
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
bands, including The Killers, Radiohead
Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke , Jonny Greenwood , Ed O'Brien , Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway .Radiohead released their debut single "Creep" in 1992...
, Modest Mouse
Modest Mouse
Modest Mouse is an American indie rock band formed in 1993 in Issaquah, Washington, by singer/lyricist/guitarist Isaac Brock, drummer Jeremiah Green, and bassist Eric Judy. They are based in Portland, Oregon. Since their 1996 debut album, This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think...
, and Keane for ideas on making his music more stadium-friendly.
In comparison to previous albums, Graduation includes fewer guest apperarances. T-Pain
T-Pain
Faheem Rasheed Najm , better known by his stage name T-Pain, is an American singer-songwriter, rapper, record producer, and actor, currently signed to Young Money Entertainment. His debut album, Rappa Ternt Sanga, was released in 2005. In 2007, T-Pain released his second studio album Epiphany,...
, Detroit R&B
Contemporary R&B
Contemporary R&B is a music genre that combines elements of hip hop, soul, R&B and funk.Although the abbreviation “R&B” originates from traditional rhythm and blues music, today the term R&B is most often used to describe a style of African American music originating after the demise of disco in...
singer Dwele
Dwele
Andwele Gardner , better known by his stage name Dwele is a soul singer, songwriter and record producer from Detroit, Michigan.-Biography:...
, and New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
rapper Mos Def
Mos Def
Dante Terrell Smith is an American actor and Emcee known by the stage names Mos Def and Yasiin Bey. He started his hip hop career in a group called Urban Thermo Dynamics, after which he appeared on albums by Da Bush Babees and De La Soul. With Talib Kweli, he formed the duo Black Star, which...
are featured within individual tracks to sing hooks
Hook (music)
A hook is a musical idea, often a short riff, passage, or phrase, that is used in popular music to make a song appealing and to "catch the ear of the listener". The term generally applies to popular music, especially rock music, hip hop, dance music, and pop. In these genres, the hook is often...
and choruses.
Multiple songs on the album contain background vocals provided by Connie Mitchell
Connie Mitchell
Connie Mitchell is an Australian pop singer and the lead vocalist with the Sydney band Sneaky Sound System. She appears on the band's singles "Pictures", "I Love It", "UFO", "Goodbye", "Kansas City", "When We Were Young", "16" and "We Love"...
of the Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n electronic
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
group Sneaky Sound System
Sneaky Sound System
Sneaky Sound System are a Sydney-based Australian dance music group consisting of guitarist and producer Black Angus and vocalist Connie Mitchell.-Early Years:...
. The collaboration came about when Kanye met Mitchell's bandmates Angus McDonald and Daimon Downey at a diner in Sydney, Australia. Seeking musical inspiration, West asked McDonald for ideas, who suggested that he be introduced to Mitchell. Mitchell later admitted that while she previously didn't know who Kanye was and never really cared for hip-hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
, the collaboration had changed her views. In January 2007 interview with Billboard, West revealed that he had collaborated with Coldplay
Coldplay
Coldplay are a British alternative rock band formed in 1996 by lead vocalist Chris Martin and lead guitarist Jonny Buckland at University College London. After they formed Pectoralz, Guy Berryman joined the group as a bassist and they changed their name to Starfish. Will Champion joined as a...
lead vocalist Chris Martin
Chris Martin
Christopher Anthony John "Chris" Martin is an English song-writer, who is the lead vocalist, pianist and rhythm guitarist of the band Coldplay. He is married to actress Gwyneth Paltrow.-Early life:...
on "Homecoming", and that the song might possibly be released as lead single of Graduation. The collaboration came about the year before when the two met during an impromptu jam session at Abbey Road Studios
Abbey Road Studios
Abbey Road Studios is a recording studio located at 3 Abbey Road, St John's Wood, City of Westminster, London, England. It was established in November 1931 by the Gramophone Company, a predecessor of British music company EMI, its present owner...
. The song itself is a revamping of the song “Home” taken from Kanye’s Freshmen Adjustment
Freshmen Adjustment
Freshmen Adjustment is the first of 3 mixtapes by Kanye West in which he includes songs that would have been on his first album - noticeably 'Wow', which he intended to release before he was involved in a car accident...
mixtape. Though he originally intended Graduation to be completely devoid of guest rap verses, Kanye later invited New Orleans rapper Lil Wayne
Lil Wayne
Dwayne Michael Carter, Jr. , better known by his stage name Lil Wayne, is an American rapper. At the age of nine, Lil Wayne joined Cash Money Records as the youngest member of the label, and half of the duo, The B.G.'z, with B.G.. In 1997, Lil Wayne joined the group Hot Boys, which also included...
on the track "Barry Bonds." At the time, the two had been collaborating, with West working on the production of Tha Carter III
Tha Carter III
Tha Carter III is the sixth studio album by American rapper Lil Wayne, released June 10, 2008 on Cash Money Records. It follows a long string of mixtape releases and guest appearances on other hip hop and R&B artists records, helping to increase his exposure in the mainstream...
.
The album started taking definite form around the time of the filming of the music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
for "Stronger", whereas prior West had been "aimlessly making songs." The sci-fi
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
imagery of the Hype Williams
Hype Williams
Harold "Hype" Williams , previously known as HYPE, is an American music video and film director of African-American and Honduran descent. His nickname "Hype" comes from his hyperactive nature as a child....
-directed video inspired West to take his music in a more futuristic direction. After the filming of the video, which begun before West had even written the song's second verse, he went back to redo and re-record various portions of "Stronger", watching films like Total Recall
Total Recall
Total Recall is a 1990 American science fiction action film. The film stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rachel Ticotin, Sharon Stone, Michael Ironside, Ronny Cox & Mel Johnson, Jr.. It is based on the Philip K. Dick story “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale”...
for ideas. West cites "I Wonder" as one of his three favorite tracks from the album. He considered releasing it as a single but released "Flashing Lights
Flashing Lights
"Flashing Lights" is a song by American rap artist Kanye West. It was released on November 22, 2007, as the fourth single for his third studio album, Graduation. The song was co-produced by Eric Hudson and features R&B singer Dwele as well as additional vocals provided by Connie Mitchell of Sneaky...
" instead. The album sees the return of multi-instrumentalist Jon Brion
Jon Brion
Jon Brion is an American rock and pop multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, composer and record producer.-Early life:...
—who had played a key role as co-execute producer on Late Registration
Late Registration
Late Registration is the second studio album by American hip hop artist Kanye West, released August 30, 2005, on Roc-A-Fella Records. Recording sessions for the album took place over the course of a year at various recording studios located in New York City and Hollywood...
—for the track "Drunk and Hot Girls." The beat of "The Glory" was originally conceived for West's G.O.O.D. Music associate, close friend, a fellow Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
an MC Common, whose seventh studio album Finding Forever was being produced and recorded by West simultaneously with Graduation. As was the case with their previous albums, certain tracks West originally crafted for Finding Forever that Common passed on subsequently ended up on his own album. "Everything I Am" was yet another song made for Common that he passed on, a fact which West addresses within the song's intro. Though "Bittersweet Poetry" appears as a bonus track
Bonus track
In terms of recorded music, a bonus track is a piece of music which has been included on specific releases or reissues of an album. This is most often done as a promotional device, either as an incentive to customers to purchase albums they might otherwise not, or to repurchase albums they already...
on the album, the recording had actually been one of the very first tracks made for Late Registration. After seeing the 2004 biographical film Ray
Ray (film)
Ray is a 2004 biographical film focusing on 30 years of the life of rhythm and blues musician Ray Charles. The independently produced film was directed by Taylor Hackford and starred Jamie Foxx in the title role; Foxx received an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance.Charles was set to...
together, Kanye and John Mayer
John Mayer
John Clayton Mayer is an American pop rock and blues rock musician, singer-songwriter, recording artist, and music producer. Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut and raised in Fairfield, Connecticut, he attended Berklee College of Music in Boston. He moved to Atlanta in 1997, where he refined his...
decided to collaborate on a recording and immediately went back to the studio to compose the song "Bittersweet". The two had previously worked on Common's "Go!", which had come about when Mayer went to visit West at The Record Plant in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
.
Musical style
With Graduation, West departed from the warm soulSoul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
samples of The College Dropout and the lush chamber pop orchestration of Late Registration and moved towards a more atmospheric, rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
-tinged, electronic
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
soundscape. The musical evolution arose from him listening to musical genres encompassing Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an Britpop
Britpop
Britpop is a subgenre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom. Britpop emerged from the British independent music scene of the early 1990s and was characterised by bands influenced by British guitar pop music of the 1960s and 1970s...
and Euro-disco
Euro disco
Euro disco is an all encompassing colloquial term used to describe a variety of European electronic dance music that first originated from disco in the 1970s; incorporating elements of pop, New Wave and rock into disco-like continuous dance atmosphere...
, American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
alternative
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
/indie rock
Indie rock
Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...
, and his native Chicago house
Chicago house
Chicago house is a style of house music, a genre of electronic dance music which emerged in Chicago in the mid-1980s. Stylistically, Chicago house has no widely accepted definition, but generally includes the first house music productions by Chicago-based artists throughout the 1980s, and any later...
. Towards this end, Kanye retracted the live instrumentation that characterized his previous album and had it replaced with heavy, gothic
Gothic rock
Gothic rock is a musical subgenre of post-punk and alternative rock that formed during the late 1970s. Gothic rock bands grew from the strong ties they had to the English punk rock and emerging post-punk scenes...
synths. West injected distorted synth
Synthesizer
A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
-riffs, rave
Rave music
Rave music may either refer the late 1980s genre or any genre of electronic dance music that may be played at an electronic dance party such as a rave. Very rarely, the term is used to refer to less electronic related genres glam, powerpop, psychedelic rock and dub music parties...
stabs, house
House music
House music is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in Chicago, Illinois, United States in the early 1980s. It was initially popularized in mid-1980s discothèques catering to the African-American, Latino American, and gay communities; first in Chicago circa 1984, then in other...
beats, electro-disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
rhythms, and an array of modulated electronic sound effects into his hip hop production. Despite the dominant synthetic attributes, the emphasis on organic string arrangements that accentuated Late Registration remained a significant factor on Graduation. Also, similar to its predecessor, the album didn't relegate itself to simplistic looping
Music loop
In electroacoustic music, a loop is a repeating section of sound material. Short sections of material can be repeated to create ostinato patterns...
techniques typical of conventional hip hop and instead continued to implement sudden musical shifts within its multi-layered song structures and express intricately composed introductions
Introduction (music)
In music, the introduction is a passage or section which opens a movement or a separate piece. In popular music this is often abbreviated as intro...
, bridges
Bridge (music)
In music, especially western popular music, a bridge is a contrasting section which also prepares for the return of the original material section...
, and codas
Coda (music)
Coda is a term used in music in a number of different senses, primarily to designate a passage that brings a piece to an end. Technically, it is an expanded cadence...
. Under the belief that his previous album had been too indulgent and poorly arranged, West fashioned Graduation to contain less ornate production, made the album completely devoid of skits, and sequenced it in such a way that it produced a more cohesive package.
Production
The album opens on a sparse note with "Good MorningGood Morning (Kanye West song)
"Good Morning" is a song by American rap artist Kanye West. It serves as the opener for his third studio album, 2007's Graduation. The song was produced by West and contains samples of "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" as sung by Elton John...
", retaining metallic percussion and a simplistic chorus in which West recites "Good Morning" backed by a melody laced with synthesizer and a nonverbal vocal sample of "Someone Saved My Life Tonight
Someone Saved My Life Tonight
"Someone Saved My Life Tonight" is an Elton John song from his album Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy. John originally wrote and recorded it in A-flat, though after having vocal cord surgery in 1987 that resulted in the loss of his falsetto range, John began performing the song in a...
" by Elton John
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...
. The anthemic "Champion" contains slight jazz-pop
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
influence, eschewing trumpets in favour of bright synthesizers and featuring breezy hooks provided by a chopped up vocal sample of "Kid Charlemagne
Kid Charlemagne
"Kid Charlemagne" is a song by the rock group Steely Dan, which was released as a single from their 1976 album The Royal Scam. It is notable as a fusion of a funk rhythm and jazz harmonies with rock and roll instrumentals and lyrical style, as well as a very famous guitar solo by jazz-fusion...
" by Steely Dan
Steely Dan
Steely Dan is an American rock band; its core members are Donald Fagen and Walter Becker. The band's popularity peaked in the late 1970s, with the release of seven albums blending elements of jazz, rock, funk, R&B, and pop...
. It also contains a reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
-flavored bridge delivered by Connie Mitchell
Connie Mitchell
Connie Mitchell is an Australian pop singer and the lead vocalist with the Sydney band Sneaky Sound System. She appears on the band's singles "Pictures", "I Love It", "UFO", "Goodbye", "Kansas City", "When We Were Young", "16" and "We Love"...
of the Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n electronic
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
group Sneaky Sound System
Sneaky Sound System
Sneaky Sound System are a Sydney-based Australian dance music group consisting of guitarist and producer Black Angus and vocalist Connie Mitchell.-Early Years:...
. More than any other song on the entire album, "I Wonder" was most influenced by U2
U2
U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...
, as West elaborated that he had sought out to make a hip-hop equivalent to the band's "City of Blinding Lights
City of Blinding Lights
"City of Blinding Lights" is a song by the rock band U2. It is the fifth track on their 2004 album How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb and was released as the album's fourth single on 6 June 2005. The song was a top ten hit in Ireland, the United Kingdom, and several other countries...
" with the track. It begins with a piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
-led introduction
Introduction (music)
In music, the introduction is a passage or section which opens a movement or a separate piece. In popular music this is often abbreviated as intro...
that contains a hook
Hook (music)
A hook is a musical idea, often a short riff, passage, or phrase, that is used in popular music to make a song appealing and to "catch the ear of the listener". The term generally applies to popular music, especially rock music, hip hop, dance music, and pop. In these genres, the hook is often...
provided by a vocal sample of "My Song" by British
British people
The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...
jazz-folk
Folk jazz
Folk jazz is a broad term for music that pairs traditional folk music with elements of jazz music, featuring richly elaborated songs whose textures are rooted in both styles....
poet Labi Siffre
Labi Siffre
Labi Siffre is a British poet, songwriter, musician and singer most widely known as the writer and singer of " So Strong", "It Must Be Love" and "I Got The", the sampled rhythm track which provides the basis for a number of well-known hip hop tracks such as Eminem’s breakthrough hit single, "My...
, before transforming into a convoluted synthesizer
Synthesizer
A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
riff punctuated by a distorted beat and ethereal electronic keyboards. During the song's bridge, the chord progression alternates, its organic piano keys return, and it adopts a string section
String section
The string section is the largest body of the standard orchestra and consists of bowed string instruments of the violin family.It normally comprises five sections: the first violins, the second violins, the violas, the cellos, and the double basses...
which replicates the melody
Melody
A melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity...
of its synths. The composition then enters a coda where its instrumental plays alongside a sweeping string arrangement before finally drawing itself to a close. "Good Life
Good Life (Kanye West song)
This article is about the Kanye West song. For the OneRepublic song, see Good Life ."Good Life" is the third single from American rapper Kanye West's album Graduation. The song features R&B artist T-Pain, and uses sampled keys from the song "P.Y.T. " as performed by Michael Jackson...
" utilizes multi-tracked, interlocking vocals that harmonize with guest singer T-Pain
T-Pain
Faheem Rasheed Najm , better known by his stage name T-Pain, is an American singer-songwriter, rapper, record producer, and actor, currently signed to Young Money Entertainment. His debut album, Rappa Ternt Sanga, was released in 2005. In 2007, T-Pain released his second studio album Epiphany,...
's auto-tune
Auto-Tune
Auto-Tune is a proprietary audio processor created by Antares Audio Technologies. Auto-Tune uses a phase vocoder to correct pitch in vocal and instrumental performances. It is used to disguise off-key inaccuracies and mistakes, and has allowed singers to perform apparently perfectly tuned vocal...
d voice. The song's melody
Melody
A melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity...
is based on sampled keyboards from P.Y.T. by Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
, with the tempo
Tempo
In musical terminology, tempo is the speed or pace of a given piece. Tempo is a crucial element of any musical composition, as it can affect the mood and difficulty of a piece.-Measuring tempo:...
slightly decreased and the pitch
Pitch (music)
Pitch is an auditory perceptual property that allows the ordering of sounds on a frequency-related scale.Pitches are compared as "higher" and "lower" in the sense associated with musical melodies,...
raised to the point its sound resembles squealing shrieks.
"Barry Bonds" is built on a moaning bass line and Gothic organ, while punctuated by wailing sampled from "Long Red" by Mountain
Mountain (band)
Mountain is an American hard rock band that formed in Long Island, New York in 1969. Originally comprising vocalist and guitarist Leslie West, bassist Felix Pappalardi and drummer N. D. Smart, the band broke up in 1972 before reuniting in 1974 and remaining active until today...
.
"Drunk and Hot Girls" exhibits a sluggish waltz
Waltz
The waltz is a ballroom and folk dance in time, performed primarily in closed position.- History :There are several references to a sliding or gliding dance,- a waltz, from the 16th century including the representations of the printer H.S. Beheim...
pitched with the rhythm
Rhythm
Rhythm may be generally defined as a "movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions." This general meaning of regular recurrence or pattern in time may be applied to a wide variety of cyclical natural phenomena having a periodicity or...
of an Eastern European drinking song
Drinking song
A drinking song is a song sung while drinking alcohol. Most drinking songs are folk songs, and may be varied from person to person and region to region, in both the lyrics and in the music...
. It contains a mix of dark
Dark music
Dark Alternative Music may refer to:* Dark 2-step, a derivate of 2-step garage* Darkcore, a subgenre of hardcore EDM* Dark ambient, a subgenre of ambient* Dark cabaret, a fusion between punk and cabaret* Dark electro, an outgrowth of industrial music...
orchestration and detuned electronics with elements of "Sing Swan Song" by German
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
progressive rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
band Can
Can (band)
Can was an experimental rock band formed in Cologne, West Germany in 1968. Later labeled as one of the first "krautrock" groups, they transcended mainstream influences and incorporated strong minimalist and world music elements into their often psychedelic music.Can constructed their music largely...
. West claimed that while listening to the song, he heard the line "drunk and hot girls" in place of the actual "drunky hot bowls" lyrics. Rather than rap, West and guest artist Mos Def
Mos Def
Dante Terrell Smith is an American actor and Emcee known by the stage names Mos Def and Yasiin Bey. He started his hip hop career in a group called Urban Thermo Dynamics, after which he appeared on albums by Da Bush Babees and De La Soul. With Talib Kweli, he formed the duo Black Star, which...
sing along to the song's melody. Opening with a gradual, rising crescendo of symphonic strings
Strings (music)
A string is the vibrating element that produces sound in string instruments, such as the guitar, harp, piano, and members of the violin family. Strings are lengths of a flexible material kept under tension so that they may vibrate freely, but controllably. Strings may be "plain"...
, "Flashing Lights
Flashing Lights
"Flashing Lights" is a song by American rap artist Kanye West. It was released on November 22, 2007, as the fourth single for his third studio album, Graduation. The song was co-produced by Eric Hudson and features R&B singer Dwele as well as additional vocals provided by Connie Mitchell of Sneaky...
" emits synth twinklings before transforming into a moderately-paced, synth
Synthesizer
A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
-driven beat. After the introduction
Introduction (music)
In music, the introduction is a passage or section which opens a movement or a separate piece. In popular music this is often abbreviated as intro...
, in which Mitchell's processed vocals repeat the titular hook
Hook (music)
A hook is a musical idea, often a short riff, passage, or phrase, that is used in popular music to make a song appealing and to "catch the ear of the listener". The term generally applies to popular music, especially rock music, hip hop, dance music, and pop. In these genres, the hook is often...
four times, West raps the two verses, each one followed by the chorus
Refrain
A refrain is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse; the "chorus" of a song...
sung by Dwele coupled with the hook. Following a break
Break (music)
In popular music, a break is an instrumental or percussion section or interlude during a song derived from or related to stop-time – being a "break" from the main parts of the song or piece....
, the song enters a passage where its heavily manipulated hook echoes in and out before the coda
Coda (music)
Coda is a term used in music in a number of different senses, primarily to designate a passage that brings a piece to an end. Technically, it is an expanded cadence...
draws the composition to a close. The tracks "Everything I Am" and "The Glory" experience an ephemeral, nostalgic return of West's past production techniques. "Everything I Am" gradually alternates between two piano loops accentuated by soulful cooing, coupled with a scratched
Scratching
Scratching is a DJ or turntablist technique used to produce distinctive sounds by moving a vinyl record back and forth on a turntable while optionally manipulating the crossfader on a DJ mixer. While scratching is most commonly associated with hip hop music, since the late 1980s, it has been used...
hook formed with a vocal sample containing the line, "Damn, here we go again" from "Bring the Noise
Bring the Noise
"Bring the Noise" is a song by the hip hop group Public Enemy. It was included on the soundtrack of the 1987 film Less Than Zero and was also released as a single that year. It later became the first song on the group's 1988 album It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back...
" by Public Enemy provided by DJ Premier
DJ Premier
Christopher Edward Martin , better known by his stage name DJ Premier , is an American record producer and DJ, and was the instrumental half of the hip hop duo Gang Starr, together with emcee Guru...
. The uptempo "The Glory" revisits the "chipmunk soul" that once defined Kanye's early production, displaying a defiant, sped-up vocal sample of "Save The Country" by Laura Nyro
Laura Nyro
Laura Nyro was an American songwriter, singer, and pianist. She achieved considerable critical acclaim with her own recordings, particularly the albums Eli and the Thirteenth Confession and New York Tendaberry, and had commercial success with artists such as Barbra Streisand and The 5th...
backed by uplifting string arrangements and a gospel choir symphony. Coldplay
Coldplay
Coldplay are a British alternative rock band formed in 1996 by lead vocalist Chris Martin and lead guitarist Jonny Buckland at University College London. After they formed Pectoralz, Guy Berryman joined the group as a bassist and they changed their name to Starfish. Will Champion joined as a...
lead vocalist Chris Martin
Chris Martin
Christopher Anthony John "Chris" Martin is an English song-writer, who is the lead vocalist, pianist and rhythm guitarist of the band Coldplay. He is married to actress Gwyneth Paltrow.-Early life:...
sings choruses and provides gospel
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
-style piano tapping on "Homecoming", where the chatter of a noisy crowd can inexplicably be heard in the background. "Big Brother
Big Brother (Kanye West song)
"Big Brother" is a song by American hip hop artist Kanye West.-Writing and inspiration:"Big Brother" was written by Kanye West while the music was produced by Atlanta producer DJ Toomp. It stands as the sole track on the entire third album not to feature production by West...
" expresses slow, rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
-tinged production, featuring mid-tempo drum programming embellished with melodic synthesizer
Synthesizer
A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
and backed by rhythmic, distorted guitar chords. The album's final track "Good Night" expresses production characteristics that would be the foundation of West's next musical evolution. Within the minimalistic song, Kanye juxtaposes the crude, mechanical sounds of 8-bit music with the elegant, traditional sound of a classical
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
.
Lyrical content
In comparison to previous albums, which were largely driven by observational commentary on matters pertaining to social welfare, Graduation is more introspective in nature and addresses personal themes. Kanye stated that he wanted to make inspirational music and placed more focus on individual perspective and experience that listeners could connect with in an attempt to create "people's theme songs." Dismayed that the messages behind his complex lyricism were frequently lost on listeners and didn't carry well during live performances, West made an attempt to simplify his lyrics and use more skeletal rhyme schemeRhyme scheme
A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhyme between lines of a poem or song. It is usually referred to by using letters to indicate which lines rhyme. In other words, it is the pattern of end rhymes or lines...
s for more straightforward verses while concentrating on speaking volumes with sparser wording on Graduation. Having committed a significant amount of time towards elevating his storytelling ability time by listening to folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
musicians, Kanye manages to form a lyrical narrative within nearly every song on the album. West dedicated a majority of the album towards conducting an analysis himself and conveying his ambivalent outlook on his newfound wealth and fame. As such, Kanye's subversive songwriting fluctuates between playful self-aggrandizement and critical self-doubt. While confident, extroverted and celebratory at face value, many songs contained on Graduation were thematically distanced and retained melancholic subtext. Some music critics remarked that compounded with Kanye's urgent, emotional rap
Rapping
Rapping refers to "spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics". The art form can be broken down into different components, as in the book How to Rap where it is separated into “content”, “flow” , and “delivery”...
delivery, the record sounded as if he were experiencing an existential
Existentialism
Existentialism is a term applied to a school of 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual...
crisis.
The free-associative
Free association (psychology)
Free association is a technique used in psychoanalysis which was originally devised by Sigmund Freud out of the hypnotic method of his mentor and coworker, Josef Breuer....
"Champion" is primarily composed of motivational lyrics, but Kanye also briefly touches on the strained relationship he had with his father–who divorced from his mother when he was just three-years-old–eventually reaching the conclusion that even with their ups and downs, in the end, his father was a champion in his eyes. West described "Stronger
Stronger (Kanye West song)
"Stronger" is a song by American hip hop artist Kanye West, released as the second single from his third studio album Graduation. It was produced by West and contains an extended outro co-produced with Mike Dean...
" as an "emancipation", as he uses the song to vent his frustration over mistakes he has made in the past. "I Wonder" carries an introspective tone, retaining a chorus about finding one's dreams, while West uses the verses to describe the struggle a person experiences in determining the meaning behind their life and achieving those dreams. Inspired by watching Bono open stadium tours, West concentrated on speaking volumes without using too many words on the song and delivers his raps in an exuberant, staccato
Staccato
Staccato is a form of musical articulation. In modern notation it signifies a note of shortened duration and separated from the note that may follow by silence...
manner. Using the same vocal stylings, "Flashing Lights
Flashing Lights
"Flashing Lights" is a song by American rap artist Kanye West. It was released on November 22, 2007, as the fourth single for his third studio album, Graduation. The song was co-produced by Eric Hudson and features R&B singer Dwele as well as additional vocals provided by Connie Mitchell of Sneaky...
" tells the operatic narrative of man contemplating the complexities of a tragic relationship. "Can't Tell Me Nothing
Can't Tell Me Nothing
"Can't Tell Me Nothing" is a song by American hip hop artist Kanye West. It was released as the lead single of his third studio album, Graduation, on May 15, 2007. The song was produced by Kanye West and DJ Toomp...
" serves as West's reflection on his fame and is characterized by bitter remorse and defiant self-awareness. West begins the song by expounding his conflicted feelings regarding wealth and desire, describing a compulsion to spend that overwhelms any and all other objectives in life. He ties this into his perceived overall inability to keep himself together even as he grows into an increasingly prominent figure in the public eye.
West regains his lyrical dexterity on "Barry Bonds", a competitive, though friendly battle with Lil Wayne
Lil Wayne
Dwayne Michael Carter, Jr. , better known by his stage name Lil Wayne, is an American rapper. At the age of nine, Lil Wayne joined Cash Money Records as the youngest member of the label, and half of the duo, The B.G.'z, with B.G.. In 1997, Lil Wayne joined the group Hot Boys, which also included...
in which the two MCs exchange braggadocios rhymes. The song uses Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
player Barry Bonds
Barry Bonds
Barry Lamar Bonds is an American former Major League Baseball outfielder. Bonds played from 1986 to 2007, for the Pittsburgh Pirates and San Francisco Giants. He is the son of former major league All-Star Bobby Bonds...
as a metaphor for West’s ability to create music hits. "Drunk and Hot Girls" is a first-person narrative that illustrates a man courting an intoxicated woman in a club but gets more than what he bargained for. "Everything I Am" is a song of self-examination, in which Kanye attempts to confront his fallacies by surveying the consequences of his outspokeness ruminating over various ways people expect him to conduct himself. In the track, Kanye addresses his indifference towards constructing a gangster
Gangsta rap
Gangsta Rap is a subgenre of hip hop music that evolved from hardcore hip hop and purports to reflect urban crime and the violent lifestyles of inner-city youths. Lyrics in gangsta rap have varied from accurate reflections to fictionalized accounts. Gangsta is a non-rhotic pronunciation of the word...
persona, his refusal to dress and act like every other rapper, his inclination towards socio-political commentary, and his lack of self-restraint. Kanye comes to the conclusion that while he will never be able to live up to people's expectations and will always be disadvantageously flawed, its all these imperfections and more that serve to make up who he is. When writing the song, West thought of a young girl in high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
dealing with people coming down on her.
"Homecoming" serves as a tribute to Kanye's hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Using an extended metaphor
Extended metaphor
An extended metaphor, also called a conceit, is a metaphor that continues into the sentences that follow. It is often developed at great length, occurring frequently in schools coursework or throughout a work, and are especially effective in poems and fiction.Symbolism is often a great tool to use...
that personified the city as a childhood sweetheart named Wendy, West rhymes about his guilt over leaving Chicago to pursue stardom. The song's opening lines lyrically reference "I Used to Love H.E.R.
I Used to Love H.E.R.
"I Used to Love H.E.R." is a hip hop song by the Chicago-born rapper Common. Released on the 1994 album Resurrection, "I Used to Love H.E.R." has since become one of Common's best known songs. Produced by No I.D., its jazzy beat samples "The Changing World" by George Benson. A video directed by...
", a similarly metaphoric hip hop song made by West's close friend and labelmate Common
Common (rapper)
Lonnie Rashid Lynn, Jr. , better known by his stage name Common , is an American hip-hop artist and actor....
, who later appeared in the single's music video. Kanye dedicated "Big Brother
Big Brother (Kanye West song)
"Big Brother" is a song by American hip hop artist Kanye West.-Writing and inspiration:"Big Brother" was written by Kanye West while the music was produced by Atlanta producer DJ Toomp. It stands as the sole track on the entire third album not to feature production by West...
" to Jay-Z
Jay-Z
Shawn Corey Carter , better known by his stage name Jay-Z, is an American rapper, record producer, entrepreneur, and occasional actor. He is one of the most financially successful hip hop artists and entrepreneurs in America, having a net worth of over $450 million as of 2010...
, whom he feels so close to that he sees him as a brother. Within the song, West dually details his love and admiration as well as his envy and antagonism towards Jay-Z, metaphorically equating their relationship to that of a sibling rivalry
Sibling rivalry
Sibling rivalry is a type of competition or animosity among children, blood-related or not.Siblings generally spend more time together during childhood than they do with parents. The sibling bond is often complicated and is influenced by factors such as parental treatment, birth order, personality,...
. West also uses the song's chorus as a subsidiary dedication to his mentor No I.D.
No I.D.
No I.D., officially known as Immenslope and also known as Ernest Wilson , is a hip hop and R&B record producer, also the vice-president of Def Jam Recordings, best known for his early work with Chicago rapper Common and is known as "The Godfather of Chicago hip hop".. The nickname No I.D...
, who first taught him how to produce music. Similar to its musicality, the songwriting characteristics of the album-closing track, "Good Night" alludes to West's next musical evolution. The majority of song is composed of repetitive recitations of its choruses and bridges by Mos Def
Mos Def
Dante Terrell Smith is an American actor and Emcee known by the stage names Mos Def and Yasiin Bey. He started his hip hop career in a group called Urban Thermo Dynamics, after which he appeared on albums by Da Bush Babees and De La Soul. With Talib Kweli, he formed the duo Black Star, which...
and Al Be Back
Albert Daniels
Albert Daniels , also known as Albe Back, often stylized ALBe. Back, is an actor, artist, producer, poet, and rapper.- Early life :...
. West melodically raps only one single verse in which he nostalgically reminisces over taking trips to the museum with his grandparents. As his verse draws to a close, West chastises that a person can't dwell on the past and charges himself with living his life like he has no tomorrow. In retrospect, with the death of his mother Donda West less than two months after the album was released in addition to the dissolution of his engagement with fiancée Alexis Phifer, the trace amounts of melancholy found scattered throughout Graduation would all but envelop West's next studio album, 808s & Heartbreak
808s & Heartbreak
808s & Heartbreak is the fourth studio album by American hip hop artist Kanye West, released November 24, 2008 on Roc-A-Fella Records in the United States. Recording sessions for the album took place at Glenwood Studios in Burbank, California and Avex Recording Studio in Honolulu, Hawaii during...
.
Artwork
West collaborated with JapaneseJapanese people
The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...
contemporary art
Contemporary art
Contemporary art can be defined variously as art produced at this present point in time or art produced since World War II. The definition of the word contemporary would support the first view, but museums of contemporary art commonly define their collections as consisting of art produced...
ist Takashi Murakami
Takashi Murakami
is an internationally prolific contemporary Japanese artist. He works in fine arts media—such as painting and sculpture—as well as what is conventionally considered commercial media —fashion, merchandise, and animation— and is known for blurring the line between high and low art...
to oversee the art direction of Graduation as well as design the cover art for the album's accompanying singles. Often called "the Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
of Japan," Murakami's surrealistic visual art is characterized by cartoonish creatures that appear friendly and cheerful at first glance, but possess dark, twisted undertones. The collaboration between the two came about when West visited Murakami's Kaikai Kiki
Kaikai Kiki
Kaikai Kiki Co. is an artists' collective founded by the artist Takashi Murakami of Japan.Kaikai Kiki was originally founded to manage the many assistants employed to create Murakami's work. It gradually evolved into a collaborative vehicle for other like-minded artists...
studio in Roppongi Hills
Roppongi Hills
is a New Urban Centre and one of Japan's largest integrated property developments, located in the Roppongi district of Minato, Tokyo.Constructed by building tycoon Minoru Mori, the mega-complex incorporates office space, apartments, shops, restaurants, cafés, movie theaters, a museum, a hotel, a...
during a brief trip to Tokyo, Japan in the midst of touring the year before. The album artwork expresses colorful, pastel imagery influenced by Murakami's affiliation with superflat
Superflat
Superflat is a postmodern art movement, founded by the artist Takashi Murakami, which is influenced by manga and anime. It is also the name of a 2001 art exhibition, curated by Murakami, that toured West Hollywood, Minneapolis and Seattle....
, a postmodern art
Postmodern art
Postmodern art is a term used to describe an art movement which was thought to be in contradiction to some aspect of modernism, or to have emerged or developed in its aftermath...
movement influenced by manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
and anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
. Its production process took place over the course of several weeks, with West constantly visualizing new images and emailing the ideas to Murakami and his team. Bringing the educational theme expressed by West's previous albums to a close, the visual plotline of the images contained within the liner notes
Liner notes
Liner notes are the writings found in booklets which come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for vinyl records and cassettes.-Origin:...
lead up to a graduation ceremony that takes places within a fictional college institution situated within a futuristic metropolis called Universe City. Murakami explained the metaphor behind the artwork saying:
The artwork's storyline centers around "Dropout Bear," West's anthropomorphic teddy bear
Teddy bear
The teddy bear is a stuffed toy bear. They are usually stuffed with soft, white cotton and have smooth and soft fur. It is an enduring form of a stuffed animal in many countries, often serving the purpose of entertaining children. In recent times, some teddy bears have become collector's items...
mascot. The illustrations chronicle Dropout Bear overcoming various obstacles in an effort to reach his college campus in time for his ceremony. The story begins on a rainy day with Dropout running out of his apartment to his car, modeled after a DeLorean
DeLorean time machine
The DeLorean time machine is a fictional automobile-based time travel device featured in the Back to the Future trilogy. In the feature film series, Dr...
. When the car's engine dies, he is forced to find an alternative method of transportation. Dropout attempts to hail a cab but it speeds right past him, soaking him with puddle water, he then tries to get onto a metro rail but just misses it as it pulls away. With no other options, he is reduced to pursuing his goal on foot. As Dropout races down sidewalks populated with multi-eyed, living mushrooms, he is pursued by a monstrous rain cloud that attempts to swallow him whole. Eventually, Dropout Bear arrives at the university and makes it to his graduation ceremony to stand before his colleagues, a variety of anthropomorphic creatures like himself. The visual story concludes with Dropout Bear being catapulted from the university into the sky on the back cover. The cover art for Graduation was cited as the fifth best album cover of the year by Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
. The designs of the album artwork were later brought to life by Murakami through the use of cel-shaded animation
Cel-shaded animation
Cel-shaded animation is a type of non-photorealistic rendering designed to make computer graphics appear to be hand-drawn. Cel-shading is often used to mimic the style of a comic book or cartoon. It is a somewhat recent addition to computer graphics, most commonly turning up in video games...
within a three-minute animated music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
for "Good Morning
Good Morning (Kanye West song)
"Good Morning" is a song by American rap artist Kanye West. It serves as the opener for his third studio album, 2007's Graduation. The song was produced by West and contains samples of "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" as sung by Elton John...
".
Release and promotion
On May 11, 2007, it was announced that the release date for Graduation was set to be September 18, 2007. Following the release of the album's lead single "Can't Tell Me NothingCan't Tell Me Nothing
"Can't Tell Me Nothing" is a song by American hip hop artist Kanye West. It was released as the lead single of his third studio album, Graduation, on May 15, 2007. The song was produced by Kanye West and DJ Toomp...
", West released a free mixtape under the same name
Can't Tell Me Nothing (mixtape)
Can't Tell Me Nothing: The Official Mixtape is a mixtape by American hip-hop artist Kanye West. It was made freely available over the internet on May 27, 2007 in anticipation of the release of his third studio album, Graduation.-Background:...
onto the internet in promotion of the album on May 27. The mixtape featured preview clips of certain songs that would later appear on Graduation and showcased various artists signed onto West's G.O.O.D. Music label as well as collaborations with other unaffiliated musicians. It also contained the debut song "Us Placers
US Placers
"Us Placers" is the debut song of Child Rebel Soldier, a supergroup consisting of rap artists Lupe Fiasco, Kanye West and Pharrell Williams. The song was produced by Lupe Fiasco and contains samples of Thom Yorke's "The Eraser". The track appears on West's Can't Tell Me Nothing mixtape and has...
", the first song made by Child Rebel Soldier
Child Rebel Soldier
Child Rebel Soldier, shortened CRS, is a hip hop supergroup composed of hip hop artists Kanye West, Lupe Fiasco, and Pharrell Williams.-History:...
, a new supergroup that West had formed with Lupe Fiasco
Lupe Fiasco
Wasalu Muhammad Jaco , better known by his stage name Lupe Fiasco , is an American rapper, record producer, and entrepreneur. As an entrepreneur, Lupe is the CEO of 1st and 15th Entertainment. He rose to fame in 2006 following the success of his critically acclaimed debut album, Lupe Fiasco's Food...
and Pharrell Williams
Pharrell Williams
Pharrell Williams , commonly known simply as Pharrell, is an American rapper, singer, record producer, composer, and fashion designer. Williams and Chad Hugo make up the record production duo The Neptunes, producing hip hop and R&B music...
. At the end of May, Island Def Jam pushed the album's release date up to an unspecified late August date, a decision West first announced on the introductory track of his Can't Tell Me Nothing
Can't Tell Me Nothing (mixtape)
Can't Tell Me Nothing: The Official Mixtape is a mixtape by American hip-hop artist Kanye West. It was made freely available over the internet on May 27, 2007 in anticipation of the release of his third studio album, Graduation.-Background:...
mixtape. On July 19, the release date of Graduation was changed once more and moved to September 11, 2007, the same US release date as New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
rapper 50 Cent
50 Cent
Curtis James Jackson III , better known by his stage name 50 Cent, is an American rapper, entrepreneur, investor, record producer, and actor. He rose to fame with the release of his albums Get Rich or Die Tryin and The Massacre . Get Rich or Die Tryin has been certified eight times platinum by...
's Curtis
Curtis (50 Cent album)
Curtis is the third studio album by American rapper 50 Cent, released September 11, 2007, on Aftermath Entertainment and Interscope Records. The album features production from Dr. Dre, Eminem, and Timbaland, among others...
. When first presented with the proposal of his label moving Graduations release date yet again as well as the idea of a sales race between him and 50 Cent, West initially expressed his indifference towards the thought, saying, "When I heard that thing about the debate, I thought that was the stupidest thing. When my album drops and 50's album drops, you're gonna get a lot of good music at the same time." However, then Def Jam president and CEO Jay-Z
Jay-Z
Shawn Corey Carter , better known by his stage name Jay-Z, is an American rapper, record producer, entrepreneur, and occasional actor. He is one of the most financially successful hip hop artists and entrepreneurs in America, having a net worth of over $450 million as of 2010...
welcomed the competition, feeling that it would be prosperous for hip hop and the date became permanent.
The album's release generated much publicity over a sales competition with 50 Cent's Curtis. Three months prior to the September 11 release date, West extended his gratitude towards 50 Cent for the enthusiasm and excitement that the friendly competition produced. Though confident that he would emerge victorious, West stated that he would be perfectly fine with losing to 50 Cent, saying that he'd rather, "be #2 on that day rather than come out and be #1 on a day nobody cares about." In an interview for USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
, 50 Cent expressed his view on the idea of a sales competition, stating "It's great marketing — for Kanye West. But I sell way more records than Kanye West, and I generate way more interest than Kanye West. They think they can match us up, but they'll find out when that week goes by and the sales come back. This is no rivalry." A month later, on August 10, 50 Cent stated during an interview with SOHH that he would end his career as a solo artist if Graduation sold more copies than Curtis in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. However, he later retracted his statement within an MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
interview due to contract agreements with Aftermath Entertainment
Aftermath Entertainment
Aftermath Entertainment is an American record label founded by Dr. Dre. It operates as a subsidiary of, and is distributed through, Universal Music Group's Interscope Records. Current acts include Dr. Dre, Eminem, 50 Cent and Slim da Mobster, with former acts including Busta Rhymes, Game, Raekwon,...
and Interscope Records
Interscope Records
Interscope Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group that currently operates as one third of UMG's Interscope-Geffen-A&M label group.-History:...
. Incidentally, West and 50 Cent later joined each other onstage to provide a surprise performance before an audience of over 20,000 people for a show held on August 22 in Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the...
during Ciara
Ciara
Ciara Princess Harris , known mononymously as Ciara, is an American singer-songwriter, dancer, actress and fashion model. Born in Austin, Texas, she traveled around the world during her childhood, only to land in Atlanta, Georgia where she met music producer, Jazze Pha...
and T.I.
T.I.
Clifford Joseph Harris, Jr. , better known by his stage name T.I., is an American rap artist, film and music producer, actor and author. He is also the founder and co-chief executive officer of Grand Hustle Records....
's Screamfest '07
Screamfest '07
Screamfest '07 is a summer concert tour headlined by American rapper T.I. and R&B singer Ciara. The tour features performances from Lloyd, T-Pain, Yung Joc, Tiffany Evans, Yung Berg and 50 Cent...
tour. On August 28, 2007, West hosted an album listening session for Graduation at New World Stages
New World Stages
New World Stages, originally Dodger Stages, is an Off-Broadway venue. The architects were Beyer, Blinder, and Belle. The theatre designers were Sachs Morgan, and the interior designer was Klara Zieglerova.It is currently home to 6 shows:* Rent...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, where he explained his influences and aspirations for the album and played songs over clips from a variety of futuristic sci-fi films
Science fiction film
Science fiction film is a film genre that uses science fiction: speculative, science-based depictions of phenomena that are not necessarily accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial life forms, alien worlds, extrasensory perception, and time travel, often along with futuristic...
, including Tron
Tron
-Film:*Tron , a franchise that began in 1982 with the Walt Disney Pictures film Tron** Tron , a 1982 science fiction film by Disney, starring Jeff Bridges, Bruce Boxleitner, Cindy Morgan, Dan Shor and David Warner...
, Akira
Akira (film)
is a 1988 Japanese animated cyberpunk science fiction film directed by Katsuhiro Otomo, written by Otomo and Izo Hashimoto, and starring the voices of Mitsuo Iwata, Nozomu Sasaki, Mami Koyama and Taro Ishida. The screenplay is based on Otomo's manga Akira....
, 2046
2046 (film)
2046 is a 2004 Hong Kong film written and directed by Wong Kar-wai. It is a loose sequel to the 1991 Hong Kong film Days of Being Wild and the 2000 Hong Kong film In the Mood for Love...
and 2001: A Space Odyssey
2001: A Space Odyssey (film)
2001: A Space Odyssey is a 1968 epic science fiction film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick, and co-written by Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, partially inspired by Clarke's short story The Sentinel...
. In a survey conducted by Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
, results displayed that an estimated 44% of readers predicted that Graduation would sell more units over 50 Cent and Kenny Chesney. Sales projections for first week scans based on early store sales reports indicated towards the 575,000–700,000 range for Graduation, while Curtis was projected in the 500,000–600,000 range.
Commercial performance
On the first day of its release, Graduation sold over 437,000 copies. The album debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
chart, grossing a total of over 957,000 copies in its first week in the United States alone. Graduation became West's second consecutive studio album to top the Billboard 200 and also debuted at number one on the album charts in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. It was within the very same week that "Stronger
Stronger (Kanye West song)
"Stronger" is a song by American hip hop artist Kanye West, released as the second single from his third studio album Graduation. It was produced by West and contains an extended outro co-produced with Mike Dean...
" topped the Billboard Hot 100, giving West his third number-one single. Upon its release, Graduation achieved the highest first week sales week for any album in 2007, topping Linkin Park
Linkin Park
Linkin Park is an American rock band from Agoura Hills, California. Formed in 1996, the band rose to international fame with their debut album, Hybrid Theory, which was certified Diamond by the RIAA in 2005 and multi-platinum in several other countries...
's Minutes to Midnight
Minutes to Midnight (album)
Minutes to Midnight is the third studio album by American rock band Linkin Park. Released on May 14, 2007, through Warner Bros. Records, the album debuted at number one in the United States and in 15 other countries, including the United Kingdom and Canada. The album was produced by Mike Shinoda...
, which sold 625,000 units. The album was also West's highest first sales week to date, surpassing the 860,000 opening week of his previous album Late Registration
Late Registration
Late Registration is the second studio album by American hip hop artist Kanye West, released August 30, 2005, on Roc-A-Fella Records. Recording sessions for the album took place over the course of a year at various recording studios located in New York City and Hollywood...
. It registered the best first-week sales totals of any record released within the last two years, with the last being West's own Late Registration. Additionally, Graduation became ranked as the fifteenth highest sales week for an album since Nielsen SoundScan
Nielsen SoundScan
Nielsen SoundScan is an information and sales tracking system created by Mike Fine and Mike Shalett. Soundscan is the official method of tracking sales of music and music video products throughout the United States and Canada...
began tracking data in 1991, as well as the highest sales week at the time of its release for an album since 50 Cent's The Massacre
The Massacre
The Massacre is the second studio album by American rapper 50 Cent, released March 3, 2005 on Aftermath Entertainment and Interscope Records in the United States. Its initially planned release was pushed five days ahead to avoid Internet leakage. The album debuted at number 1 on the U.S. Billboard...
(2005). It also set the record for the largest week of an album digitally downloaded, registering over 133, 000 paid downloads, beating Maroon 5
Maroon 5
Maroon 5 is an American pop rock band from Los Angeles, California. While they were in high school, lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Adam Levine, keyboardist Jesse Carmichael, bass guitarist Mickey Madden, and drummer Ryan Dusick formed a garage band called Kara's Flowers and released one album...
's previous set record of 102, 000 for It Won't Be Soon Before Long
It Won't Be Soon Before Long
It Won't Be Soon Before Long is Maroon 5's second studio album, released on May 22, 2007. It came almost a full five years after their debut, Songs About Jane. The name was inspired by a phrase the band adopted to keep themselves motivated while on their tour. The album debuted at number one on the...
. Graduation
Guns N' Roses
Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band, formed in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, in 1985. The band has released six studio albums, three EPs, and one live album...
conjunctively released Use Your Illusion I
Use Your Illusion I
Use Your Illusion I is the third studio album by the American rock band Guns N' Roses. It was the first of two albums released in conjunction with the Use Your Illusion Tour, the other being Use Your Illusion II. The two are thus sometimes considered a double album. In fact, in the original vinyl...
, which sold 685,000 copies, and Use Your Illusion II
Use Your Illusion II
Use Your Illusion II is the fourth studio album by the American rock band Guns N' Roses. It was one of two albums released in conjunction with the Use Your Illusion Tour, and as a result the two albums are sometimes considered a double album...
, which sold 770,000 copies. The first week sales totals of Graduation and Curtis have outsold the first week sales totals of Guns N' Roses' two albums. After years of slumping sales, the album competition between the two releases and the resulting record breaking performances both albums displayed was considered to be a "fantastic day for hip-hop."
In its second week on the Billboard 200, Graduation slid to number two with the release of Reba McEntire
Reba McEntire
Reba Nell McEntire is an American country music artist and actress. She began her career in the music industry as a high school student singing in the Kiowa High School band , on local radio shows with her siblings, and at rodeos. As a solo act, she was invited to perform at a rodeo in Oklahoma...
's Reba: Duets
Reba: Duets
Reba: Duets is the twenty fourth studio album by American country music artist, Reba McEntire. The album was released September 18, 2007 on MCA Nashville Records and September 24, 2007 on Humphead Records in the UK, and was produced by Tony Brown, Dann Huff, McEntire, and Justin Timberlake.Reba:...
, selling 226,000 copies while maintaining its dominance over Curtis, which sold 143,000. The next week, with the releases of over 40 new albums, Graduation dropped three spaces to number five and registered 133,300, reaching a cumulative total of 1.3 million copies by October 3. Selling 92,400 units, the album descended two spots the following week to reach number seven. During its fourth week on the chart, Graduation experienced a slight rebound and rose from number seven to six on October 17, selling 71,000 copies. The following week, the album began to descend once more, selling an estimated 54,000 copies and dropping three places to reach the ninth position on October 24. By year's end, Graduation was the third most-downloaded and best-selling album of 2007 on iTunes Store
ITunes Store
The iTunes Store is a software-based online digital media store operated by Apple. Opening as the iTunes Music Store on April 28, 2003, with over 200,000 items to purchase, it is, as of April 2008, the number-one music vendor in the United States...
. Graduation became West's third consecutive studio album to sell over two million units in the United States, and it was certified double platinum
RIAA certification
In the United States, the Recording Industry Association of America awards certification based on the number of albums and singles sold through retail and other ancillary markets. Other countries have similar awards...
by the Recording Industry Association of America
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...
(RIAA) on October 18, 2007. Exactly one year after the fact, as of September 12, 2008, Nielsen Soundscan reported that Graduation had grossed over 2,166,000 copies in the United States, securing its eclipse over Curtis which sold over 1,336,000 copies and had since been surpassed by Kenny Chesney
Kenny Chesney
Kenneth "Kenny" Arnold Chesney is an American country music singer and songwriter. Chesney has recorded 15 albums, 14 of which have been certified gold or higher by the RIAA. He has also produced more than 30 Top Ten singles on the U.S...
's Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates
Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates
Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates is the twelfth studio album by country music artist Kenny Chesney. It was released in the United States on September 11, 2007. The CD was leaked on the Internet on September 5, 2007, almost a week before its release....
which sold over 1,424,000 copies.
Critical response
Graduation received positive reviews from most music critics. At MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, which assigns a normalized
Standard score
In statistics, a standard score indicates how many standard deviations an observation or datum is above or below the mean. It is a dimensionless quantity derived by subtracting the population mean from an individual raw score and then dividing the difference by the population standard deviation...
rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average
Weighted mean
The weighted mean is similar to an arithmetic mean , where instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others...
score of 79, based on 32 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews." Allmusic editor Andy Kellman stated "Those who have admired Kanye as a sharp producer while detesting him as an inept MC might find the gleaming synth sprites ... to be one of the most glaring deal-breakers in hip-hop history. Though the synthesizer use marks a clear, conscious diversion from Kanye's past productions, highlights ... are deeply rooted in the Kanye of old, using nostalgia-inducing samples, elegant pianos and strings, and gospel choirs [...] He's being his shrewd, occasionally foolish, and adventurous self." Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
's Mark Pytlik complimented the accessibility of West's sonic experimentation, noting his visionary proficiency with interweaving seeminly disparate elements and bridging musical gaps. Hillary Crosley of Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
viewed it as a logical step in the musical progression that West initiated on his debut, calling it "an impressively creative hip-hop album that will hopefully inspire West's peers to try new sonic avenues." Greg Tate
Greg Tate
Greg Tate is an American author, focusing on African-American cultural theory and writing. He was acknowledged by The Source magazine as one of the 'Godfathers of Hip-hop Journalism'....
of The Village Voice
The Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...
dubbed West "the most genuinely confessional MC in hiphop today" and commented that "bouts of narcissism aside, Graduation contains killer pieces of production".
Spin
Spin (magazine)
Spin is a music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr.-History:In its early years, the magazine was noted for its broad music coverage with an emphasis on college-oriented rock music and on the ongoing emergence of hip-hop. The magazine was eclectic and bold, if sometimes haphazard...
called the album "mesmerizing and alienating, like all the purest forms of pop culture
Popular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
." Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
s Nathan Brackett complimented the continuously evolving and increasingly experimental
Experimental music
Experimental music refers, in the English-language literature, to a compositional tradition which arose in the mid-20th century, applied particularly in North America to music composed in such a way that its outcome is unforeseeable. Its most famous and influential exponent was John Cage...
, genre-bending sonancy of West's production and wrote that, "As a lyricist, West will never possess the pure cool or formal mastery of his mentor Jay-Z
Jay-Z
Shawn Corey Carter , better known by his stage name Jay-Z, is an American rapper, record producer, entrepreneur, and occasional actor. He is one of the most financially successful hip hop artists and entrepreneurs in America, having a net worth of over $450 million as of 2010...
, but he's grown as a writer [...] And given the lousy year hip-hop has had, the music needs his spazzed-out, neurotic creativity more than ever." Dorian Lynskey of The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
gave the album four out of five stars and stated "the music is never timid or conventional. Only as a lyricist does West sometimes disappoint [...] More often, though, he undercuts rap cliches with wit and ambivalence". In his consumer guide for MSN Music
MSN Music
MSN Music was a part of the MSN web services. It delivered music news, music videos, spotlights on new music, artist information, and live performances of artists. In 2004, Microsoft created an MSN Music download store to compete with Apple's iTunes Music Store, though its sales in comparison were...
, critic Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...
gave the album an A- rating and wrote that "every single track offers up its momentary pleasures—choruses that make you say yeah on songs you've already found wanting, confessional details and emotional aperçus on an album that still reduces to quality product when they're over." Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
music critic Ann Powers
Ann Powers
Ann Powers is an American writer and pop music critic.Powers has been writing about popular music and society since the early 1980s...
gave the album three-and-a-half out of four stars and interpreted the subtle, nearly undetectable dark tone of the album to be the byproduct of West enduring the inevitable psychological toil that comes with paving the way for the progression of his genre as a whole:
Dave Heaton of PopMatters
PopMatters
PopMatters is an international webzine of cultural criticism that covers many aspects of popular culture. PopMatters publishes reviews, interviews, and detailed essays on most cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, films, books, video games, comics, sports, theater,...
commented that the album is "a simpler affair than the previous two albums, less attention-grabbing. The songs aren’t as richly dressed, and he doesn’t seem to be trying as hard. He sounds less like he’s pushing to create something epic, and at that he succeeds—as good as Graduation is, it doesn’t have the larger-than-life presence of Late Registration. It’s more manageable, more everyday." NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
gave it a six out of 10 rating and wrote, "Graduation isn’t a bad album [...] But sometimes you feel hip-hop’s saviour is taking the maxim “genius steals” rather too literally." Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine is an online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York Film Festival.- History :...
's Eric Henderson wrote that "the lyrics are only transparently expressive and the hooks grab your ear on the first listen (notably bypassing your brain), your balls on the second, and your soul from there on out [...] the double-spaced sampling choices... remain basically citational, even as his production has adopted a beefy, synth-glam sheen." Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
s Neil Drumming commented that "West's vocal mediocrity wouldn't be so glaring if the production were more of a diversion [...] most of the music just seems uninspired." Stylus Magazine
Stylus Magazine
Stylus Magazine was an online music and film magazine launched in 2002. It featured long-form music journalism, four daily music reviews, movie reviews, a number of different podcasts, an MP3 blog, and a text blog....
's Jayson Greene stated "the music still overflows with West’s trademark generosity, but there are fewer moments of bloat than on the caloric Late Registration [...] In some ways, Graduation serves as a document of West’s maturation. Musically, at least, it’s the most accomplished thing he’s ever done."
Accolades
Rolling Stone placed the album at number five on its list of their Top 50 Albums of 2007." Graduation was listed at number nine on the BillboardBillboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
Critics' Poll. Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
listed Graduation as the tenth best album of the year. A year-end poll conducted by Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
cited Graduation as the best album of 2007. It was also hailed as the best album of the year by ‘’USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
’’, which wrote, “The Louis Vuitton Don may major in rap, but he liberally borrows from other music schools to create a much broader soundscape”. The album was listed as the fourth and eighteenth best record of the year by Spin magazine and Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
respectively. PopMatters
PopMatters
PopMatters is an international webzine of cultural criticism that covers many aspects of popular culture. PopMatters publishes reviews, interviews, and detailed essays on most cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, films, books, video games, comics, sports, theater,...
also listed Graduation as the fourth best album of the year." Graduation was listed at number thirty-five by The Observer on its best fifty albums of the year. The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
ranked it number fifteen on its list of "Pop CDs of the Year," writing, "Kanye West finally grew up on this album, delivering more inventive, precision-tooled hip-hop but wearing a much more furrowed brow as he explored his existential anxieties. Dark and addictive." Pitchfork Media placed Graduation at number 87 on their list of top 200 albums of the 2000s. Graduation was cited as the second best album of the entire decade by Complex magazine.
At the 50th Grammy Awards
50th Grammy Awards
The 50th Annual Grammy Awards took place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California, on February 10, 2008. Kanye West received the most nominations, with eight. Amy Winehouse was the big winner, winning a total of five awards. Herbie Hancock's River: The Joni Letters won Album of the Year,...
, West led the field with a total of eight nominations, including Album of the Year
Grammy Award for Album of the Year
The Grammy Award for Album of the Year is the most prestigious award category at the Grammys. It has been awarded since 1959 and though it was originally presented to the artist alone, the award is now presented to the artist, the producer, the engineer and/or mixer and the mastering engineer...
, Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for "Good Life
Good Life (Kanye West song)
This article is about the Kanye West song. For the OneRepublic song, see Good Life ."Good Life" is the third single from American rapper Kanye West's album Graduation. The song features R&B artist T-Pain, and uses sampled keys from the song "P.Y.T. " as performed by Michael Jackson...
", and Best Rap Song
Grammy Award for Best Rap Song
The Grammy Award for Best Rap Song was first awarded in 2004. It is a songwriting award given to all who wrote the lyrics and music of the song. Years reflect the year in which the Grammy Awards were presented, for works released in the previous year...
for "Can't Tell Me Nothing
Can't Tell Me Nothing
"Can't Tell Me Nothing" is a song by American hip hop artist Kanye West. It was released as the lead single of his third studio album, Graduation, on May 15, 2007. The song was produced by Kanye West and DJ Toomp...
". He won the Grammy awards for Best Rap Solo Performance for "Stronger
Stronger (Kanye West song)
"Stronger" is a song by American hip hop artist Kanye West, released as the second single from his third studio album Graduation. It was produced by West and contains an extended outro co-produced with Mike Dean...
", Best Rap Song for "Good Life", and finally Graduation received the award for Best Rap Album
Grammy Award for Best Rap Album
The Grammy Award for Best Rap Album is an award presented to recording artists for quality albums with rapping at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards...
. At the 34th annual American Music Awards
American Music Awards
-Conception:The AMAs were created by Dick Clark in 1973 to compete with the Grammys after the move of that year's show to Nashville, Tennessee led to CBS picking up the Grammy telecasts after its first two in 1971 and 1972 were broadcast on ABC...
, West received the awards for Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Male Artist as well as Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Album for Graduation. However, West offered the former to Lil Wayne
Lil Wayne
Dwayne Michael Carter, Jr. , better known by his stage name Lil Wayne, is an American rapper. At the age of nine, Lil Wayne joined Cash Money Records as the youngest member of the label, and half of the duo, The B.G.'z, with B.G.. In 1997, Lil Wayne joined the group Hot Boys, which also included...
, who he felt was more deserving of the award due to his musical efforts in 2008. Praising the artistry expressed by Graduation, the success of its singles, and the imagination of its accompanying international tour
Glow in the Dark Tour
The Glow in the Dark Tour is a critically acclaimed world concert tour by Kanye West featuring Rihanna, Lupe Fiasco, N.E.R.D, and Nas. It began on April 16, 2008 in Seattle, Washington and travelled to Latin America, Asia, Europe, New Zealand and Australia through to early December.The tour...
, MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
crowned West as the year's #1 Hottest MC in the Game on May 16, 2008.
Influence
U2
U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...
has asserted that touring with West on their Vertigo Tour
Vertigo Tour
The Vertigo Tour was a worldwide concert tour by the Irish rock band U2. Launched in support of the group's 2004 album How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, the band visited arenas and stadiums from 2005 through 2006. The Vertigo Tour consisted of five legs that alternated between indoor arena shows in...
had a significant effect on their own music as well in regards to No Line on the Horizon. Bono elaborated that West's rapping inspired him to utilize more percussive consonants for his songwriting and vocal performance. The album, particularly with the singles "Stronger" and "Flashing Lights", has been accredited to not only encouraging hip hop artists to incorporate house and electronica
Electronica
Electronica includes a wide range of contemporary electronic music designed for a wide range of uses, including foreground listening, some forms of dancing, and background music for other activities; however, unlike electronic dance music, it is not specifically made for dancing...
elements into their music, but also for playing a part in the revival of disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
and electro-infused music in the late 2000s. West also received praise for his ability to appeal to diverse audiences such as indie rock
Indie rock
Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...
listeners and rave
Rave music
Rave music may either refer the late 1980s genre or any genre of electronic dance music that may be played at an electronic dance party such as a rave. Very rarely, the term is used to refer to less electronic related genres glam, powerpop, psychedelic rock and dub music parties...
enthusiasts without alienating hip hop audiences.
Ben Detrick of XXL
XXL (magazine)
XXL is a Hip-Hop magazine, published by Harris Publications.In 1997, XXL was founded by former Source staffers as well as other Harris Publication employees, who wanted to create their own magazine about the hip-hop music and culture using the model developed by the founders of The Source...
cited the outcome of the sales competition with 50 Cent as being responsible for altering the direction of hip hop and paving the way for new rappers who didn't follow the hardcore
Hardcore hip hop
Hardcore hip hop, also referred to as hardcore rap, is a sub-genre of hip hop music that developed through the East Coast hip hop scene in the 1980s. Pioneered by such artists as Schoolly D, Spoonie Gee, Boogie Down Productions, and Kool G Rap, it is generally characterized by anger, aggression and...
-gangster
Gangsta rap
Gangsta Rap is a subgenre of hip hop music that evolved from hardcore hip hop and purports to reflect urban crime and the violent lifestyles of inner-city youths. Lyrics in gangsta rap have varied from accurate reflections to fictionalized accounts. Gangsta is a non-rhotic pronunciation of the word...
mold, writing, "If there was ever a watershed moment to indicate hip hop's changing direction, it may have come when 50 Cent competed with Kanye in 2007 to see whose album would claim superior sales. 50 lost handily, and it was made clear that excellent songcrafting trumped a lack of street-life experience. Kanye led a wave of new artists—Kid Cudi
Kid Cudi
Scott Ramon Seguro Mescudi , better known by his stage name Kid Cudi , sometimes stylized KiD CuDi, is an American rapper, singer and actor. He first gained major attention after the release of his debut mixtape A Kid Named Cudi. In 2009, his single "Day 'n' Nite" reached the top five of the...
, Wale
Wale (rapper)
Wale Victor Folarin , better known by his stage name Wale , is an American rapper from Washington, D.C. Wale was born to Nigerian parents. He rose to prominence in 2006, when his song "Dig Dug " became popular in his hometown. Wale became locally recognized and continued recording music for the...
, Lupe Fiasco
Lupe Fiasco
Wasalu Muhammad Jaco , better known by his stage name Lupe Fiasco , is an American rapper, record producer, and entrepreneur. As an entrepreneur, Lupe is the CEO of 1st and 15th Entertainment. He rose to fame in 2006 following the success of his critically acclaimed debut album, Lupe Fiasco's Food...
, Kidz in the Hall
Kidz in the Hall
Kidz in the Hall is an American hip hop duo from Chicago, Illinois.-History:Group members Jabari Evans and Michael Aguilar met in 2000 during a talent show at the University of Pennsylvania. They began recording songs, making demos, and performing at local shows which eventually led to Double-0...
, Drake
Drake (entertainer)
Aubrey Drake Graham , who records under the mononym Drake, is a Canadian recording artist and actor. He originally became known for playing Jimmy Brooks on the television series Degrassi: The Next Generation....
—who lacked the interest or ability to create narratives about any past gunplay or drug-dealing. Similarly, in a retrospective article, Rosie Swash of The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
viewed the album's sales competition with 50 Cent's Curtis as a historical moment in hip hop, writing that it "highlighted the diverging facets of hip-hop in the last decade; the former was gangsta rap for the noughties, while West was the thinking man's alternative.
Track listing
(*) designates co-producer(**) designates additional production
Personnel
Information taken from Graduation liner notes.| # | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Graduation |
|
|
| 1 | "Good Morning" |
|
| 2 | "Champion" |
|
| 3 | "Stronger" |
|
| 4 | "I Wonder" |
|
| 5 | "Good Life" |
|
| 6 | "Can't Tell Me Nothing" |
|
| 7 | "Barry Bonds" |
|
| 8 | "Drunk and Hot Girls" |
|
| 9 | "Flashing Lights" |
|
| 10 | "Everything I Am" |
|
| 11 | "The Glory" |
|
| 12 | "Homecoming" |
|
| 13 | "Big Brother" |
|
| 14 | "Good Night" |
|
| 15 | "Bittersweet Poetry" |
|
Charts positions
| Charts (2007) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums Chart ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June... |
2 |
| Austrian Albums Chart | 26 |
| Belgian Albums Chart Ultratop Ultratop is an organization which generates and publishes the official record charts in Belgium, and it is also the name of most of those charts... (Flanders) |
11 |
| Belgian Albums Chart Ultratop Ultratop is an organization which generates and publishes the official record charts in Belgium, and it is also the name of most of those charts... (Wallonia) |
49 |
| Canadian Albums Chart Canadian Albums Chart The Canadian Albums Chart is the official album sales chart in Canada. It is compiled every Wednesday by U.S.-based music sales tracking company Nielsen Soundscan, and published every Thursday by Jam! Canoe and Billboard, along with its sister charts the Canadian Singles Chart and the Canadian BDS... |
1 |
| Danish Albums Chart | 10 |
| Dutch Albums Chart | 11 |
| European Top 100 Albums European Top 100 Albums The European Top 100 Albums chart is the European adaptation of the Billboard 200 albums chart. It was created in March 1984.The European Top 100 Albums, commonly referred to as Eurochart Top 100 Albums shows the sales of an act in 19 European countries based on IFPI data.The European Top 100... |
3 |
| Finnish Albums Chart | 16 |
| French Albums Chart Syndicat National de l'Edition Phonographique The Syndicat national de l'édition phonographique is the inter-professional organization which protects the interests of the French record industry... |
9 |
| German Albums Chart Media Control Charts The official music charts in Germany are gathered and published by the company Media Control GfK International on behalf of Bundesverband Musikindustrie... |
10 |
| Irish Albums Chart Irish Albums Chart The Irish Albums Chart is the Irish music industry standard albums popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on its behalf by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured electronically... |
2 |
| Italian Albums Chart | 33 |
| Japanese Oricon Albums Chart Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan. It started as , which was founded by Sōkō Koike in November 1967 and became known for its music charts. Oricon Inc... |
13 |
| New Zealand Albums Chart Recording Industry Association of New Zealand The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell music in New Zealand... |
2 |
| Norwegian Albums Chart VG-lista VG-listen is a Norwegian record chart. It is weekly presented in the newspaper VG and the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation program Topp 20. It is considered the primary Norwegian record chart, charting albums and singles from countries and continent around the world. The data is collected by... |
2 |
| Portuguese Albums Chart | 30 |
| Swedish Albums Chart Sverigetopplistan Sverigetopplistan, earlier known as Topplistan and Hitlistan and other names, is since October 2007 the Swedish national record chart, based on sales data from Swedish Recording Industry Association .... |
6 |
| Swiss Albums Chart Swiss Music Charts The Swiss Music Charts are Switzerland's main music sales charts. The charts are a record of the highest-selling singles and albums in various genres in Switzerland.The Swiss Charts include:* Singles Top 75... |
3 |
| US Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
1 |
| US Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a chart published by Billboard magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The name of the chart was changed from Top R&B Albums in 1999... |
1 |
| US Billboard Top Rap Albums Top Rap Albums Top Rap Albums is a record chart published by Billboard magazine that ranks Rap and hip-hop albums based on sales compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The chart began publication for the week of November 13, 2004.... |
1 |
| UK Albums Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... |
1 |
Year-end charts
| Chart (2007) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| US Billboard 200 | 12 |
| US Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums | 4 |
| US Billboard Top Rap Albums | 2 |
| Chart (2008) | Peak position |
| US Billboard 200 | 79 |
| US Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums | 29 |
| US Billboard Top Rap Albums | 10 |
Sales and certifications
| Country | Provider | Certification | Sales |
|---|---|---|---|
| Australia Australia Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area... |
ARIA Australian Recording Industry Association The Australian Recording Industry Association is a trade group representing the Australian recording industry which was established in 1983 by six major record companies, EMI, Festival, CBS, RCA, WEA and Universal replacing the Association of Australian Record Manufacturers which was formed in 1956... |
Gold | 35,000+ |
| Canada Canada Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean... |
CRIA Canadian Recording Industry Association Music Canada is a Toronto-based, non-profit trade organization that was founded 9 April 1963 to represent the interests of companies that record, artists, manufacture, production, promotion and distribution of music in Canada... |
2x Platinum | 200,000+ |
| Ireland Ireland Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth... |
IRMA Irish Recorded Music Association Irish Recorded Music Association is the Irish record industry association. IRMA is a non-profit association set up to manage and control the music industry in the Republic of Ireland.-Goals and activities:... |
Platinum | 15,000+ |
| Japan Japan Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south... |
RIAJ Recording Industry Association of Japan The Recording Industry Association of Japan is an industry trade group composed of Japanese corporations involved the music industry... |
Gold | 100,000+ |
| New Zealand New Zealand New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga... |
RIANZ Recording Industry Association of New Zealand The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell music in New Zealand... |
Gold | 7,500+ |
| Russia Russia Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects... |
NFPP | Gold | 10,000+ |
| Switzerland Switzerland Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition.... |
IFPI | Gold | 15,000+ |
| United Kingdom United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages... |
BPI British Phonographic Industry The British Phonographic Industry is the British record industry's trade association.-Structure:Its membership comprises hundreds of music companies including all four "major" record companies , associate members such as manufacturers and distributors, and hundreds of independent music companies... |
Platinum | 300,000+ |
| United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... |
RIAA Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States... |
2x Platinum | 2,166,000 |
Release history
| Region | Date | Format | Label |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ireland Ireland Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth... |
September 7, 2007 | CD, digital download | Universal Universal Music Group Universal Music Group is an American music group, the largest of the "big four" record companies by its commanding market share and its multitude of global operations... |
| United Kingdom United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages... |
September 10, 2007 | CD Compact Disc The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,... , LP LP album The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry... , digital download Music download A music download is the transferral of music from an Internet-facing computer or website to a user's local computer. This term encompasses both legal downloads and downloads of copyright material without permission or payment... |
Mercury Mercury Records Mercury Records is a record label operating as a standalone company in the UK and as part of the Island Def Jam Motown Music Group in the US; both are subsidiaries of Universal Music Group. There is also a Mercury Records in Australia, which is a local artist and repertoire division of Universal... |
| United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... |
September 11, 2007 | CD, LP, digital download | Roc-A-Fella Roc-A-Fella Records Roc-A-Fella Records is a record label founded by Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter, Damon "Dame" Dash, and Kareem "Biggs" Burke. Today it operates as a subsidiary of Universal Music Group, and is distributed by Island Def Jam Motown Music Group.-Formation and Early Years:... |
See also
- Kanye West discographyKanye West discographyThe following is a comprehensive listing of official releases by Kanye West, an American rapper, singer, and producer. He has released five studio albums, two DVDs, and twenty-nine singles on Roc-A-Fella Records . He has also sold over 11 million albums in the United States, over 15 million worldwide...
- Kanye West production discographyKanye West production discography- Grav - Down to Earth :* 03. World Domination 1* 05. Sick Thoughts* 06. City To City * 07. Thought It Was On* 08. Line For Line * 10. Keep Movin* 12. One Puff* 13. Down To Earth...
External links
- Graduation at DiscogsDiscogsDiscogs, short for discographies, is a website and database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. The Discogs servers, currently hosted under the domain name discogs.com, are owned by Zink Media, Inc., and are...