PopSyndicate.com

50 Cent may have lost the battle in album sells but he won the war on artistic merit.  Where Kanye does shine is his ability to bring pop music to the rap genre and still make it feel like he’s crafting a CD for more than just 7th-graders.  50 Cent brings a hard edge to Curtis; for Kanye, it is all bubble gum pop and flash.  Just comparing the first releases off the two discs, you can tell the two artists are catering to different audiences.  The disco friendly sounds of Kanye is all about the flash and spectacle where Fifty feels like he’s still trying to keep his street cred despite just banking around $400 million off of a bottle water company that sold to Coca-Cola.

No rap album would be complete these days if it didn’t have a who’s who of guest artist on it.  Kanye is no exception.  He brings along T-Pain, Lil Wayne and Mos Def among others.  It’s a blessing to have these artists on the disc.  They add some much needed weight to the CD even if the songs they’re on are crap.  Kanye is a really good producer.  He can mix a song like no other.  Where he fails is on the writing front.  For me rap should be about being able to relate to the artist in some way.  It’s hard for the average person to relate to getting into exclusive clubs, wearing women like clothes and drinking champagne all the time.  Each track painfully slides into more and more shallow material.  By the time you reach “Drunk and Hot Girls” halfway through the disc, songs like “Champion” and “Stronger” seem almost deep by comparison.  The brief interlude by Mos Def pulls you out of the monotony of “Hot Girls” but by then it’s too late.  The damage is done.  The next five songs do little to improve the situation.

Graduation starts out as a fun dance-friendly release that radios will be playing non-stop for the next year.  “Good Morning”, “Champion”, “Stronger” and “Good Life” give the CD a good start.  Then things take turn for the worse and you’ll struggle to get through next eight tracks.  Only the piano-based song “Homecoming” offers something remotely enjoyable.  Of course he’s rapping about how rough his life with fireworks on Lake Michigan and that you can’t go home again.  You go Kanye.  You tell them how rough it is after eleven songs about living the highlife, let us know that you grew up tough.

By the time you reach “Big Brother”, provided you’re still listening, you’ll be glad this mess is over.  Plodding and tiresome, Graduation is going to flash quickly, make Kanye a lot of money and then be quickly forgotten.  He’ll never advance to the levels of rap greatness until he can put aside the Paris Hilton-esque need to be in the spotlight and actually create something with meaning and soul.  But I guess when you’re making millions off of turning out crap, who cares if your work has any meaning.

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