Late Registration musically and lyrically conveys a sense of striving for greatness. 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. The songs aren’t as richly dressed, and he doesn’t seem to be trying as hard. But it is also a simpler affair than the previous two albums, less attention-grabbing. Graduation will certainly yield its fair share of hits, and deserves to. When he calls himself a “top 5 MC”, he’s not just bragging: he’s hoping that’s how he’ll be remembered. Consider these tracks in light of West’s lyrical references to “golden era” hip-hop anthems and MCs, and you get the sense that he’s pushing for a legacy as a pop-star and as a true-school MC.
And “Everything I Am” is a humble masterpiece, with a nice piano-and-beats set-up, plus mesmerizing scratching from the immortal DJ Premier. The letter to Jay-Z (both a celebration and a bitterness-fueled kiss-off) “Big Brother” has a classic hip-hop storytelling framework, with West rhyming in a more raw style than usual. And there’s a timeless hip-hop feeling to a couple of the songs, in more of a spare, down-to-basics way than anything on the last album. The whole of Graduation might not sound big and brassy like the last album, but tracks like “The Good Life”, “The Glory” and “Champion” do. And he demonstrates the same knack for pop-music gold. Evident throughout are subtle details that you won’t notice during the first few listens: the lurking crowd noise in “Homecoming”, the odd ping-pong-like sound in “Good Life”. The music is mostly just as layered as last time, and that’s a pleasure. The album doesn’t represent another major leap forward musically, though West has streamlined the sound in some ways, scaling back on the excess, and diversified it in others.
That style is the starting place for Graduation. It was the overblown pomp of The College Dropout’s “Two Words” blown up even bigger, but also refined into something almost sophisticated. Though West did gain confidence on the mic, and seemingly spent more time crafting the lyrics, the progression was mainly a musical one: while The College Dropout rolled with the striking tweaked-soul style that West had already used to drive Jay-Z to hits, Late Registration evolved it into grand, layered pop music, with strings and horns and other shiny accoutrements. Then again, education was suggested already by the musical progression between the first album The College Dropout and the second, Late Registration. Like its two predecessors, Kanye West’s third album Graduation has little to do with the education system, despite its title.