August 29, 2007 @ 2:15 pm

Kanye's Graduation: No Longer a Student, Not Yet a Teacher

by: Linda Hobbs

'Ye Debuts New Record at Party in NYC

At your typical album listening party, you can expect a few things. A tiny clan of reporters huddled around a tray of chicken wings, fruit, beer, nodding their heads in mock approval. If they're lucky, the artist hangs around and guides them through the proceedings. The artist usually says something like, "I wrote this because I felt like hip hop needed it," while reporters plaster on their best smirk.

But then, that's the ordinary artist. Kanye West isn't ordinary.

At the listening party last for his September 11 release, Graduation, Kanye stood in camouflage, khaki and black on a dark stage, in a dim theater and joked, reenacted, and spilled his guts. He talked about everything from trying to get laid when he first moved to New York, to why he's been coined a "whiny ass lil bitch" in the brutal blogosphere.

"I get scared!" he gushed. "Scared" when Timbaland drops another revelatory club treat, he says. Scared when 50 dropped "I Get Money."

What he shouldn't be scared about, though, is the reception of his latest magnum opus. A crushed crowd of music journalists and rap stars - including Consequence, Q-Tip, Mister Cee, L.A. Reid, and Mos Def - were ushered into a modest-sized room inside Manhattan's National Theater.

Juice smoothies, and popcorn was provided, which those in attendance wasted no time flinging at one another as if the theater was a high school assembly, and West the valedictorian. "Good morning, look at the valedictorian," Ye's rhymes on Graduation's opening track, "Good Morning."

Below a full-sized theater screen showing silent kung fu flicks and R-rated anime, and a scroll of rose red, baby blue, and pink lights, Graduation played song-by-song, with no interruptions, no explanations. The crowd got up and danced like no one was in the room, tiny shadows below a sea of celestial harmonies and odd drum patterns.

Afterwards, Kanye stepped back onstage to roaring applause, and standing ovations. And for a second, he was no longer the "whiny ass lil bitch": he was an average guy , maybe even misunderstood, with a dry sense of humor, and palpable nervous energy, who just so happened to rhyme, just so happened to produce. He was suddenly crouched under the guise of humility.

"I appreciate you all for supporting me," he said with a toothy grin. Later, he explained himself: it's only hip hop to flaunt nut-grabbing cockiness.

Is 'Ye hanging up his ego? That remains to be seen. If anything, the swagger was definitely more subliminal - maybe because the audience consisted not of screaming fans, but critics who, after all the smoothies, still have to rate his work. But don't get too excited about the calmer Kanye.

Graduation, though not his strongest effort, features otherworldly rugged sounds like College Dropout and Late Registration put together, plus the pompous posture we all love to hate.


The following Graduation lyrics prove that Kanye is, yes, still Kanye.

From "Champion":

You don’t see how fly my style is/ I don't see why I need a stylist/ When I shop so much I could speak Italian.

"Stronger":

Bow in the presence of greatness/ Cause right now thou has forsaken us/ You should be honored by my lateness/ That I would even show up for this fake shit.

"Barry Bonds":

They say he goin' crazy and we've seen this before/ but I'm doing pretty good as far as geniuses go/ And I'm doin pretty hood in my pink polo.

"The Glory":

So yea at the Grammy's I went ultra Travolta/ But with my ego I can stand here in a Speedo/ And be looked at like a fuckin' hero.

Graduation Track List:

1. Good Morning
2. Champion
3. Stronger
4. I Wonder
5. Good Life feat. T-Pain
6. Can't Tell Me Nothing
7. Barry Bonds feat. Lil Wayne
8. Drunk and Hot Girls, feat. Mos Def
9. Flashing Lights, feat. Dwele
10. Everything I Am feat. DJ Premier
11. The Glory
12. Homecoming
13. Big Brother

Article tags: Kanye's, Graduation, No, Longer, Student, Not, Yet, Teacher 

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