Soundbite

Kanye West “Late Registration”
Roc-a-Fella

Success is difficult to measure, but there’s a compelling
argument for rapper and producer Kanye West as the most successful
musician of last year. His debut, “The College
Dropout,” was that rare record that won over fans (3 million
copies sold), peers (a leading 10 Grammy nominations) and critics
(the top spot in The Village Voice’s national critics poll)
in equally dominant fashion. If pop music were professional
wrestling, West would be walking around right now wearing a belt as
big as a tire. So how does one follow this kind of success? Play
everything safe, goes conventional wisdom. Industry rules suggest
you don’t mess with formula ““ in this case, the mix of
now-ubiquitous sped-up soul samples and hand-clap snares that
caught ears and rattled car windows a year ago. Don’t do
anything crazy like hire composer and multi-instrumentalist Jon
Brion ““ best known for film scores and work with Fiona Apple
(and who’s never touched a rap song in his life) ““ as
co-producer. There are certainly more palatable ways of drawing
attention than confronting a radio station on air for censoring the
words “white girl” from your single, or standing up for
gays in a musical genre as homophobic as the NFL. In the name of
mass appeal, don’t record a chorus that sneers
“That’s that crack music, nigga / That real black
music, nigga.” And where did the chipmunk voices go? With his
sophomore follow-up, “Late Registration,” West is doing
everything the wrong way, and the results are a success by almost
any measure. Though not as immediately grabbing as its single-laden
predecessor, this newest effort finds West scrapping his
still-popular but painfully worn-out sound (only in hip-hop can a
sound be beaten to death within a year) for some new tricks and
some well-earned staying power. Like him or not ““ and many
hip-hop heads have tired of the media onslaught ““ West shows
why he’s not going anywhere soon. Not that everything’s
changed ““ Kanye’s imprint is still unmistakable. His
pop and R&B sensibilities are such that the music constantly
walks the tightrope between great pop and pure cheese ““
thankfully, he only falls off the edge once, on the irredeemable
Brandy collaboration “Bring Me Down.” The skits are
also unfortunately back, and as bad as ever. The rest of the
tracks, at least, feature interesting production touches. But the
album truly takes off when Kanye pushes himself out of his comfort
zone. The gangsta-leaning “Drive Slow” flips the same
Hank Crawford sample as 2Pac’s “Shorty Wanna Be a
Thug.” Brion is refreshingly allowed to cut loose with his
idiosyncratic flourishes on the health-care diatribe
“Roses,” the Nas collaboration “We Major”
and the album’s high point, the Otis Redding sampling,
string-heavy “Gone.” The Kanye West juggernaut is
already in full swing ““ the cover of Time, perfect scores
from fawning mainstream critics, massive radio airplay ““ and
while we’ll be sick of half of these songs by Thanksgiving,
the largely inspired “Late Registration” illustrates
that, in this case, success comes with good reason. ““
Alfred Lee