“Bow to the presence of greatness….There’s a thousand of you’s, [but] there’s only ONE OF ME….I’m trippin I’m caught up in the moment right?….”, Kanye West – “Stronger” .

I can’t lie. I’m still bumping LATE REGISTRATION. For the uninformed that’s Kanye West’s 2nd album STUPID!!!!!! A HIPHOP F&^%$# CLASSIC B@$&^!!! For the uninformed that album was PURE GENIUS. Ironically for Kanye’s 3rd album, GRADUATION, that word genius is not only being thrown around by fans as it pertains to Kanye, but that word is used quite often by Kanye lately to refer to HIMSELF when he thinks about himself in 3rd person. Now Benz0 has to ask himself – how the f&^% does someone have the AUDACITY to refer to himself in 3rd person? Well Benz0 has no idea (LOL). But guess what? Benz0 LOVES arrogance, conceitedness, vainglorious-ness, etc.. etc… Why? Cause confidence is to SECRET TO LIFE baby.

Furthermore, hiphop FROM DAY ONE has been all about braggadocio. I mean peep 50’s hit “I Get Money”. The chorus is “I GET MONEY!!!!!” that was sampled by an old school Audio Two song from the 1980’s. Rap has always been about “I’m f&^$#@ better than you” and it will always will be. Hiphop is the RAWEST form of art on Planet Earth. It’s what interests non-black folks to buy the majority of rap. White kids from the suburbs of USA or kids from remote Philippine islands like Cebu appreciate that braggadocio and that “I’m better than you” hardcore attitude. So is it a wonder that Kanye’s incessant bragging is appealing to most? Now Kanye is far from hardcore.

One just needs to peep him and Pharell side by side to see that Kanye weighs about 140 pounds soaking wet – meaning that Kanye probably can’t even beat up his fiancé (Sorry to hear you’re getting married Kanye…Get that pre-nup ready dawg..). But at the same time Kanye is loved because he’s that ubiquitous “bullied kid” we all knew growing up that all of a sudden now has the power to beat up the bully. The guy who got picked on at school because of his small stature and weird name is now on top!! But for Benz0 it all started when Kanye turned into an activist for about 10 minutes when he uttered these words after the U.S. government waited like 2 years to send help to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina: “GEORGE BUSH HATES BLACK PEOPLE”. As I said in my last review on Kanye, “NO ONE STICKS UP FOR BLACK PEOPLE ANYMORE!!!” cause it’s not in vogue (At least folks recently marched to support the Jena kids on trial though) The haters hoped it would hurt his album sales of LATE REGISTRATION but instead he sold 3 million albums after his activist statements. Now in 2007 Kanye makes things interesting again with his feigned campaign against 50 Cent in which Kanye PURPOSELY pushed his album to September 11th to take on the might mighty 50 Cent who was releasing on the same day. Well technically Kanye pushed his album to September 11th BECAUSE OF THE MTV AWARDS. His marketing team (Jay-Z and co.) thought it would be smart to use an appearance on the MTV awards to jumpstart his album. A brilliant idea despite 2007 being one of the sorriest MTV award shows ever due to performances by a fat Brittany Spears and ill-fated attempts to broadcast live Kanye and 50 cent parties going on in other parts of the Palms hotel in which the awards were hosted in. But doing the MTV awards was brilliant simply due to the national attention the nation gave to Kanye and 50 as they both squared off on stage to present an award as if they were about to get weighed in for a boxing match. This whole “who can outsell who?” hype earned them the cover of Rolling Stones after all and a much hyped duel on BET’s 106 & Park. Now ask anyone. I predicted Kanye would outsell 50 by a landslide.

Not only due to Economics 101 in which 50 was already oversaturated marketwise but for other logical reasons. First off. Kanye had NEVER sold anywhere near as much as 50 so there is room to grow and Kanye’s style is so unique that he was CONSTANTLY winning new fans while 50 had 30 million fans already as soon as he teamed up with Eminem and Dre so the most 50 can do is go backwards cause he started at the top. #2 – Benz0 recently relocated to Boston and one day driving in his Tony Soprano ESV Escalade he made the mistake of riding through the “let out” of a popular Boston club district. I swear I was just trying to get to IHOP but unfortunately I was bumping Kanye’s “Stronger” song and I got SURROUNDED BY WHITE PEOPLE DANGLING BURNING CROSSES!!!! I thought this was the end. I figured all my black friends who warned me about Boston’s racist past were gonna be telling me “I TOLD YOU SO N&^%a!!!”. I remained calm though cause I’m Benz0 and to my surprise what I thought were burning crosses were actually “iced” out platinum crosses bling blinging in the street lights and the white people wearing them were CELEBRATING with me and surrounding my truck just to dance!!!!

All because I was bumping Kanye’s “Stronger”!!!!! Right then and there I knew there was no way in hell 50 would outsell Kanye. Seriously. America LOVES Kanye!!! So it’s no surprise that in 2007 Kanye sold about 1,000,000 albums in the first week while 50 only sold less than 700,000. But that’s neither here nor there cause 50 will go down as the richest rapper in hiphop history. 50 will even tell you “I even gotta rap no more’. So it was fun to see who outsold who in 2007 but let’s not lose focus here. What we need to focus on is that LATE REGISTRATION was a classic and a lot of my boys are telling me GRADUATION is a classic too. But the reason y’all read Benz0’s column is that you know I’m not easily impressed. Like 50, I’m already paid so I write for the hell of it unlike your favorite journalists who depend on writing for their income and whom are susceptible to persuasion by their bosses who get payoffs from artists and worry about image. So perfect setting for Benz0 to weigh in on this “Is Kanye a Genius” and “Is GRADUATION a classic” argument.

The answer to the first question is YES – KANYE WEST IS A F^%$#@! GENIUS. But the question of “is GRADUATION a classic” is a whole other story. The way Benz0 sees it, LATE REGISTRATION WAS A F$#@!&* CLASSIC. Thus I’m compelled to compare this album to that. The no-brainer comparison starts with this album’s SMASH singles compared to Kanye’s 2nd album’s SMASH singles. Contestant Number one please enter…..Here we have “Diamonds From Sierra Leone” going up against “Stronger”. “Stronger” is the ULTIMATE club banger that samples the techno group DAFT PUNK in order to create a euphoric STADIUM banger feel that words cannot really describe. It’s this song that totally caught Benz0 off guard and had him contemplating Kanye’s genius. Yes this song is a sample but what rapper samples DAFT PUNK??? Plus that “You know how long I’ve been on ya?…Since OJ Had Isotoners (gloves)” chorus was incredibly clever. But compared to “Diamonds From Sierra Leone”? Diamond’s wins HANDS DOWN dude. NO contest. Banger #2 we got “Gold Digger” going up against “Can’t Tell Me Nothin”. The latter snuck up on Benz0 from no where!!! I’m a busy man so I rarely have the time for videos but the hiphop heads from Montreal, Quebec like Hoodah kept calling me and hyping up “Can’t Tell Me Nothin”. I finally peeped it thoroughly and had to procure it along with “Stronger”. Then soon after I’m stopping at a light and these two country Boston dudes were bumpin’ the same two Kanye songs I was bumpin’!! Another indication that Kanye just got the imagination of the public right now. BUT!!!!! “Can’t Tell me Nothin” is no “Gold Digger”. ADVANTAGE LATE REGISTRATIION in this category.

Now the thing about Kanye is he’s like Eminem. He doesn’t cry Gang Affiliated and he doesn’t claim T-H-U-G. So you never know what to expect. He can rap about anything!!! But all too often I find myself asking “Yo, is this mellow Kanye track hot or just soft?”. So on the 2nd album you had numerous mellow songs where I had to give it two to five listens to figure out what was going on. Those songs were “Celebration”, “Late” (bonus song), “Hey Mama”, “Roses”, and “Heard Em Say”. I ended up liking ALL those songs which is why LATE REGISTRATION is a f&^%)(@# classic! Fast-forward to 2007 and the mellow tracks on Kanye’s GRADUATION are the following: “Champion”, “Good Life”, “Everything I Am”, “The Glory”, Big Brother and “Homecoming”.

So I gave each song that honest Benz0 shake and when I shook the tree branch only these songs came out OK – “Champion”, “Everything I Am”, Big Brother and “Homecoming”. “Everything I Am” is cool as hell because Kanye addresses the wackness of just saying KILLING is cool and “all good”. Peep the positive lyrics – “People talk so much s^%$ at the barbershop, they forget to get their hair cut, but can I talk this??….Just last year Chicago had 600 caskets….Man, Killing is some WACK S^%$…Oh I forgot,…unless N$^%&z is Rappin, Do you know how it feels when n*&^%z is passing?…EVERYTHING I’M NOT MADE ME EVERYTHING THAT I AM….”. Now that’s tight!! “Big Brother” was interesting as Kanye talks about his long climb to the top and how Jay-Z constantly put Kanye’s rap career on hold in favor of “slam dunks” like Beanie Siegel. It’s an inspirational song as Kanye mentions his love for Jay-Z by saying how his inspiration was really Jay-Z and not himself (As Kanye had previously stated when he accepted his Grammy Award). But question? WHY THE F$%^ didn’t he have Jay-Z appear on the song? Do you know how EPIC that would have been? “Champion” also had to grow on me but is also inspirational as Kanye mentions his visit to a school that inspired kids to believe they were worth something. I like the song just for that message alone!! Only other song out of this mellow group that stands out for me is “Homecoming” cause I like the reminiscing about Chicago (Benz0’s current and former playground). Still can’t really listen to “Good Life” or “The Glory”. Advantage LATE REGISTRATION by a landslide in this department. On LATE REGISTRATION Kanye’s mellow songs were like soulful orchestra performances. This time around the mellow songs of GRADUATION are more mortal and sample dependent.

Of course every high profile album has the high profile collaborations too. On LATE REGISTRATION Kanye dropped a hydrogen bomb on the competition with super high profile collabs with Cam’Ron, Nas, Jay-Z, and Common. All of those songs are hiphop classics. On GRADUATION however those super collabs are pretty much non existent. The one collab with Lil Wayne on “Barry Bonds” I thought would be super hot reading the credits but sadly it has failed to move me in any way. It’s a shame because Lil Wayne is about to stake his own claim as one of the greatest rappers to ever live but I just wasn’t feeling his lyrics on “Barry Bonds”. I’ve heard Lil Wayne do so much more damage on other songs. ADVANTAGE LATE REGISTRATION by another landslide..An avalanche even.

Now we come to the payoff!!!!! It’s time to discuss why Kanye has the potential to be the greatest rapper to ever live. As a big time music producer AND a surprisingly superb rapper, Kanye has an advantage over EVERY other great rapper who has ever lived. He can perfectly align superb musical tracks of his own creation to match his own intense lyrical visions. This means yearly Kanye comes out with songs that can only be described as MIND BLOWING. On the 2nd album it was, “Addiction”, “Bring Me Down” (featuring Brandy), “Crack Music” (ONE OF MY FAVORITE HIPHOP SONGS OF ALL TIME!!!) and “Touch the Sky”. On Kanye’s 3rd album it’s songs like, “Good Morning”, “I Wonder” (a masterpiece…Jay-Z and I both agree), “Drunk’n Hot Girls”, and “Flashing Lights” that are the defining moments of Kanye’s newest album. “I Wonder” is a rare beauty that has Kanye mixing soulful choruses with a hardcore beat that would make Mobb Deep jealous. TRUE F&^%$#@ GENIUS. Then from out of no where “Drunk’n Hot Girls” comes at ya and knocks you on your backside due to it’s conceptual genius. On top of that Mos Def surprises us when in the middle of the track he starts singing and raising the track to another level. There is no other rapper alive that can put together such a great song. Right after “Drunk’n Hot Girls” comes the amazing “Flashing Lights” that is a surreal musical sojourn into soulful genius. Once again a song like this is a song that only Kanye West can construct. Everything about this song is perfect. It not only bumps in the ride but you don’t even notice the singing cause it flows so good it’s like part of the beat. “Good Morning” may get overlooked cause it feels like just an intro song but it’s much much more. More classic Kanye. Kanye should have had a real intro and separated this song from track #1 so it could stand on it’s own. TIE SCORE ON THIS CATEGORY.

So yeah Kanye has proved his point. HE’S A F&^%$#@ genius and as I mentioned his background as a super producer and his unique honest style that everyone can relate to has put him in position to not only change the face of rap like no one before him but to truly become the greatest rap artist to EVER LIVE. As far as this album though it’s far from a classic despite the FACT that “Stronger”, “Can’t Tell Me Nothin’”, “I Wonder”, “Drunk’n Hot Girls” and “Flashing Lights” will be the best songs that will be made in 2007. It’s these songs that give me faith that eventually Kanye is going to put together another “STRONGER, BETTER, FASTER” LATE REGISTRATION type album that will become the greatest rap album ever made. But GRADUATION is not that album. This album lacks that agitated edge of LATE REGISTRATION. On LATE REGISTRATION we found Kanye blaming the government for AIDS, hating the fact that rich guys like Magic Johnson can beat AIDS but the poor members of his family can’t, pointing out how Reagan pushed crack into the black neighborhoods on purpose and he was WAY more raunchy when it came to the mack talk.

This album GRADUATION was really more of a short celebration event for Kanye as he basks in the glow of his new found top rap position. I think he purposely didn’t invite Jay-Z on the album cause he wanted this album to be about KANYE. Note how he only had a measly THIRTEEN tracks on the album which is short for a top artist in the twenty-first century. Now having said all that, THIS ALBUM IS WORTH PICKING UP!!! Just the 5 songs mentioned in this paragraph alone make the album a MUST HAVE. But we have to let Kanye know that right now people are looking at him to be the next hiphop savior cause his past work indicates he has that potential. Job well done on some of the incredible songs on this album but I WANT MORE!!! I want more of that CRACK MUSIC. The best of Kanye is yet to come but this album will do just fine for now.

Benz0
Contact Benz0: BenzWritings@Hotmail.com

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