Black Voices

Issue date: 10/12/07 Section: Entertainment

Graduation marks a pivotal moment in one's life and the title of rapper Kanye West's third album. The highly anticipated album dropped on the sixth year anniversary of Sept. 11.

West released his third album on a day everyone would remember while also competing with the release of rapper 50 Cent's album.

After a week of sales, West debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, in the United Kingdom and in Japan.

Additionally, he sold about 957,000 copies in America. The numbers showed West as a hit, but everyone did not praise his latest work.

"Here's a concept: starcissm, a pop star's mixture of self-love, self-promotion, self-absorption, and self-awareness," said Jon Pareles of the New York Times. "It's the core of Kanye West's third album."

However, everyone is not as critical as Pareles. Some students at USC seemed to enjoy the album.

"West goes beyond hip-hop and created music that is a fusion of everything," junior Alex Fragola said. "There's the raw hip- hop appeal of 'Barry Bonds,' the daft, punk sample on 'Stronger' and gospel on 'The Glory'."

"Every song is real, and has at least one message, or lyric, or metaphor, or pun that someone can relate to...white, black, Latino, etc.," said junior Christian Gangitano.

As music listeners acknowledge the unique blend of sounds on Graduation, they still favor West's older music.

"I love his album, but I don't think it's better than College Dropout," junior Alana Talbert said.

While West's ego can overpower his music, this 13-track compilation is too catchy to ignore.

Released hit singles like "Can't Tell Me Nothing" and "Stronger" have hard-hitting beats that pump the listener up and "Good Life," featuring T-Pain, provides a nice party anthem.

Surprising collaborations with John Mayer on the mellow track "Bittersweet" and Chris Martin of Coldplay on "Homecoming" merely round out West's intriguing verses, which are coupled with some hot beats.

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