Late Registration

1	Wake Up Mr. West 0:41
2	Heard 'Em Say 3:23
3	Touch the Sky / Lupe Fiasco 3:57
4	Gold Digger 3:28
5	[Untitled Track] 0:33
6	Drive Slow / GLC 4:32
7	My Way Home 1:43
8	Crack Music / The Game 4:31
9	Roses 4:05
10	Bring Me Down 3:18
11	Addiction 4:27
12	[Untitled Track] 0:31
13	Diamonds from Sierra Leone Remix 3:53
14	We Major / Really Doe 7:28
15	[Untitled Track] 0:24
16	Hey Mama 5:05
17	Celebration 3:18
18	[Untitled Track] 1:18
19	Gone / Consequence 6:02
20	Diamonds from Sierra Leone Bonus Track 3:58
21	Late 3:50

Barnes & Noble

Surpassing the simultaneously spiritual and comical material on his Grammy-winning debut, The College Dropout, might've seemed like an impossible feat. But that's exactly what rapper and producer Kanye West does with Late Registration. On his sophomore follow-up, West ups the ante with co-production from film composer and Fiona Apple producer Jon Brion, who helps the cocky MC inject his instrumentals with a sense of grandeur, thanks to a vast array of instruments atypical of Jay-Z-cosigned concoctions. Wistful xylophones and saxophones anchor the Nas-assisted anthem of empowerment "We Major," lending the track a jazzy feel that's further evident on the melancholy "Addiction." Equally adept at body-rockers, West invites Jamie Foxx to revisit his Ray Charles impersonation on "Gold Digger," while an enthusiastic 20-piece orchestra gets the party started on "Celebration." Although production remains West's forte, his rhyme skills and storytelling have noticeably improved. He displays surprising social insight on "Crack Music" ("Crack raised the murder rate in D.C. and Maryland / We invested in that / It's like we got Merrill Lynched"), but Kanye saves his strongest lyrics for the Otis Redding–sampled "Gone," ending the cut with a verse heavy in signature self-assurance: "I'm-a open up a store for aspiring MCs / Won't sell them a dream, but the inspiration is free." Late Registration cements West's superstar stature and justifies his arrogance. Amid a sea of mainstream hip-hop mediocrity, the thoughtful and entertaining Late Registration arrives right on time. Matt Barone

All Music Guide

And then, in a flash, Kanye was everywhere, transformed from respected producer to big-name producer/MC, throwing a fit at the American Music Awards, performing "Jesus Walks" at the Grammys, wearing his diamond-studded Jesus piece, appearing on the cover of Time, running his mouth 24/7. One thing that remains unchanged is Kanye's hunger, even though his head has swollen to the point where it could be separated from his body, shot into space, and considered a planet. Raised middle class, Kanye didn't have to hustle his way out of poverty, the number one key to credibility for many hip-hop fans, whether it comes to rapper turned rapping label presidents or suburban teens. And now that he has proved himself in another way, through his stratospheric success -- which also won him a gaggle of haters as passionate as his followers -- he doesn't want to be seen as a novelty whose ambitions have been fulfilled. On Late Registration, he finds himself backed into a corner, albeit as king of the mountain. It's a paradox, which is exactly what he thrives on. His follow-up to The College Dropout isn't likely to change the minds of the resistant. As an MC, Kanye remains limited, with all-too-familiar flows that weren't exceptional to begin with (you could place a number of these rhymes over College Dropout beats). He uses the same lyrical strategies as well. Take lead single "Diamonds from Sierra Leone," in which he switches from boastful to rueful; more importantly, the conflict felt in owning blood diamonds will be lost on those who couldn't afford one with years of combined income. Even so, he can be tremendous as a pure writer, whether digging up uncovered topics (as on "Diamonds") or spinning a clever line ("Before anybody wanted K. West's beats, me and my girl split the buffet at KFC"). The production approach, however, is rather different from the debut. Crude beats and drastically tempo-shifted samples are replaced with a more traditionally musical touch from Jon Brion (Fiona Apple, Aimee Mann), who co-produces with West on most of the tracks. (Ironically, the Just Blaze-helmed "Touch the Sky" tops everything laid down by the pair, despite its heavy reliance on Curtis Mayfield's "Move on Up.") West and Brion are a good, if unlikely, match. Brion's string arrangements and brass flecks add a new dimension to West's beats without overshadowing them, and the results are neither too adventurous nor too conservative. While KRS-One was the first to proclaim, "I am hip-hop", Kanye West might as well be the first MC to boldly state, "I am pop." Andy Kellman