Kanye West – Late Registration (2005)

Kanye West – Late Registration

A sample can be a powerful thing, in hip-hop especially, a well-placed sample can be crucial to the success of a track. Often they are the driving cultural force that links young music listeners to the older generation and often the sampling of a track can be so successful that they can eclipse the source. Early in Late Registration, Kanye West contributes one of the 2000’s best rap songs “Touch the Sky,” a track whose prominent sample, Curtis Mayfield’s “Move On Up,” is all but ubiquitous. It turns out to be Kanye’s first moment of unrivaled genius; he is able to interpolate the famous horns from that 1970 soul classic into his track and completely transform them. Now, there is no way I’m going to make the claim that “Touch the Sky” is better than “Move On Up” (they’re both stellar) but I will make the claim that after hearing “Touch the Sky” it is impossible to hear “Move on Up” the same way again, and that is just about the greatest compliment you could give a sample. Most of the samples here don’t work at that high a level, with the exception of maybe “Gold Digger,” and that’s a good thing, because it would get pretty distracting. West knows better and is able to mix those groundbreaking and transformative instances within an album of samples that meld more seamlessly within their given song. The reason why I’m harping on this is because it was a crucial part to Kanye’s new sound. It may be hard to imagine, but at one point Kanye’s first album The College Dropout was his only  album, and on its release Kanye’s habit of using manipulated soul samples spread like wildfire among the hip-hop community. Once it was time for West to record Late Registration he was ready try something new. He hooked himself up with composer Jon Brion who added string arrangements throughout the album to help counteract the many samples. This along with the more eclectic selection of guest musicians led to a lush and vibrant soundscape that better held Kanye’s tracks together. 
Late Registration does feel more substantial as well, despite being shorter than College Dropout. This could be due to the album beginning with three colossal tracks in a row, “Heard ‘Em Say,” “Touch the Sky” and “Gold Digger”, all of which have a claim for being Kanye’s crowning achievement. These songs are so daunting back to back that Kanye knew he had to follow their sequencing with a skit. The album never really lets up from there and it never devolves into the typical overlong hip-hop album, the kind that simply throws everything at the wall to see what sticks, but this album simply would not be the same with an omission of any track, they all feel necessary. The songs here are bright, and catchy, each one concert worthy and unique (excluding the two “Diamonds of Sierra Leone”).  Even the darkest moments provide levity and clarity. On “Crack Music,” the subject matter as well as West and the Game’s delivery are so dark and murky it is only the harmonized backing vocals that keep this track in the daylight. Late Registration is a once in a lifetime album, and Kanye’s first time having one of those. It flexed the constraints of what a hip-hop album could be in the bling era, but more than all of that, it was a success, and paved the way for the experimentation to come in both Kanye’s career and music in general.

~10