“Gold Digger” is incredibly large, especially with the amount of production used on Jamie Foxx’s vocal, which is necessary as his vocal provides the main layer of music behind Kanye’s rapping. However, most of this pop influence also comes from Kanye’s ever so slight and sometimes effective ability to over-produce stuff. “Bring Me Down” features a catchy R&B-inspired hook from Brandy, while horns and pianos create for a dramatic epic. “Heard ‘Em Say” starts things off in this fashion, with light hopeful piano samples skimming the track as Adam Levine croons us an upbeat hook. To start out this review, I am here to give you an obvious contrast between College Dropout and Late Registration as a whole, Late Registration is a hell of a lot more pop-oriented, and though this could have been seen as a start to the decline that Kanye went through, it makes for a catchier and overall better release. Late Registration is not only an amazing record, but an album that helped me get into music as a whole, and I will always respect it as such.

Still, out of nostalgia, I look back at both of these releases and find myself enjoying every single minute of it. Sadly, neither of these releases will ever be re-created by Kanye or anyone else, so they’re all that’s left from the days when Kanye actually could have been considered the genius that Mr. 808s is an all right album, and even the dreaded Graduation had a few decent songs, but none of those songs would ever reach the height set by Late Registration and its predecessor College Dropout, both albums being considered near classics by not only the hip hop community, but by the mainstream as a whole. But just as things stemmed from Late Registration, things also closed down and shipped out, mainly Kanye’s quality control. It sealed Kanye West as a hit maker of a generation, a celebrity, and gave Kanye the heads up that he had not in fact gone through a sophomore slump. Late Registration is a beginning and an ending for Kanye West’s career. Review Summary: Late Registration is Kanye West at his very best, with a wide variety of soulful, emotionally inspired beats and charming, at times self-indulgent lyrics.

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