#117 Kanye West, 'Late Registration' (2005)

Previously #118

Two records ago, I had forgotten to mention Sly and the Family Stone’s placing being the closest to its previous placing with ‘Stand!’ Now, ‘Late Registration’ has taken its place coming in only 1 place different to its last placing. The challenge this time around has been a lot of my coming to terms with Kanye West. With each record I’ve realised that not only is he a great producer, but a great rapper. Kanye West is officially out of my bad books. The lyrics on this record explore poverty, drug trafficking, racism, healthcare and the blood diamond trade. West collaborated with film composer, Jon Brion on the production. As usual, the record is packed with samples, but most notably Curtis Mayfield’s ‘Move On Up’ on ‘Touch The Sky,’ Shirley Bassey’s ‘Diamonds Are Forever’ on ‘Diamonds From Sierra Leone’ and Ray Charles’s ‘I Got A Woman’ on ‘Gold Digger,’ which actually opens with Jamie Foxx’s Oscar-winning impersonation of Charles (side note, West got the idea when he went to see ‘Ray’ with friend, John Mayer.)

West spent over a year constructing this album; that’s really what this album is, a construction of music. He invested over $2m to it too. West is a perfectionist, known for tweaking his albums right up to the last minute. In this case, the album had to be pushed back a month as West felt it wasn’t perfect yet. The album clocks in at just over an hour with 21 tracks, but the songs are so well crafted and enjoyable that you don’t even really notice. The record sold 860k copies in its first week. It held the record for highest selling first week sales for 2 years when it was knocked off its perch by the follow up, ‘Gradutation.’ It won the Grammy for Best Rap Album and to date has sold over 4 million copies.

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