Curtis Apparently Skipped Graduation

Ed's Note: I've listened to both Curtis and Graduation thoroughly. These reviews are what I think of the albums themselves, as well as today's showdown and the artists.

Kanye West is a square peg that somehow fits into the circular hole that is hip hop. With his first release, he brought Miri Ben Ari on the scene for several tracks. With his second, he decided one violinist wasn't enough, and brought in an entire string ensemble and Jon Brion to bring about a sound not found on the hip hop scene.

With Graduation, Mr. "By His self he so impressed" has made the defiant fit once again. Graduation's tracks have so much depth, many sounding like they belong in a motion picture and not a rap album. Stronger sounds like it should be playing in a techno club (and it is right now somewhere), not rocking a hip hop set.

But it does that, too, and does it well. And that's just the beginning.

Twelve of the 13 tracks are cuts that would wound the ego of the finest machete. They're real. They're diverse. Some, like Can't Tell Me Nothing," hit hard. Others, see "Flashing Lights," breathe on a chord so chill its hard to believe its the same album.

Yet it works, and works well.

And then there are the lyrics and the honesty.

Lines like "Two years Dwayne Wayne, became Dwayne Wade, and Ay" 'Ye rhymes on The Glory.

Kanye smashes himself for his lavender tux, he says he wishes Lauryn Hill's heart was still in rhyming and not in Zion and "Big Brother," the most lyrically potent and honest song on the album.

There is some depth missing to the content. There's no socially conscious track like "All Falls Down" or "Crack Music." And that alone means this album is not on par with The College Dropout or even Late Registration.

But when you listen to the music, you realize Kanye has commenced to a level never before seen in hip hop, a level where squares fit in round holes with relative ease.

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50 Cent's first album is a classic rap album. Probably in the Top 10 all time of hip hop albums. There are tracks on that album that would make BIG and Pac jealous like Patiently Waiting or Many Men.

You could hear the hunger in 50 lyrics as though he hadn't eaten in weeks. You felt his struggle.

On The Massacre and Curtis, which drops today, 50 sounds like a man who's feating on Filet Mignon and Mahi Mahi daily. There are a few tracks that go hard, "Ayo Technology," which features Justin Timberlake tops the list followed by "I Get Money."

Few, if any, of the other beats thump and move you, and the lyrics sound like they belong on the mixtape of an amateur, not an artist three albums deep.

It makes you wonder what's left for a man to rap about who has everything and has no struggle. What's left for a man who has to manually create his own struggle? Not much.

Make you think it's time for 50 to take his Vitamin Water money and crawl in a music-less hole until he finds some more inspiration. He says the title of his next album is Before I Self Destruct.

I think it's happening an album early, Curtis. But he is laughing straight to the bank with his Vitamin Water money.
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Finally, I'm buying Kanye's album. Had 50's sounded better, I would have purchased it. Can't say the same about Kenny Chesney.