Late Registration
| Kanye West
Late Registration
Late Registration is the second studio album by American hip hop producer and rapper Kanye West. It was recorded over the course of a year in sessions held across studios in New York City and Hollywood, with West collaborating with American record producer and composer Jon Brion. The album features guest contributions from Adam Levine, Lupe Fiasco, Jamie Foxx, Common, Jay-Z, Brandy, and Nas, among others. Its production was notably more lush and elaborate than West's 2004 debut album The College Dropout, as he utilized intricate sampling methods and string orchestration with Brion. West's lyrics explore both personal and political themes, including poverty, drug trafficking, racism, healthcare, and the blood diamond trade. -Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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Pitchfork
The producer-rapper follows his Pazz and Jop-winning debut The College Dropout with a collaboration with Jon Brion; together they transform West's chattering, seemingly unrealistic ideas into an expansive, imperfect masterpiece.
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Rolling Stone
He aims for what he calls “that Coldplay, Portishead, Fiona Apple style” in his mad quest to explode every cliche about hip-hop identity. Can he get it done? Yes, he can.
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NME
Seemingly sidestepping any sign of “second album syndrome”, rap’s self-proclaimed Louis Vuitton Don returns with a record that not only lives up to his debut but possibly surpasses it.
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The Guardian
West announced the album's arrival in typically retiring style: "It's killing everything out there ... I'm carrying the whole of hip-hop." On hearing Late Registration, that sounds less like rampant egomania than a bald statement of fact.
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Genius
Kanye returned to the studio with a multi-platinum album under his belt and a new found fan base at his back. He emerged with Late Registration, an album that can only be described as anything but a sophomore slump.
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The A.V. Club
A true perfectionist, West has set the bar so high for himself that even falling a little short of it, as he does here, still qualifies as a triumph.
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Spin
No artist in any genre has ever argued so assiduously for his place in the canon, and perhaps no artist has been more oddly equipped for the position.
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Sputnik
Late Registration easily met its high expectations. While it considered to be least innovative album when compared to West’s other efforts, it’s still an amazing album that saved Mr. West from the dreaded sophomore slump.
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Stereogum
Late Registration is a carefully constructed sprawl, skipping across styles and moods but always sounding of a piece.
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Tiny Mixtapes
Late Registration is still a pretty good, albeit flawed, album, and it's still great to have someone as exciting as Kanye making pop music today.
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BBC
This is a thought provoking album. Whether it becomes a classic or not, only time will tell, but as the man himself says, 'everybody feel a way about K, but at least y'all feel something'.
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Consequence of Sound
Following his chart-topping debut The College Dropout, the ever ambitious rapper-producer embarked on an entirely different direction by collaborating with film composer Jon Brion and utilizing styles and sounds not usually affiliated with hip-hop.
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Hip Hop DX
From a technical and musical standpoint this is definitely stronger than his debut, but what is that worth when you just can’t feel it? Don’t get me wrong, it is still a really good album…it just isn’t a really great one.
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DJ Booth
Late Registration is the logical succession to College Dropout. It’s masterfully put together, but not mindblowing, the natural next step, the episode right before the series finale.
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Focus Hip Hop
He pretty much did exactly what you would expect and want him to do after The College Dropout. This was a good way to follow it up. It has some of his best verses and singles.
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All Music
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.
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Slant
Late Registration’s salvation (and, undoubtedly, Kanye’s own) are when it basks in the sunshine after the rain.
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The Early Registration
However, instead of falling victim to the sophomore album curse, Kanye delivered and put out another near perfect album.
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Drowned in Sound
Two years ago it seemed that Kanye West would change the face of mainstream hip-hop; now it seems that hip-hop has changed Kanye, and it's a change for the worse.
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Pop Matters
Gorgeously textured and musically ambitious, this album is a testament to West's top-of-the-game production skills, but as an MC he's still got a few lessons to learn.
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Odyssey
Despite Kanye's recent appearance in the public eye, this album is one reason to keep looking forward to his music.
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Paste
No Time To Slump: West’s sophomore album is leaner, meaner—and sweeter—than his debut.
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Prefix
Late Registration is neither the classic Kanye West would have you believe nor the disappointment detractors desperately wanted.
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The Young Folks
The experimentation on his second project is unlike anything we’ve seen before in hip hop. If The College Dropout was Kanye’s grand introduction, then Late Registration was a masterpiece that shook the musical community to its core.
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What Women Want
Throughout, “Late Registration’s” sheer depth of musicality is what’s most impressive. Dark and eerie at times, uplifting in others – tracks like “Touch The Sky” and “Celebration” come to mind – the album finds Kanye at once madly in love with hip-hop music, and fighting with it like a lover scorned – trying to push it’s boundaries, to see how far it will go
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Uncut
Late Registration’s core of mixed emotion clusters around four songs that deal with themes of worldly wealth versus gold-of-the-spirit.
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Chicago Tribune
He has taken a few licks in the process, but the hits on "Late Registration" far outnumber the misses.
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RTE
Late Registration' boasts all the confidence of its protagonist, a slick, polished celebration of decades of American black music, packaged to appeal to both street kids and apartment-dwelling yuppies.
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Beat
While its not quite as great as its predecessor, Late Registration is a win for Kanye. He avoids the sophomore slump easily.
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Altrap
I guarantee that if you buy this, or already have, that you won’t listen to this more than half a dozen times.
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Contact Music
Is this as good as his first album well to be honest the jury is still out, it's good but I think the debut album was a part of hip hop history because of it's originality.
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IGN
Late Registration, while still pretty damn compelling, can't help but fall a little short from a perfect mark.
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The Rambler News
Overall, this is one of the greatest and most electrifying full length albums released in hip-hop and music history, setting trends and providing hit songs that live to this day.
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Indie London
Late Registration is a glorious return from one of hip-hop’s premier performers that really does rate as one of the year’s outstanding releases.
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