speed of dark

Although you might not believe it, I used to be a rap fan (alt-gramma can back me up on this). I didn't listen to everything indiscriminately, but I've always liked innovative artists making interesting music, like Dr. Dre's The Chronic, Jay-Z and his mashup with Linkin Park, some Ice Cube, and a few others. I had an assortment of rap tapes, because that was the medium when I was listening to rap, although I do have two Dre CDs. While I've liked much of the music produced by these rap artists, I get tired of listening to the gangster life. I'm just a white girl from the boring parts of Southern California - Redman's Brick City and Snoop Dogg's South Central are places I just can't relate to.

However, I'm married to Mr. Rap & Classic Rock, which seems to me to be an odd combination, but there you go. I was able to get him to like a few songs that I like, but he has no use for most of what I like, referring to it all as "devil music". I like quite a bit of what he listens to, although I don't admit it often to him.

That said, I have to fess up: I own two Kanye West albums, Graduation and Late Registration, plus the two big singles from College Dropout, "Jesus Walks" and "All Falls Down". I like both albums, but I feel exactly the same about each of them. When Kanye's on, he's really on, and the songs are an amazing mesh of original and remixed beats, intelligent storytelling lyrics, and heartfelt emotion. In his music, as well as in interviews or anywhere else he happens to be, he says what he thinks without worrying about being politically correct, which I like and respect. He's obviously very smart, and it shows. But when he's off, the songs just fall flat for me and I just hit the skip button to the next song. The collaboration songs on Graduation are all good, showcasing the talents of the appearing artists as well as Kanye's talent. I would have to say that both albums are 50% showstopping, and 50% filler. Still, I prefer any Kanye album to most of the other rap albums out there.

kanye west: good morning from Graduation [buy]
kanye west: heard 'em say from Late Registration [buy]