Late Registration by Kanye West
Happy Black history month to all who celebrate and remember all the trials and accomplishments of a race that the government has acknowledged that they have wronged. It is my hope that someday other races will be acknowledged, though I find it sad it even had to be a thing. Sorry for the short tangent.
Seeing as we are in the month of remembering and looking back at accomplishments, I will review what I would refer to as "Old Kanye". Don't get me wrong, Kanye may have some good songs still but I prefer his older stuff. West released Late Registration in 2005, and listening to it this month brought back nostalgia especially the song Gold Digger. Who can blame me?
Late Registration uses a mix of instruments and tempos to create some amazing songs throughout the album and keeps it interesting. There is a plethora of songs that are still listenable today. The play with the tempos and his lyrics kept the songs interesting and relatable.
In my opinion the most stand out lyric that Kanye had was in his song 'Hey Mama', when the Chicago-native says:
"My mama told me go to school, get your doctorate
Somethin to fall back on, you could profit with
But still supported me when I did the opposite
That quote alone keeps to the overall theme of the album: it's not about what you should've done, but what you can do. It fits with the title: late registration. Means that chances are that you got into school or whatever you were planning to enroll in, but that it took you a little longer to get there. Sometimes you have that support - Kanye had his mom - and sometimes you don't, you just need to make it there.
Overall I would rank this album as 7.5/10. I really appreciated the feelings of nostalgia and the political songs which were laced into the album but sometimes I found it too slow at points. However, it still stands the test of time.