Tag Archives: late registration

#714: Kanye West – Late

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Coming in right at the end of Late Registration is the album’s (almost) title track ‘Late’. Back in 2005 when the CD was the way to listen to new music, you would have no clue that the song was on the album until you popped the disc into your computer due to it not being mentioned on the album art. So after the single version of ‘Diamonds from Sierra Leone’ finishes – or ‘We Can Make It Better’ for people from the UK – a sudden rush of violins and other instruments of the like fill your ears to introduce this hidden track.

Featuring Kanye’s then iconic sampling method of taking soul classics and making them high pitched, he takes the track ‘I’ll Erase Away Your Pain’ by the Whatnauts and manipulates it in a way to make the listener think it’s singing “I’ll be late for that” when it’s actually saying “I’ll erase away”. That sample makes up the rhythmic backbone of the tune, repeating its climbing bassline and high-pitched wailing throughout. Kanye delivers his verses with a very smooth and laidback delivery, almost like it’s freestyle that he’s just saying from the top of his head, he straight up says he doesn’t have a line he can think of at one point during the song.

‘Late’ is one of my favourite songs from the album. For something that’s almost like a throwaway on the album, it includes some of the college-theme metaphors and referential humour that was an essential characteristic of the mid-2000s Kanye. Could vibe to it all day.

My iPod #499: Kanye West ft. Adam Levine – Heard ’em Say

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“Uh, yeah” are the first ‘words’ we hear uttered by Kanye West on his second album Late Registration, after being ‘woken’ up by the pissed off teacher in the preceding opening skit. And after repeating those words three more times against a booming bass drum, Kanye proceeds to go straight into the first verse in which (and for the rest of the song) he raps about the blunt realities and truths of life alongside a dainty piano sample taken from ballad “Someone That I Used to Love” by Natalie Cole.

I don’t whether to feel happy or sad when listening to this. The soft and smooth instrumentation, from the sweet synthesizers and swooning keyboards are a huge contrast from the confident, joyous curb-stomper opener of “We Don’t Care” – a song released only under two years before. And the falsetto provided by Adam Levine in the choruses doesn’t help but pull on your heartstrings that bit more.

Probably one of the quietest and heartwarming productions Kanye has committed to tape, it is such a pleasant way to get an album such as Late Registration started. Then “Touch the Sky” starts, and then it all seems like it’s back to normal.

Here’s another version of a video you can see.

My iPod #451: Kanye West ft. Jamie Foxx – Gold Digger

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With “All Day” circulating the Internet in its official form and the forthcoming album So Help Me God over the horizon, it seems like 2015 is gonna be another busy year for Kanye West. “All Day” is hot fire. Gets me pumped hearing it. Looking forward to the album too. But today’s song comes the rapper’s second studio album Late Registration, released ten years ago this coming August. What the hell.

I remember hearing “Gold Digger” for the very first time. And this isn’t me just saying it, this is something I can vividly recall. Coming back from London Heathrow after the holiday to Belgium, the ‘premiere of Kanye West’s brand new song’ was the main subject on Radio 1. It played. I didn’t think much of it. I was ten, I wasn’t really focusing on it that much I just wanted to get home. My sister, on the other hand, loved it. She was ecstatic. What excited her more was when the music video (as can be seen above) was eventually played on MTV Base weeks later. Those were good times. She then went to Woolworths to buy Late Registration due to boredom when a power cut occurred in our local area. Life went on from there.

“Gold Digger” is one of Kanye’s most popular songs, though you won’t see him performing it anytime soon. He’s very serious about work at the moment. More so than usual. If you haven’t heard the track I dunno where you’ve been in this life. Unless you were born five years ago or something.

Memorable lines are spat, Jamie Foxx imitates Ray Charles, the song is filled with the humourous wit he displayed in his first two albums. Overall, it’s just catchy and funky as anything. Honestly, I don’t know what else to say.

Well, it may have lost its touch due to being replayed immensely over the years. But you still can’t deny its greatness.

My iPod #171: Kanye West – Celebration

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While we all wonder on what Kanye was thinking when he was about to shoot the video for “Bound 2”, it seems quite fitting that today’s song is one of his most underrated from arguably his second best album.

“Celebration” from “Late Registration” is a track where Mr. West actually sounds like he is having fun, and not trying to prove a point about how awesome he is, or how people should gaze and bow at his presence whenever he walks into a room. He may not rap about that last part explicitly, but he might as well do.

No, “Celebration” is a good ol’ mid-noughties hip-hop track about appreciating the good times we share with one another. It actually shows us that Kanye could be funny too; the line where he tells his ‘child’ that he was a mistake because he didn’t use protection, but then saves it by calling it his ‘favourite accident’? That’s priceless.

My iPod #9: Kanye West – Addiction

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You may not have thought that this would happen due to the types of songs that I have blogged about already…. and because of the fact that he can be quite the douchebag.

But you have to admit, that douchebag can make some good hits. Mhm mhm.

‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’ may be the people’s favourite of his work; for me ‘Late Registration’ and ‘The College Dropout’ remind me of those good times when he wasn’t that egotistical, and when I liked music that played on the radio and Top of the Pops.

That was only 5 or 6 years ago, so what the fuck happened?! I barely like anything that’s in the charts now.

My sister got Late Registration around the time that it had been recently released. She really liked ‘Gold Digger’, so she went to Woolworths and got it one day.

I didn’t like hip hop so much when I was ten. All of my albums that I actually owned were mostly indie stuff, and Green Day was the band that I was really into then. American Idiot was the shit, man. Especially when I was ten.

‘We Major‘ and ‘Drive Slow‘ aren‘t on my iPod, but my sister would blast those songs out of the computer speakers endlessly. The singles, ‘Diamonds from Sierra Leone‘, ‘Gold Digger’, ‘Touch the Sky‘ and ‘Heard ‘em Say’, I had obviously already seen or heard.

It was when I started my YouTube channel that I really paid to all of the songs on Late Registration. Hardly any of the songs by Kanye West were on the site, (this was back in 2008), so I took it upon myself to upload the album onto the site.

‘Addiction’ is about well…….. what do you think?

“Why everything that’s s’pose to be bad, make me feel so gooood?
Everything they told me not to is exactly what I woooould.
I tried to stop, man, I tried the best I could but yoooooou (make me smiiiiiiiiiiile)”

That‘s another thing too. It‘s got a great sample. Kanye is known for a lot of sampling. A lot. And this is one out of a million that works really well. And sampling can go baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad.

Until next time.

Jamie. 

P.S. Don’t be afraid to share with friends on Facebook, Twitter, or any other social network. I will love you if you do. Need more recognition for no money whatsoever.