2. Late Registration (2005)
Standout Tracks: “Heard ‘Em Say”, “Touch The Sky”, “Drive Slow”, “Gone”, “Diamonds From Sierra Leone”, “Late”, “Hey Mama”, “Addiction”, “Roses”, “Crack Music”, “We Major”, “Gold Digger”
My personal favorite of all of Kanye’s albums, Late Registration. Usually coming off of such a huge commercial and critical success, like The College Dropout was, fans and critics alike will begin to generate from their mouths the term “Sophomore Slump” which refers to an album following up a debut and not meeting the same terms of it’s highly critically acclaimed predecessor. This was not the case with this album. Late Registration was Kanye bringing a much grander production style coming off his debut and it was all very unique at the time with the use of strings, making this album sound almost like a high quality live performance backed up by a beautiful orchestra composed by John Williams himself.
Let’s not forget the hilarious skits spoken to us by DeRay Davis (Barbershop, 21 Jump Street, Johnson Family Vacation). This album also comes with a list of well-done features from artist such as Jay Z, Nas, Jamie Foxx, Adam Levine, Lupe Fiasco, Common, Consequence and more. Basically all that can be said about this album is that it was beautifully crafted, capturing the essence of Kanye’s personality and talents, proving further that he is much more than a producer and even more than a rapper. He’s an artist. I would recommend any Hip-Hop fan to check this out if you already haven’t for some reason.