It’s euphoric and sad at the same time, and it’s also proof-positive that Kanye feels the same way about Jay that the rest of us do. But I like it even better when Kanye lets up on the chest-puffed ambition and lets us know what he knows he’ll never become. ![]() There’s a bit on “The Glory” where Kanye talks about himself in a similar torrent of images: “The glory, the story, the chain, the Polo / The night, the grind, the empty bottles of No-Doz,” and it’s great. And this one moment near the end where Kanye just lets loose with this iconic stuff humanizes all the shit-talk that came before it on this song. “Big Brother” is my favorite song on Graduation by far by taking the focus off Kanye and putting it on someone who Kanye wants to emulate but knows he can never equal, it humanizes all the shit-talking that came before it. And what comes out is a disconnected parade of images, delivered in an awe-choked hush: “A idol in my eyes, god of the game / Heart of the city, Roc-A-Fella chain / Never be the same, never be another / Number-one Young Hov, also my big brother.” It’s the lyrical equivalent of Kanye cutting out magazine pictures of Jay and glue-sticking them to the front of his Trapper Keeper. The music fades back on Kanye’s conflicted and occasionally passive-aggressive tribute to Jay-Z so he can half-eloquently, half-intuitively say why exactly he and the rest of us care about Jay in the first place. Kanye’s absolutely not a great rapper, but he’s great at piecing together these insidious little musical scraps that work their way into your bloodstream without necessarily letting you understand what’s happening. Piecing this together, what really strikes me is that all these moments are tactile musical things, not punchlines or lyrical epiphanies. And for whatever reason, I’m doing it right now for Graduation. I could’ve written entries about my ten favorite moments on Return of the Mac or Underground Kingz, two albums I like at least as much as Graduation, but for whatever reason I never did. Graduation isn’t even my favorite rap album of the year, but something about it keeps drawing me back in. ![]() Still, I don’t regret the purchase one iota, though I’d be hard-pressed to justify why exactly. As far as I can tell, I bought the album so I could participate in the PR-driven bragging-rights cold-war between two self-aggrandizing millionaire asshole Universal Music Group employees, which probably isn’t a smart use of my money when my wedding is less than a month away and I need to hold onto every penny. And there’s no golden ticket in the CD packaging, just a poster-sized version of the album’s garish, ugly cover-art and a booklet full of credit-information that I probably could’ve found on Wikipedia anyway. I’ve already downloaded the thing twice, in its clean and unclean forms. ![]() I’m not entirely sure why I felt compelled to drop $9.99 plus tax on Graduation at Best Buy this morning.
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