Graduation (album)

Untitled

Graduation will be the third major label album release from Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam hip hop artist-producer Kanye West. Due for release September 11, 2007.

History

On August 5, 2006 at San Diego's Street Scene and on August 20, 2006 at Indiana's State Fair, West performed a cappella two verses which he said are from songs on the album .West also performed a couple of verses from an unnamed song from the album during his September 3, 2006 performance at the Bumbershoot festival in Seattle. In introducing the verses, West said that he was working on the album, but that it would not be out anytime soon.

On January 16 2007 West announced of his upcoming album:

"I can say, idea-wise, I got 10 ideas. I go back and work on ideas and tweak them. I can’t say I’m halfway done. There’s a lot of people I want to work with, a lot of rappers. But I don’t want to give away what I’mma do. I look at music as a gift. So I’mma just keep everything under wraps until it’s time.” said Ye, “You remember, you didn’t find out about the Nas joint (We Major) until real late? I waited till the last listening session a couple of weeks before the album came out. I played it in a room with 300 people and Nas’ voice hit the track and it was like, ‘Ah, man.’ Another surprise might be there might not be anybody on it. There are a few rappers I really love and I would love to work with, but I’mma figure out what I’mma do for my album."

On May 11, 2007 Kanye West's mother, Donda West, announced to MTV that Graduation will be released September 18, 2007. Donda also mentioned that Graduation is Kanye's best album ever-musically as well as lyrically. Despite previous reports stating the albums release. It's been reported that Graduation will be released on September 11, 2007. Kanye also mentioned during the video shoot for Common's new single "The Game" that he and Hype Williams have just shot 2 videos for 2 songs from Graduation.

Recently, West has stated on his Malaysia tour that he is finishing up Graduation, and it will be released in late August. “I just want people to know that it’s going to be crazy. I don’t want people to read the entire plot of the movie and then go see it and go ‘oh, he’s about to do this,’ you know?" He then added, "I’m all about surprises; I want people to feel it and experience it without having any preconceived notion. That’s just not my style..." "I’m finishing up the new album right now." In an article published April 20, 2007, DJ Toomp told Yo! Raps Magazine that he produced three tracks for "Graduation".

On June 26, 2007, The video of West's second single, Stronger, was premiered on MTV Germany, during the daily Total Request Live show. Then on June 28, 2007, the video premiered on MTV in the United States.

Kanye performed a live version of "Stronger" to over 63,000 music fans, and a global television audience in 140 countries worldwide, when he performed a seven minute set during a concert remembering Princess Diana at Wembley Stadium in London on July 1 2007

Confirmed Tracks

Title	Songwriters	Producer(s)	Featured	Samples
"Can't Tell Me Nothing"	Kanye West	Kanye West and DJ Toomp		Contains samples from "I Got Money" as performed by Young Jeezy
"Stronger"	Kanye West Thomas Bangalter Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo	Kanye West, Jon Brion	Daft Punk	Contains samples from "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" as performed by Daft Punk
"Homecoming"	Kanye West Chris Martin	Kanye West	Chris Martin	N/A
"Good Life"	Kanye West	Kanye West, Jon Brion, DJ Toomp	T-Pain	Contains samples from "P.Y.T." as performed by Michael Jackson
"Everything I Am"	Kanye West	Kanye West		N/A
"I Wonder"	Kanye West	Kanye West		N/A
"Good Night"	Kanye West	Kanye West	Mos Def	N/A
"Good Morning (Intro)"	Kanye West	Kanye West		N/A
"Drunk Hot Girls"	Kanye West	Kanye West		N/A
"Here We Go Again"	Kanye West	Kanye West		N/A

External links

• KanyeWest.com - Official Site
• http://www.kanyetalk.com/graduation