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Graduation (album)

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Untitled

Graduation is the third studio album by hip hop artist Kanye West, released on September 11 2007. The title of the album follows the college theme of Kanye West's previous two albums, The College Dropout and Late Registration. The album artwork was designed by Takashi Murakami. The album won three Grammy Awards, including Best Rap Album. West thereby joins rapper Eminem as the only artists to have each of their first three albums win this award.

Background

In July 2007, kanye West changed the face of the earth by date of Graduation from September 18 2007, to September 11 2007, the same release date as 50 Cent's Curtis.[1]50 Cent said he would discontinue his career as a solo rapper if Graduation sales more copies than Curtis. However, he later retracted his comments as Kanye's Graduation clearly outsold 50 Cent's album.[2]

Graduation topped the Canadian, UK, United World Chart, and US album charts; however Curtis debuted at number one on the Irish and Swiss album charts, claiming the top spot on the Billboard European Top 100 Albums chart.[3]

Graduation's first week sales of 957,000 and Curtis's first week sales of 691,000 marked only the second time ever (since Nielsen SoundScan began collecting data in 1991) that two albums sold more than 600,000 in a week in the United States. The first occurrence of such an event was in 1991 when Guns N' Roses released Use Your Illusion I, which sold 685,000 copies, and Use Your Illusion II, which sold 770,000 copies. The first week sales totals of Graduation and Curtis have outsold the first week sales totals of Guns N' Roses' two albums.[4]

Sales

Graduation sold approximately 957,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release, becoming the highest sales week for an album in 2007 (topping Linkin Park's Minutes to Midnight, which sold 625,000) as well as West's highest sales week to date, topping his 860,000 opening week of his previous album Late Registration. In addition, it became the 15th highest sales week for an album since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking data in 1991, and the highest sales week for an album since 50 Cent's The Massacre opened with 1.1 million in March 2005.[4]

Graduation debuted at number one on the United World Chart, selling approximately 1,153,000 copies worldwide.[5] As of January 15 2008 , Graduation was certified 2× Platinum by RIAA.[6]

Reception

Graduation received generally favorable reviews from music critics.[7] Rolling Stone said that "none of the beats clobber you as immediately as "Jesus Walks" or "Gold Digger," but most of them improve on every listen: This is an album that you first like, then love." Rolling Stone also wrote that, "as a lyricist, West will never possess the pure cool or formal mastery of his mentor Jay-Z, but he's grown as a writer. (See the off-kilter, dreamlike "I Wonder".) And given the lousy year hip-hop has had, the music needs his spazzed-out, neurotic crea-tivity more than ever. As for the rest of you rappers: Try harder."[8] Entertainment Weekly noted that "West's vocal mediocrity wouldn't be so glaring if the production were more of a diversion. There are no truly tragic compositions on Graduation—though the droning "Drunk and Hot Girls" could have been half as irritating at twice the speed—but most of the music just seems uninspired."[9] The Chicago Tribune gave the album a favorable review, claiming that "West is at his best".[10] This album was #5 on Rolling Stone's list of the Top 50 Albums of 2007.[11] Kanye also received a rating of XL from the hip-hop magazine XXL, which rated his first two albums with a classic rating of XXL. Graduation has also won a Grammy Award for Best Rap Album 2008.

Track listing

# Title Songwriter(s) Producer(s) Featured guest(s) Sample(s) Length
1 "Good Morning" Kanye West, Bernie Taupin & Elton John Kanye West 3:15
2 "Champion" Kanye West, Donald Fagen & Walter Becker Kanye West & Brian "Allday" Miller 2:47
3 "Stronger" Kanye West, Edwin Birdsong, Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo[12] & Thomas Bangalter[12] Kanye West (additional programming by Timbaland) 5:11
4 "I Wonder" Kanye West & Labi Siffre Kanye West Labi Siffre
  • Contains a sample from "My Song" as performed by Labi Siffre
  • Contains drum samples from "Ambitionz Az a Ridah" as performed by 2-Pac
  • Contains lyrics from Jin's "I Got a Love" as performed by Kanye West
 4:03
5 "Good Life" Kanye West, Aldrin Davis, Faheem Najm, James Ingram, Quincy Jones Kanye West & DJ Toomp, additional production by Mike Dean (additional drum programming by Timbaland) T-Pain 3:27
6 "Can't Tell Me Nothing" Kanye West & Aldrin Davis Kanye West & DJ Toomp 4:31
7 "Barry Bonds" Kanye West, Dominick Lamb, James Griggs, Felix Pappalardi, John Ventura, Leslie Weinstein & Norman Landsberg Nottz, co-produced by Kanye West Lil Wayne
  • Contains a sample from "Long Red" as performed by Mountain
 3:24
8 "Drunk and Hot Girls" Kanye West, H. Schuering, Irmin Schmidt, Jaki Liebezeit, Kenji Suzuki & Michael Karoli Kanye West, additional production by Jon Brion Mos Def
  • Contains elements from "Sing Swan Song" as performed by Can
  • Contains additional vocals by Tanya Herron
 5:13
9 "Flashing Lights" Kanye West & Eric Hudson Kanye West & Eric Hudson Dwele 3:57
10 "Everything I Am" Kanye West, Carlton Ridenhour, Eric Sadler, George Clinton, Hank Shocklee & Prince Phillip Mitchell Kanye West
  • Contains elements from "If We Can't Be Lovers" by Prince Phillip Mitchell
  • Contains elements from "Bring the Noise" by Public Enemy
  • Contains additional vocals by Tony "Penafire" Williams
 3:47
11 "The Glory" Kanye West, Dante Smith, Felix Pappalardi, John Ventura, Laura Nyro, Leslie Weinstein & Norman Landsberg Kanye West, co-produced by Gee Robertson & Patrick "Plain Pat" Reynolds
  • Contains elements from "Save the Country" by Laura Nyro
  • Contains a sample from "Long Red" by Mountain
  • Contains background vocals by Jalil Williams, Jehireh Williams, John Legend & Mos Def
  • Contains lyrics from "Award Tour" by A Tribe Called Quest
 3:32
12 "Homecoming" Kanye West, Chris Martin & Warryn Campbell Kanye West & Warryn Campbell Chris Martin 3:23
13 "Big Brother" Kanye West & Aldrin Davis DJ Toomp 4:47
* "Good Night" (iTunes/Australian/Japan/UK bonus track) Kanye West, A. Daniels, J. Miller, A. Reid, E. Beckford & W. Maragh Kanye West, Jason T. Miller, Albert "Al Be Back" Daniels Al Be Back & Mos Def
  • Contains elements of "Omaha Stylee" by 311
  • Contains elements of "Wake The Town" by U-Roy
  • Contains elements of "Nuff Man A Dead" by Supercat
 3:06
* "Bittersweet Poetry" (Australian/iTunes/Japan pre-order bonus track) Kanye West & John Mayer Kanye West John Mayer 4:10

An asterisk (*) indicates a bonus track.

Charts

Charts (2007)[13][14][15][16] Peak
position
Australian Albums Chart 1
Austrian Albums Chart 1
Belgian Albums Chart 1
Billboard European Top 100 Albums 1
Canadian Albums Chart 1
Danish Albums Charts 10
Dutch Albums Chart 11
Finnish Albums Chart 16
French Albums Chart 9
German Albums Chart 10
Irish Albums Chart 2
Italian Albums Chart 33
Japanese Albums Chart 13
New Zealand Albums Chart 2
Norwegian Albums Chart 2
Swedish Albums Chart 6
Swiss Albums Chart 3
UK Albums Chart 1
United World Chart 1
US Billboard 200 1

References

  1. ^ Jokesta (July 19 2007). Kanye Competes with 50, Album Pushed st 9] 2007). 50 Cent: Outsell Kanye or Stop Trying. Def Sounds. Accessed August 11 2007.
  2. ^ Jayson Rodriguez, with reporting by Tim Kash (August 15 2007). 50 Cent Explains Last Week's Blowup, Says 'I Will Be #1 on September 11'. MTV. Accessed August 15 2007.
  3. ^ European Top 100 Albums – Curtis. Billboard. Accessed September 30 2007.
  4. ^ a b Geoff Mayfield (September 18 2007). Kanye Crushes 50 Cent in Huge Album Sales Week. Billboard. Accessed September 19 2007.
  5. ^ United World Chart – Albums – week 39 / 2007 - September 29. Media Traffic. Accessed October 11 2007.
  6. ^ Searchable Database. RIAA. Accessed October 25 2007.
  7. ^ Kanye West: Graduation (2007): Reviews. Metacritic. Accessed October 1 2007.
  8. ^ Nathan Brackett (September 4 2007). Kanye West – Graduation Review. Rolling Stone. Accessed September 6 2007.
  9. ^ Neil Drumming (September 7 2007). Music Review – Graduation. Entertainment Weekly. Accessed September 8 2007.
  10. ^ Greg Kot (August 31 2007). 'Graduation' day arrives: Kanye West exploits his growing pains. Chicago Tribune. Accessed October 1 2007.
  11. ^ ROBERT CHRISTGAU, DAVID FRICKE, CHRISTIAN HOARD, ROB SHEFFIELD (December 17, 2007). "The Top 50 Albums of 2007" Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2007-12-20
  12. ^ a b In the album's liner notes, Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo is misspelled as "G. De Homen-Christo" and Thomas Bangalter is misspelled as "T. Banghalter".
  13. ^ Kanye West – Graduation. aCharts. Accessed September 29 2007.
  14. ^ European Top 100 Albums – Graduation. Billboard. Accessed October 7 2007.
  15. ^ Albums : Top 100 – 16 September, 2007 (for the Week Ending 20 September, 2007). Canoe – Jam! Music. Accessed September 21 2007.
  16. ^ Japanese Albums Chart. Oricon Style. Accessed September 23 2007.


Preceded by Billboard 200 number-one album
September 29 2007 – October 5 2007 		Succeeded by
Preceded by United World Chart number-one album
September 29 2007 		Succeeded by


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