Kick it

I know that I'm slow on these things, but I dig the song "American Boy" by Estelle and Kanye West. I'm a huge fan of Kanye in general, I think he's incredibly talented, has great taste in 1970s soul, and is hilarious to boot. The levels of irony circulating in his music are too tangled for me to come up with a confident interpretation. What I've got thus far is that his music is misogynist and materialistic, he makes fun of the fact that his music (and much other contemporary hip hop) is misogynist and materialistic, but yet he still makes misogynist and materialistic music. I appreciate the kind of twisted honesty in that.

I wasn't terribly impressed with Graduation. I didn't think that anything on that record--with the possible exception of "Flashing Lights"--matched up to some of the brilliant tracks on his first two albums (of which there are many, including "Jesus Walks," "Family Business," "The New Workout Plan," "Crack Music," "Heard 'Em Say," and "Roses"). But after hearing "American Boy" and last year's remix of Ne-Yo's "Because of You" that Kanye dropped an intro verse on, I'm glad that he's doing some of these mid-tempo pop tunes. They work very well for him.

Anyway, what's the name of the next album after Graduation? What would logically be next? Post-bac just doesn't have the same kind of ring to it. Maybe Entry Level Job That Barely Pays a Living Wage? Or The Professor? But that's a trope that's already played out, in my opinion. Kanye's engagement with higher education may have run its course; he needs to find a new obsession.