Anyone who liked Diamonds, should check out the remix with Jay-Z. Hot.

Kanye has a couple of singles from the album floating around, they sound pretty good. Still, gotta wait for the official release to make any sort of judgement.

It's what the kids call "slang."

It was pushed back till Aug 30th


here is some info


goddamn, this will be a masterpiece


New Kanye West Album
posted 2005-06-28

"This is killing everything out there!" Kanye West exclaimed while listening to his own album, Late Registration. "Who can't hear that?"

And at a listening session for the album in New York on Wednesday, the answer was: No one. Even though the album isn't finished yet, even though not all of the completed songs were played and some songs weren't played all the way through, and even though the video for "Diamonds From Sierra Leone" that he was unveiling actually premiered on television during the event, a large crowd including Common and a tardy Lil' Kim packed into a tiny room at Sony Studios to hear and see what Kanye's been cooking up.

"I wanted to take this opportunity to play [the album] and show off," Kanye said unabashedly.

First he played the video, directed by Hype Williams, which opens with a shot of a diamond mine and a subtitled introduction that reads, "When I was a boy, I worked in the diamond mines deep in the dark mountains of Sierra Leone. Children worked there day and night under the watchful eyes of soldiers. Every day we feared for our lives. Our only hope came from when we would sing" then the sample from Shirley Bassey's "Diamonds Are Forever" kicks in (see " 'Diamonds' Remix: Kanye Raps About Rocks, Jay Raps About Roc").

Throughout the black-and-white clip, there are shots of Kanye walking through Prague in a wool coat, children working in the diamond mines, and skewed versions of the De Beers diamonds commercials where, after the wholesome couple agrees to get married, blood flows from the woman's ring finger (see "Kanye West Shooting 'Diamonds' Video In 'Pray-Goo' ").

Later in the video, the kids are featured underneath the display case in a jewelry shop, then a car drives into it, knocking West down outside of the store. The kids come to his rescue, and they all run into a cathedral together, where Kanye double-fists pianos for the song's finale.

At the listening session, a minimally blinged-out West said he expects to catch a lot of flack from people for having Williams behind the lens because of his flashy, all-style-no-substance videos but Kanye defended Hype by saying that it was the other people who copied his style who made it into a full-fledged trend.

After the video, West played tracks from Late Registration, including the "Diamonds" remix with Jay-Z, the second single, "Gold Digger" (which features Jamie Foxx) and "Drive Slow," featuring Paul Wall and GLC (see "Kanye, Jay-Z Give An Early Peek At West's Late Registration").

When "Crack Music" (featuring Game) started playing and Kanye thought the crowd wasn't paying close enough attention, he stopped the song and asked the listeners for their concentration. "The lyrics are very good, trust me," he said. On the track, Kanye says the government intentionally spreads AIDS and implicates Ronald Reagan in bringing down the Black Panthers.

"You can say, 'I'ma kill you n---a, I'ma kill you n---a, I'ma kill you n---a' but saying 'I'm going to dinner with a white woman' or 'Diamonds come from Sierra Leone' is way more disruptive," Kanye explained. "But I had to get it off my chest."

Then he played "Bring Me Down," which was arranged by the album's co-executive producer Jon Brion (Aimee Mann, Fiona Apple) and has a chorus sung by Brandy. West said he thought it would be interesting to have the former sweetheart say, "I always knew that one day they'd try to bring me down" (perhaps referencing Brandy's 1994 hit "I Wanna Be Down"). Brion's other string arrangement on the album is "Celebration," a straight-up party song that Kanye said he particularly enjoyed using a 20-piece orchestra for, because the hook goes, "You know what this is?/ It's a celebration, bitches."

West said he appreciated the broader palette that Brion brought to his music. "[Rap music] is so formulaic: 16 bars, chorus, 16 bars, chorus," he said. "I had just one verse. It was a mad long verse, but that's all I had to say."

After that, it was game time. The first game was peek-a-boo, where Kanye would only play a snippet of a new song because there is a guest on the track that he's not ready to reveal yet. And the second was a guessing game: West played "Heard 'Em Say" and asked everyone to guess who was on the hook.



Someone shouted out Smokey Robinson, but it actually turned out to be Adam Levine from Maroon 5. "They were so big that I thought they'd be less ill, but I heard them rehearsing backstage at the Grammys and he was hitting all them mockingbird notes and I said, I have to get him in the studio."

Kanye revealed that his third album will break him out of his underdog-themed titles and be called Graduation, then indulged in some more self-promotion. He dismissed the concept of time constraints when putting a record out: "I won't put music out unless I cold talk my sh--," he said. "I'm the [Muhammed] Ali of this sh--." Then he addressed the press directly, urging them not to be afraid to write as many nice things as they want to about him. "When you had dreams of being writers and writing about the Rolling Stones or Prince ... yes, only Kanye would put his name in that group," he laughed.

"Seriously, how many perfect albums is that under my belt? I'm sorry," he said, before adding, "Actually, no, I don't apologize."

Good lord that's a lot of ego.

Reading that article actually worried me a little; what attracted me to Kanye's first album was its exploration of topics not normally covered in mainstream hip-hop and how it approached those issues.

"All Falls Down," "Never Let Me Down," "School Spirit," "Through The Wire," "We Don't Care" and "Two Words" (among others) really sold me on West's ability to look beyond the norm, but the just-posted article has me worried he's going to spend less time working on tracks like the aforementioned and stick more to the formulaic stuff that mainstream rap gets a bad rep for.

Whatever it is, im sure it cant top College Dropout but Im positive it will be damn good

Tracklisting:

1 Wake Up Mr. West
2 Heard 'Em Say (Featuring Adam Levine of Maroon 5)
3 Touch the Sky (Featuring Lupe Fiasco)
4 Gold Digger (Featuring Jamie Foxx)
5 Skit #1
6 Drive Slow (Featuring Paul Wall & GLC)
7 My Way Home (Featuring Common)
8 Crack Music (Featuring the Game)
9 Roses
10 Bring Me Down (Featuring Brandy)
11 Addiction
12 Skit #2
13 Diamonds from Sierra Leone (Remix) [Featuring Jay-Z]
14 We Major (Featuring Nas & Really Doe)
15 Skit #3
16 Hey Mama
17 Celebration
18 Skit #4
19 Gone (Featuring Consequence & Cam'Ron)
20 Diamonds from Sierra Leone
21 Late (Hidden Track)

Too many guests. Too many skits. Let's hope it's good.

The last one had tons of guests and skits.....

Counting down the days for this one, should be good. When it leaks, I'll be happy

Well, at least he didn't think he had the right that just because he is a celebrity, that we should care what he thought of Election 2004

I am looking forward to the album, but It's getting harder and harder to listen to this guy speak in interviews. He loves himself so much I wonder if he gives himself blowjobs at night...

There's a great article on MTV.com about Jon Brion's contributions to the album. I tired of Kanye's interview persona a long time ago, but I love his music and I'm really looking forward to this album. A couple of non-single tracks have leaked (including the one with Nas) but I'm trying to deny myself the pleasure until I can listen to the album in it's entirety.

No one loves Kanye more than Kanye, but it's hard to hate the guy when he keeps dropping hit after hit. From "Diamonds" to Common's album to "Goldigger", I think the Louis Vuitton Don is responsible for like 70% of my car listening for the last 2 or 3 months and his album isn't even out yet

Hmmm, taking a quick look, it appears you should be happy tonight

Yup Daryl, got home from dinner, checked the usual places I do and was shocked to see what I saw. It has leaked, can't wait to give it a listen tonight! Impressions soon....

nvm it has leaked

Kanye West's flow is still not that great.

I know, its perfect

"Bittersweet" with John Mayer was cut from the album. Too bad, it would have been the best song on the album.

wow this album is perfect, every track polished and mature

album of the year

It premature for me to label it album of the year, but it's not at all like College Dropout. I like it a lot so far.

Funny, I think it sounds the same.

A shame that someone as talented as Kanye thinks he is couldn't step his game up [ala Jay-Z].

I liked some of Kanye's College Dropout disc (aside from the endless skits). After seeing that tracklisting there is no way I would buy this one.

REASONS: Adam Levine of Maroon 5, Lupe Fiasco (?), Paul Wall & GLC, the Game, Brandy, Nas & Really Doe, Consequence & Cam'Ron, etc....barf.

Kanye's favorite rapper of all time is Mase and he's been in a Hoobastank video. So yeah, he's great but the music he thinks is great is not.

wtf?

This album is crack. Excellent production. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Great album, every song sounds great so far.

Is that John Mayer song out somewhere, or will we never know what it could have been? Unless it's leaked somewhere, who knows how it would've sounded...

Wow. That's all i can say. Tight, tight album. Even the songs I was a tad lukewarm to at first now have me nodding my head. You may or may not like Kanye the lyricist (IMO, while he's not quite on the elite Hova/B.I.G. level, he's still better than 90% of the clowns out there). But music-wise, I'm not sure many can touch even the weakest efforts he's produced this year. "Heard 'Em Say" might be my favorite joint on the album.