How Kanye West’s Late Registration Changed Music Forever

Kanye West is one of my idols. Though he is a bit of a character, his music inspires me every day. But by far, the super underrated album, Late Registration was easily my favorite.

But before we talk about the album, let’s talk a bit about Kanye and what people hate about him. Not to be the devil’s advocate but a few of the things he did are very justifiable. First, the most notable event, when he stole the microphone out of Taylor Swift’s hand during her Grammy acceptance speech and said that he thought Beyonce should have won, not her. Then the camera panned to Beyonce while she was “shocked” by what just happened. Yes, it was the wrong thing to do and the is not justifiable. She was giving a speech saying “thank you” to her fans as she was proudly accepting a big award. Second, when TMZ came outside his garage and he punched the cameraman. That was messed up but not on Kanye’s part. Photographers were sitting outside his door at 3 am. Their car on his driveway woke him up in the middle of the night so he went outside to see why TMZ was randomly on his driveway. Instead of apologizing for trespassing and waking his up, their shined lights in his face and took photos of him in his pajamas. Of course, he put down the cameraman; he didn’t want photos of his when he looked terrible in the middle of the night. There were a few more but if you are still reading this, you probably heard of them by now.

Now let’s talk about Late Registration. So Kanye is already a sampling g-d. All of his songs involve classic blues songs which Kanye did things such as pitch, chop up, and drums, and more. But this was his second studio album. College Dropout was first and that was my favorite album he ever made; it was also his first. But a few songs such as “School Spirit,” “We Don’t Care,” and even “Jesus Walks,” felt a big too sampled. What I mean by that is the songs were just or at least sounded like, they were purely stolen. Of course, he did spend a lot of time to make them his own however they didn’t sound like it enough. But Late Registration was different. First of all, it was a longer album meaning that there were more songs and that already makes it better in some ways. But mainly the songs just sounded better. So in honor of the 16th anniversary of the album, let’s go through each song. So here is each song in order of which ones I like the most and an explanation of why I chose that place.

14. “Celebration”

Of all the Late Registration songs, “Celebration” is a crowd-pleaser but not nearly as fun as his other bigger tracks on the album.

13. “Bring Me Down”

Brandy’s voice elevates this song but overall it feels a bit flat compared to the other tracks.

12. “My Way Home”

This is most played songs on the album, but the collaboration between the two is quite memorable. I just wish the song was a little more fluid overall. I would love to see these two collaborate again on West’s newest album. Maybe on Yahdhi (if it ever comes out) we will hear it.

11. “Crack Music”

A great song with a lot of energy but not nearly as amazing as another record on Late Registration. Further, it repeated the lyrics a lot.

10. “Gone”

Cam’Ron and Kanye West created pure magic on this one.

9. “Roses”

A super sad, beautiful ode to Kanye West’s grandmother. I could hear Kanye’s sadness in his singing.

8. “Heard ’Em Say”

Adam Levine is perfect for this track and is one of West’s most chill and yet still thought-provoking songs. Bonus, I love how perfect are bonds between the “Intro” of the album. That defiantly gives the song a bit of prefix before it began playing

7. “Addiction”

I still adore this song. The unguardedness and truth behind the song affected me so much when I first heard that, that it’s still unforgettable. I love it

6. “We Major”
What makes this song so awesome? It’s that it features Nas even though he was in the middle of a beef with Jay Z who also contributed to this album. This is was one of Nas’ best verses in the last decade and overall it is just fantastic, start to finish. I love how he also sampled a Biggie song for a bit though.

5. “Drive Slow”

Paul Wall has disappeared, but the man did he make a brilliant verse for this awesome song. Kanye West knows how to make a great slow riding song mixing different genres with rap. The saxophone sample in this track is beyond awesome. Such a great, underrated, song.

4. “Touch The Sky”

Now, this is the kind of hit track that I can get behind, and the track also gave us the genius that is Lupe Fiasco. I can tell now why Ellen played this as Kanye walked on stage.

3. “Gold Digger”

Jamie Foxx at the height of his Ray Charles-ness for the sample. Kanye West at the height of his pop culture hit-ness. Put them together and get one of the most recognizable and impressive faster rap jams of Kanye West’s career.

2. “Diamonds From Sierra Leone”

It’s a powerful track, it’s a brilliantly written track, it’s an amazing track. It’s best not to talk about why it’s so great and just listen to it.

1. “Hey Mama”

And we get to the best of the best. Many people might give me a hard time for putting “Hey Mama” as the best track on Late Registration, but I stand by it. It’s such a sweet, truly emotional track that doesn’t need all the Kanye West bells and whistles. It stands on its own and it gets the added emotional punch of being the track that West performed for his mother two days after her death during his Glow In The Dark Tour. Such a touching and a great song.

And those are my favorites in order. Keertana Sastry from Bustle, inspired me to make this list due to her speech on the album. So, being the Kanye fan I am, I wrote the songs in order!