Kanye West: Graduating into the Music Elite with his New Album

Kanye West has been many things in his career: blueprint designer for some of hip-hop's most highly touted albums, style maven, jewelry connoisseur, even to some a degree a bastardized version of a Christian prophet (though to be fair, he has had his fair share as a lady-killer). Regardless of these bold strokes that people have placed on him and his career, West has been able to really do justice and be proficient becoming the animate version of truth serum, spewing forth his ideas and light on any and everything he sees fit to speak about.

With the Graduation LP, West has said that this has become his "comeback" of sorts, if you think him taking a backseat to the front stage in the past year, having collaborated and produced with the likes of Pharrell Williams of the Neptunes, Jay-Z, Nas, and Coldplay's Chris Martin. After basically making himself a legitimate star with foundation with his last album, Late Registration, West felt that his late-run single "Drive Slow" and said collaboration with Pharrell was sub-par, somewhat affecting his own barometer of what he felt was great. Maybe a bit oversensitive, West continued to work other projects.

But alas! Graduation has come in with a bang. With his first two singles, "Can't Tell Me Nothing" and "Stronger" becoming huge pop hits over the course of the past two months, West has been able to be proper in his continuance to still bring the music industry big winner on the Billboard charts. Include album cuts that speak on the sometimes-troubling, sibling-like relationship with Jay-Z on "Big Brother" and controversial songs with titles like "Barry Bonds" (the all-time home run king and alleged steroids-abuser of the San Francisco Giants), and Graduation looks to be king; even 50 Cent has gotten in on the act and his own alleged record-setting album debut shares the same day of West's album release: the cryptic September 11.

With the Graduation LP, West has also gotten back to his Asian roots-kind of. As a child, having spent a year with his mother in Japan, West decided to go in an abstract direction that emphasizes his art background. Enlisting a top-notch Japanese artist to capture the specific eclectic feel for his new look, West made his re-entry into American minds and television sets with neon lights, edgy cartoons, and a redesigned "Mascot Bear", the trademark alias of West that usually depicts his life in relation to his post-secondary education.

Despite the glitz and glam, West has maintained that this is another one of his defining moments in his career. Having predicted the album titles for each one of his albums since 2004's The College Dropout, Graduation appears to be only Album No. 3 in his four-album series, with his pontifications of continued greatness possibly ending with the fourth album called Good Ass Job. With arguably two classic rap albums under his belt and possibly a third in Graduation, West's proclamation of a good job might be understating things a bit.

If anything, Ye wants the people to witness his receiving his own diploma from the music industry-besides, who wouldn't want to see Mr. West walk up to the stage for his commencement on 9/11? He wouldn't want anybody to miss it for the world.