Kanye West - Graduation
Submitted by BobbyM3 on Thu, 02/14/2008 - 15:03.
After debating over and over what album cover to do my blog on, I finally settled on Kanye West's latest album, Graduation.
Background information:
The album was set to be released on September 18, 2007, but in July Kanye decided to move the date to September 11, 2007, which happened to be the same release date as 50 Cent's "Curtis". He did this in order to make the albums go head to head against each other, and to compete for higher sales. It was a bold and risky move by Kanye, but also smart. I think it made more people inclined to buy one or the other, especially after 50 cent made a comment that he would stop selling albums if "Graduation" out sold "Curtis".
However, "Graduation" did out sell "Curtis", and in fact sold more albums in one week than any other album in 2007 (approximately 957,000 copies in the US in the first week alone). It also won 3 Grammy Awards, including "Best Rap Album".
Album Cover
When I first saw the Album cover, I was shocked and did a double look. It definitely got my attention. In my personal opinion, you just don't expect to see a colorful cartoonish album cover on the front of a best selling rap album. However, if you take a deeper look, you can see small clues that hint towards more of a rap theme, including a big chain, watch, and basketball sneakers on a "teddy bear". More on that...
This album cover seems to go along with the theme of the rest of Kanye's albums. This is his third top selling album; his first being "The College Dropout" and then "Late Registration". There are a few themes that I picked up on here.. First off, what do the terms College Dropout, Late Registration, and Graduation all have in common? To me, they all are talking about education in some way. I feel that a lot of Kanye's songs are trying to talk about how so many blacks are uneducated, and he tries to stress the importance of becoming more educated. These titles go along with that theme. They also seem somewhat sequential.
Another theme I picked up on - the teddy bear. It seems to make an appearance in all his album covers. Here, see for yourself!
It seems like its a reoccurring theme. And although I think its cute, its another one of those things that make you wonder - teddy bear on the cover of a top selling rap album? But somehow he makes it work....
The cover has a picture of what looks to be a graduation party on top of a colorful object, maybe a fish? And I believe the bear is supposed to represent Kanye West. He has a letter jacket on with the letter U on it, so it leads me to believe that he's graduating from a University, or a college. This goes along with the other albums - at first, college drop out, but then late registration (going back to college) and now, Graduation. Going back and getting an education. I also notice that the rest of his classmates (other animals, creative idea) are celebrating and throwing their hats up, while he is flying away. This gives me the idea that he did better than them, exceeded and flew higher and is now graduating or leaving. He's flying into the universe, which could also represent going out into the real world after graduation. What do you think? It also looks as if hes being shot out of a fishes mouth. Not sure what the meaning of that is, or how that is symbolic, but do any of you have ideas? I see the eye, and the way the mouth is shaped it just reminds me of a fish possibly. The eye there could portray looking into the future after graduation.
I suppose what I like most about this album is how it relates to his other albums and him at the same time. It's all a sequence, and it shows that he has graduated from the "hip hop game" and is above and beyond all other artists (who could be his other classmates on the album?). I also like how its colorful and sticks out at you. I feel that it describes his music well too. Other hip hop (these days at least) seems to be dry, monotone, the same thing over and over. Where as Kanye likes to mix it up, make things more colorful and creates songs that stick out at you. To reinforce that his songs are colorful and creative, here's a list of guest's/samples on his album:
-Elton John
-Steely Dan
-Daft Punk
-Labi Siffre
-Jay-Z
-T-Pain
-Lil Wayne
-Mos Def
-311
-John Mayer
If thats not colorful enough, I'm not sure what is!
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my blog. Please comment on what you feel about his album, or if you agree or disagree with anything I said. Thanks for reading!
Very good blog, I think you hit the nail right on the head with pretty much everything. I think you give Kanye a lot of deserved credit for standing out in today's hip hop. One of the most important topics I think you covered was the diversity of his samples. Before he started MC'ing, Kanye produced for some huge artists such as Talib, Common, and Jay-Z. His experience in producing is obvious on his newest album in which every song is incredible. Also along with the college theme, I think he went to an art school in Chicago and dropped out/failed out. This Graduation album is sort of him telling the world that he made it. Yea i'm not sure about the Teddy Bear theme either but it might have something to do with his likableness to everyone. He sells records to a huge number of demographics compared to 50 cent.
Submitted by er0l12 on Thu, 02/14/2008 - 22:53.This album cover definitely caught my interest when it first came out. Mostly because it made me think: "Wow, that's a rap album?" It's just not something you'd expect to see, but the more I looked at it, the more I came to some of the same conclusions you expressed above.
My initial thoughts centered more around his signature mascot character featured on all of his covers as the main focus. I interpreted it to be more about Kayne learning from his previous albums and demonstrating how he's "graduated" through his lyrics. The sources and inspirations of that "education" being abstracts from the artists you mention, and now we see him breaking out of that towards the sky, which seems to be the only limit, so to speak.
But perhaps he is reaching out to something bigger, emerging from that "cannon of creativity" to deliver messages to the target audience he believes he now has the experience to.
Submitted by bfawaz on Fri, 02/15/2008 - 01:14.I'm personally not a fan of rap in the least bit and I haven't seen this album cover before, however it does catch my eye. This seems to be the oddball case where someone dislikes the music yet enjoys the album cover. This is possibly due to the fact that the nature of the album art seems to be the antithesis of the nature of the music. In any case, the art is interesting.
I see that you brought up the idea about lack of education for many blacks and that West sings about that idea sometimes. You also spoke about how the album art for the past 3 albums reflect this idea and a rising above the lack of education. I can see this in the albums art. The only thing I was thinking about was do you think he planned this starting with his "College dropout" album? If so, then what is his plan for after this album? If his idea was to rise above other rappers with his music, he most continue to show this. How can he continue to do that after graduation? I don't think an album about getting a steady desk job would make a good rap album, heh.
Submitted by lcsnare on Fri, 02/15/2008 - 02:14.You did way better than I could have! To me, the album art looked almost like something thrown together without much meaning behind it - just something to be "out there". But I think you nailed it. Your analysis of the design might even be more than kanye himself could see from the cover!
Submitted by physicschic on Fri, 02/15/2008 - 11:58.I think the reason he chose the teddy bear, as a rapper, is to stand out from the normal thug appeal. Like you said, you take notice when you see a cartoon on a rap cd. I think that this was Kanye's intent and that he made it work!
I thought the weirdest thing about this album artwork was that it seemed like it was made for little girls in Japan. Its so colorful that it reminds me of like anime and stuff like that. I do like that he keeps the recurring theme of the bear in his artwork. Its cool when artists keep recurring themes. That in itself can become the signature for his albums. It almost doesn't need his name on it after more albums.
Submitted by zmcnulty on Fri, 02/15/2008 - 12:24.