Kanye Enlists Chris Martin, Jon Brion For Graduation
Billboard reports on the details for the third, education-themed installment of Kanye's solo career:
Kanye West is hard at work on his next album, "Graduation," tentatively due in late 2007 via Def Jam. The artist tells Billboard the likely first single from the album will be "Homecoming" featuring Coldplay's Chris Martin, who recently guested on a track from Jay-Z's comeback album, "Kingdom Come."Now we love us some Jon Brion; his work on Late Registration ensured that, no matter how much Kany-ego ran his mouth, we'd tune in for Round 3. But what's with the urbanization of Chris Martin? Aside from clumsy teases of Missy Elliot during "In My Place" in concert, we just don't see the street appeal of his wavering falsetto. Then again, there's something undeniably thuggish about naming your kid Apple.One collaborator from West's 2005 album "Late Registration" who will be returning for "Graduation" is multi-instrumentalist Jon Brion.
"We'll be working together again on the new project," West promises. "Jon wasn't just a producer -- he was such a good friend and a great person to bounce ideas off of in the studio. It was the whole experience."
Posted at 5:34 PM
Tags: Chris Martin | Coldplay | Jon Brion | Kanye West
i really really hope this is a good record.
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lolz. that IS a thug move. maybe jay-z and kanye just think there is some street hardness beneath all that sensitivity. maybe?
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I think this article proves his street cred (sorry it's from the sun and not a more reputable source: http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2003331276,00.html
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Kanye West cannot rap, Chris Martin cannot sing, and Jon Brion is just shit.
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Real recognize real. That's where the street appeal of Chris Martin lies. The true artists in hip hop recognize soul when they see it.
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I just hope a new sound comes out of this.
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This guy is a joke...someone explain to me why he has credibility (Kanye I mean). Why would he be blogged about on a site like this?
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what exactly do you guys mean by "urbanization"? and why is kanye west any more "thuggish" than martin? Because he makes hip-hop music? Are all hip-hop artists "thuggish"? Is that photo supposed to imply something thuggish about kanye? I find a lot about this post to be really offensive and borderline racist.
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enlisting chris martin? i guess knaye didn't actually listen to 'beach chairs' off of jigga's album.
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He's not a thug, he's just an idiot..reference the outrageously offensive comment he made about the president during a fundraiser. This guy makes me sick, I hate the attention he receives and I simply do not understand it.
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Kanye is a chump. Has anyone seen the Punk'd episode where he gets it? He acted like a childish, big-headed fool.
Granted, his music is ok, but he is a bit overrated as a rapper.
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Kanye is a straight up punk ass bitch
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"what exactly do you guys mean by "urbanization"? and why is kanye west any more "thuggish" than martin? Because he makes hip-hop music? Are all hip-hop artists "thuggish"? Is that photo supposed to imply something thuggish about kanye? I find a lot about this post to be really offensive and borderline racist.
Posted by: Imran at January 19, 2007 10:00 PM "
thats interesting. I find you to be borderline retarded you conflict seeking twit. Chris Martin up until a few months ago was only singing in coldplay, pumping out babies with Gwyneth, and bitching about fair trade, and all of a sudden he's singing on Jay-Z's album and Kanye's. Jay-Z's experience into hip hop derived from his growth in BROOKLYN. Kanye's, from CHICAGO. URBAN ENVIRONMENTS. Where a lot great hiphop is centered around, making it a pretty urban music. So, Chris Martin singing rap hooks could be very fairly stated as an Urbanization, the same way that Kanye asking Chris Martin to sing could be seen as a Lame-a-mization. But we already knew that about Kanye.
P.S. Kanye, NO ONE FUCKING CARES ABOUT HOW YOUR ALBUMS ARE THEMED WITH COLLEGE. IT'S IRRELEVANT, ANNOYING, AND KEEPS ME AND MAYBE OTHERS FROM TAKING YOU NEARLY AS SERIOUSLY AS YOU'D LIKE TO BE. AND STOP WHISPERING YOUR RAPS! IT'S SHITTY!
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Maybe my sarcasm-detector is malfunctioning, but what about naming your kid "Apple" is thuggish? Uhhh.. maybe if the kid was called "Purple Drink"?
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Man. You all can eat a dick sandwich. Kanye West is a great producer, a medicore (at best) rapper, and a blowhard. Chris Martin is a pop artist, and is a huge one at that. Kanye likes the crossover appeal of these guys, note the use of John Mayer on Common's album, as well as that douche from marron 5 on his last album. Mainstream hip-hop is doing this all over the place. Christ, I mean J5 has Dave Matthews on their latest release. Not that I'd expect anyone on Sterogum to notice.
The urbanization of Chris Martin? Please. More like the capitalization of Chris Martin. And yeah, it is kinda racist to imply that since dude is working with rappers that he would somehow need to get thuggish. Even if it was only a joke (which it was), it wasn't especially good. You guys need some real hip-hop writers if you're gonna try to repor on it. Sterogum should stick to reporting what it knows best: Lindsay Lohan.
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Colin drinks his own pee
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I think Colin is the only person that's posted so far to make any sense. Congrats.
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anything kanye has made or will ever make will never come as close to being as amazing and original as Hell Hath No Fury by Clipse.
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Looks like someone has been reading Pitchfork...
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"anything kanye has made or will ever make will never come as close to being as amazing and original as Hell Hath No Fury by Clipse."
Kanye's hit-and-miss production-wise, and a consistently terrible rapper, but 'Hell Hath No Fury' - though lyrically great in spots - is without a doubt the singular most sycophantically overpraised rap record in recent history.
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You guys all love insulting each other. I think that each of the last ten or so posts have been refuting the posts directly before them. It's ridiculous. Let's talk Kanye, Brion, and Martin, please!
Guess what? Love him or hate him, Kanye is hip-hop right now. Sure his albums may not be as brilliant as Ghostface or Doom or whoever, but he is one of the few rappers that sells millions of records that have critic credibility. The criticism that he is not that great a rapper has been repeated so many times that saying it now has become meaningless. We listen for the beats, his lyrics (which can be suprisingly good when they aren't ludicrously chauvenist) and his guest stars. Already the people that he has enlisted for this album are creating a stir. He has a massive ego, but what hip-hop personality that has reached his stature wouldn't be arrogant?
In terms of Martin, his production on the Jay-Z track was surprisingly solid. I know everyone knocks Coldplay and I instantly lose credibility for thinking that they are a good band, but the dude can sing. Anything that Brion touches is pretty much guaranteed to be interesting, from any of his film scores to any album that he produces to his own solo work.
In summation, if anything on the album is half as good as "We Major" it'll be worth it. Jon Brion on the keyboards with the majestic horns coming in. It doesn't get much better than that.
P.s.-Stereogum, as much as I love you guys, please do not debate anyone's street cred. Honky-ass mothafuckas.
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U lot are a loads of wack niggas Kanye IS the single most best hip hop artist at the moment and also one of the top producers better than any Star trak, clipse shit.
A track wit Chris Martin would be sick jst like heard em say wit the not so 'thuggish' Adam Levine from Marron 5
Long live the ROC and G.O.O.D music
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Kanye is the single greatest thing that has happened to hip-hop in a while. Period.
Being a producer myself, i realise how amazing a hip-hop producer he truly is. Maybe not the greatest rapper of all time but certainly one of the smartest & influential.
Jon Brion, in my opinion ruined late registration simply because he took the hip-hop out of the music. In some way I hope Graduation is similar to College Dropout & does not feature additional production from Jon.
Working with Chris Martin is an amazing idea, with supposed consequences similar to Kanyes collaboration with Adam Levine, i can only be happy.
Lets just hope their wont be any appereances from any of kanyes other popular friends (such as Pharrell....who has totally lost whatever he had)
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fuck yall kanye west haters
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i agree with the comment "kanye west is hip hop/ rap right now."
he is in a class of very few rappers that are actually interesting in an otherwise totally terrible genre of music.
Him getting Jon Brion was one of the smartest moves ever made by an artist.
Even though you hate on kanye, you'll still listen to what he has, and that's why he's one of the best if not the best rapper today.
He's taken the rap industry on his shoulders. He's the king of rap right now. And saying he's mediocre.
Sorry he's not Lil Flip, using a fucking video game sample a la Game Over. Sorry he doesn't use call outs like every other fucking southern rap artist. And you're gonna try and tell me Ludacris is still hot?
Shake your moneymaker... shake off the dust from your fucking kanye albums and take another listen.
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wow...i really thought white ppl were starting to get but i guess i was wrong. NEWS FLASH:rappers are just like normal ppl and if they happen to like a singer and what to work with them,its just that street cred doesn't play apart i love coldplay and 50 cent and that because i like there music not this "street cred" that you apparently must have. STEROGUM You all r a bunch of jackasses
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Kanye west is GENIUS but a fool for collaborating with that asshole. Chris Martin already said he didnt trust black people and racism is a state of mind.!
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