Late Registration
Late Registration is the second studio album by the American rapper and record producer Kanye West. It was released on August 30, 2005, through Def Jam Recordings and Roc-A-Fella Records. West recorded the album over the course of a year during sessions held at studios in Hollywood and New York City, in collaboration with Jon Brion. The album features guest appearances from Adam Levine, Jamie Foxx, Common, Brandy, Jay-Z, and Nas, among others.
Late Registration
August 30, 2005
2004–2005
- Chalice (Hollywood)
- Grandmaster (Hollywood)
- Record Plant (Hollywood)
- Sony Music (New York)
70:25
West's production for Late Registration departed from the sped-up soul samples of his debut studio album, The College Dropout (2004), moving towards a more elaborate and orchestral style with a 20-piece ensemble. Drawing creative inspiration from alternative acts such as Fiona Apple and Portishead, he experimented with musical shifts, string arrangements, and a variety of instruments not usually associated with hip hop, including a celesta, harpsichord, and Chinese bells. In an effort to write authentic yet relatable lyrics, West engages in storytelling while showcasing his Christian heritage that informed his relationship to the capitalist market economy. He critiques multiple issues, such as institutional racism, higher education, health care, and the blood diamond trade.
A widespread critical success, Late Registration has often been viewed as a progression from The College Dropout and a pivotal release in hip hop. Numerous reviewers praised the former's elegant and ambitious musical direction, while some highlighted West's songwriting and performances for their balance of pop and conscious hip hop sensibilities. It was named to year-end lists for 2005 by multiple publications, such as Rolling Stone, Time, and USA Today. The album led to West receiving eight nominations at the 48th Annual Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year and Best Rap Album, winning the latter.
Matching The College Dropout's commercial success, Late Registration debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 and sold 860,000 copies in the first week, while reaching the top 10 in nine other countries, including the United Kingdom and Ireland. It eventually sold more than 3,000,000 copies in the US and received a five-times platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), as well as sales certifications in several other territories. Five accompanying singles were released, including the hits "Touch the Sky", "Heard 'Em Say", and "Gold Digger", the latter of which topped the Billboard Hot 100. Music videos for all five singles were produced, while West also promoted the album with the Touch the Sky Tour (2005–06) and his debut live album, Late Orchestration (2006). Since then, Late Registration has frequently appeared on top albums lists, including Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums of All Time", on which it ranked 117th in 2020.
Background[edit]
Late Registration is the second of Kanye West's planned four education-themed studio albums, following the major success of his 2004 debut The College Dropout.[1][2] The album showcased his signature production style of using sped-up vocal samples from soul records, known as "chipmunk soul".[1] However, because of its success, other hip hop artists widely imitated this sampling style. In response to this, and fearing his own dependence on the technique, West decided to find a new sound and progress in both songwriting and stylistic range.[1][2] West enlisted the film score composer and record producer Jon Brion for Late Registration, resulting in Brion serving as co-executive producer for several tracks.[3] The rapper heard and liked Brion's score while watching the 2004 film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and also listened to songs he had produced for the singer-songwriter Fiona Apple's second album, When the Pawn... (1999).[4] Apple was another one of West's favorite acts and sources of musical inspiration for Late Registration,[3][4] whose direction West described as "that Coldplay, Portishead, Fiona Apple style".[2] Portishead's 1994 album Dummy was another reference point for West's direction with the album.[4]
Brion was inexperienced in creating hip hop records when initially collaborating with West, yet the two were able to productively work together after only one afternoon in the studio when they discovered that neither confined his musical knowledge and vision to any specific genre.[5] Discussing Late Registration differing in direction from standard hip hop, Brion said, "There are colors and ideas that make [the album] different from average hip-hop, but Kanye is already different from the average hip-hop guy. He's got this sense of pop record-making which is really solid, and he likes tracks with a lot of things going on in them – which is not necessarily common for hip-hop. He was already barking up that tree."[3]
Commercial performance[edit]
In its first week of release, Late Registration debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 with first week sales of 860,000 copies, selling over 600,000 more copies than Tony Yayo's album Thoughts of a Predicate Felon at number two. This stood as West's first chart-topping album in the United States and gave him first-week sales nearly double those of The College Dropout.[145] The album had the highest-selling first week sales in the US for two years, until West's next album Graduation suprassed it in September 2007 by selling 957,000 copies.[146] The former's first-week sales also ranked as the seventh largest for a rap album up to March 3, 2020.[147] In Late Registration's second week, it remained atop the Billboard 200 and sold an additional 283,000 copies, resulting in more than 1,140,000 copies sold within the first two weeks on the chart.[148] In early 2006, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) awarded the album a triple platinum certification, indicating sales of 3,000,000 copies in the US.[149] In June 2013, Late Registration reached 3,100,000 copies sold in the US.[150] On July 21, 2022, it was certified five-times platinum by the RIAA for sales of 5,000,000 album-equivalent units in the country.[151]
Late Registration also debuted at number one on the Canadian Albums Chart.[152] On February 14, 2006, it was certified double platinum by Music Canada (MC) for shipments of 200,000 copies in Canada.[153] In the United Kingdom, the album entered the UK Albums Chart at number two for the issue date of September 5, 2005, being prevented from topping the chart by McFly's album Wonderland.[154] The former was certified triple platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for sales of 900,000 units in the UK on March 12, 2022.[155] As of May 2018, Late Registration is the 12th highest-selling rap album in the UK in the 21st century.[156] By November of that year, the album had sold 852,000 copies in the UK, ranking as West's highest selling album in the country.[157] Late Registration reached numbers two and three on the Irish Albums Chart and Scottish Albums Chart, respectively, while it received a double platinum certification from the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) by the end of 2005 for pushing 30,000 units in Ireland.[158][159][160] The album also charted within the top 10 in Norway,[161] Greece,[162] Switzerland,[163] and Japan,[164] as well as entering the European Top 100 Albums chart at number six.[165] In 2021, Vibe reported that Late Registration became one of the rap albums released before 2010 to have been streamed one billion times through Spotify.[166]
Sample credits[7]