Tom digs Kanye

I'm willing to admit that maybe I just don't really "get" rap music. It seems like a genre in which even the best albums are hopelessly bogged down in cliches (the irritating skits between songs, the extended stream-of-consciousness "bonus" track), and a genre in which I can't really tell the good apart from the bad.

I often rely on first impressions to judge hip hop artists, and as often as not they're wrong. OutKast seemed too self-consciously "eccentric" to be truly good (they're actually both), and Jay-Z seemed like the living embodiment of every decadent-rap-star cliche (bling, bitches, and a Benz!), but it turns out he's also a master of the infectious pop hook (just try not to be mesmerized by "Big Pimpin'"), and also possesses the massive amounts of talent and charisma that it must take to make Linkin Park momentarily seem like they're not the stupidest band on the planet.

So what does it mean when I actually like a rap album? If it's Kanye West, it means that I have something in common with pretty much everybody else these days.

But what I think it really means when I like a rap album like Late Registration (which, by the way, I like a lot more than last year's The College Dropout), is that it is, deep down, a good pop album. In Kanye's case, I think it's a combination of great pop hooks and socially conscious lyrics. Much has been made of the latter attribute, and I certainly wouldn't suggest that addressing problems in society makes something automatically good, but a song like "Diamonds from Sierra Leone" offers a take on a less-publicized issue that's smart and subtle, and acknowledges an inherent conflict between wanting the best for ourselves and wanting the best for those less fortunate than us. It's certainly a more nuanced and thoughtful position than "George W. Bush doesn't care about black people." Oh wait...

So the lyrics are good, but what really appeals to me is the actual music. The College Dropout is an album that bursts with energy, with lush and intricate backing tracks. Much has also been made of the addition of producer Jon Brion, whose credits include mostly weepy singer/songwriter types like Rufus Wainwright, Badly Drawn Boy, and Aimee Mann (he also appeared on the last album released during the lifetime of the weepiest of all singer/songwriter types, Elliott Smith, may he rest in peace). I have no idea what Kanye did and what Brion did, but I do know that Late Registration is a whole lot more appealing on an aesthetic level than The College Dropout.

All of which is to say that I'm not necessarily a fan of rap music, but it's hard to resist such well-made, lush, orchestral pop music like that on Late Registration, regardless of how the words are put on top of it. It gets my personal thumbs up, with extra points because there's not likely to be a better album that's more popular than this one this year (an honor stripped from the hands of Coldplay, who put out an album that wasn't really that great).

Side note: my friend Denise has suggested "T Says" as a new title of this blog (see my post from September 10), which sounded good at first, until I realized that it was a reference to Mr. T. I brought this up with her:

"Wait a minute, that's a Mr. T reference isn't it?"
"No... well, yeah, kind of."

I have to admit that this aspect makes it much less appealing to me. So "On the Corner With Tom" stays until a better name comes along. Sorry, Denise.