Kanye West's second education-themed albums, continuing in the direction traced by "The College Dropout", whose great success convinces him to abandon the heavily imitated chipmunk soul in order to reward orchestral and richer music, enlisting producer Jon Brion. With this move, the Chicago artist risks losing the large niche of fans he built a year earlier, however, track after track, you understand how West won the bet. Inspired by Portishead and Fiona Apple, he works with Brion on experimental beats with instruments distant from hip-hop and an intelligent and extraordinary choice of samples, creating a sound painting that is memorable and brilliant, flawless for seventy minutes. Just Blaze is the author of only one rhythm for "Touch the Sky", and it's one of the best pop rap songs of the year thanks to its stratospheric production.
The album was born as an evolution from the first chapter, the production is much better, the lyricism is slightly better and more or less the same, and the rapping is good all the time, technically not surprising. His lyrics are better than before and his arc encompasses socio-political, conscious, personal themes, racism, healthcare, religion, school, drug trafficking and diamond trafficking topics. Several guests collaborate on the disc, often uncredited such as Patti LaBelle, many singers such as Brandy and excellent rappers including Lupe Fiasco, Common, Jay-Z and Nas. West manages to put Hova and Esco on the same album in a moment when their feud is still ongoing and he sequences their tracks one after the other. In particular, Jay-Z delivers with a dope flow what is considered to be one of his greatest stanzas, making essential the remix of "Diamonds from Sierra Leone", based on the sample of James Bond theme "Diamonds Are Forever" by Shirley Bassey.
The album is a universally appreciated pop rap masterpiece, and one of his best works, if not the best. With no weaknesses, each track can be a single and two of them are awarded with a Grammy along with the same disk, with West taking the award for the second time in a row. In addition, it's the first of nine consecutive No.1 albums on the Billboard 200. Essential in his discography and one of top albums of the decade in any genre. 9.4/10.
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