Album leaks: Kanye vs 50

You all know the story. Kanye vs 50, two of the biggest egos in the industry, Graduation vs Curtis, blah blah blah. Now that the albums are both floating around on the internet, America can listen to both albums and decide who the winner is. In my opinion: Kanye wins in a landslide.

"Curtis" exists for one reason and one reason and one reason only: so Curtis Jackson III can remind you how fucking tough he is. He really has nothing else to say. The album really doesn't do anything new or interesting, and except for "Ayo Technology", the entire first 2/3 of the album is forgettable and sounds exactly the same. It's a little hillarious that Fitty said that Kanye raps like a robot considering that he (50) sounds like he's sleepwalking through every track. He's taken that laid-back sound so far that he sounds completely bored with what he's talking about. And at the same time, the album takes it self so damn seriously. And honestly, I don't think I would dislike this album as much as I do if it wasn't for how fucking arrogant 50 is about what a genius he claims to be. The only two tracks that I really wanted to listen to a second time were "Ayo Technology" and "All of Me", and the only reason those tracks were good were because of the involvement of Timbaland and Mary J Blige. 50 himself didn't bring a whole lot to either one. Timbaland (collaborating with Justin Timberlake) produced "Ayo"'s trippy, slick, computerized beat, and MJB provided vocals for "All of Me", giving the album a way needed shot of passion. Buy these two on iTunes and forget about the rest.





Kanye's new album, though, is way more exciting to listen to, and there's more creativity in the first three tracks (not counting the intro, because who cares) than the were 50's last three albums combined. He pulls from an eclectic set of samples, not all of which totally work for me, but it's so much more unpredictable than "Curtis". "Graduation"'s production is damn near perfect, except for a small slump from tracks 7-9. The highlights besides "Stronger", which deserves every bit of the ridiculous radio play it's getting, are "Champion" and "Big Brother". Check out the album: