As a bit of background, I was planning on doing a review of Kanye West's new album, "The Life of Pablo," for this week. Sadly, it was not released when it was expected due to Kanye still needing to finish a few tracks and master the album. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if he was thinking of another title change or a new track listing.

I would like to be clear before we get underway, here: I am not a die-hard Kanye West fan. He has music in his discography that I really enjoy and has me interested in listening to new music that he puts out, and he also has made music that I dislike very much. As far as his personality goes, I obviously think he has been molded into a jerk. He's done things that were looked down upon by the public (I don't think I need to remind you of the many examples), but we shouldn't let those things change how we view his music, right?

I mean, after all, we should just focus on any artist's music instead of the things that they've done that we don't necessarily approve of. Well, I wish that were the case with Kanye. Unfortunately, he's merged his public persona so far into the content of his music that it's almost impossible for us not to take his personal life into consideration. Take this new album for example. Kanye has made so many changes to it (as far as tracklistings and titles go) and hyped it up on Twitter so much in the last month. He also had a "world premiere" of his album at Madison Square Garden that was available for streaming in support of his new line of clothing. It's as if he's not even acting as a musician anymore, rather as some fusion of musician, fashion designer, and sports marketer rolled together. I feel like he's spreading himself way too thin, and is only concerned with how many people are watching him instead of concerning himself with his album that I don't think can possibly live up to the hype it's produced anymore.

I'm going to stop myself there, however. After all, this article isn't about my feelings towards Kanye West as a person; it's a review of my favorite album of his. In the midst of my frustration with Kanye's decision to not release his new album, I remembered that he has made music that I truly love. I'm going to be reviewing Kanye West's "Late Registration" in this article.

"Late Registration" was the sophomore album of the Chicago native, following his incredibly successful debut "The College Dropout." I personally feel that Mr. West achieved his most classy and refined sound on this album, with incredible production from front to back and spectacular performances from both himself and his features. After a skit that's reminiscent of the ones found on "Dropout," the album truly kicks off with "Heard 'Em Say" featuring Adam Levine from Maroon 5. This song is incredibly simple and moving, with a beautiful piano melody over a boom-bap beat. In this song, Kanye raps about topics from oppression against blacks and poverty-stricken areas to racism in the workplace, and each verse culminates in a hook sung by Levine, who I think gives one of the best performances on the entire album for how short and sweet it is. His voice fits perfectly with the production and the mood of the song.

We then transition into "Touch the Sky" featuring Lupe Fiasco, an energetic track that can't help but put a smile on your face when you hear the hook. Here 'Ye gives a summary of his come up in the hip hop industry and leaves on a positive note by letting the listener know that they'll touch the sky one day as well. The instrumental here is out of this world, and Lupe Fiasco's verse is also very on point with tight rhymes and a similar theme to Kanye's verses. The next track, "Gold Digger," was the biggest hit on the album for good reason. The pounding beat and thumping horns make it easy to move and dance to this song. In the lyrics, Kanye describes a relationship with a woman who is only interested in him for his money and fame. These three tracks, in my opinion, are one of the strongest introductions to any hip hop album out there, and shoots this album into motion.

The album slows down after another skit with "Drive Slow," with amazing rhymes and flows from West, as well as Paul Wall and GLC with an instrumental that has a huge Wu-Tang Clan influence to it. And the song "Crack Music" sees Kanye's street influences coming to the forefront with some very aggressive lyrics and a gruff performance from The Game. "Roses" brings his sweet side out as he sings about his grandmother's near-death experience and hoping that she will live through it, and the song utilizes a beautiful sample from Bill Wither's "Rosie." A few tracks and another skit later, we get to the legendary song "Diamonds from Sierra Leone" featuring Jay Z. I am not completely sure how I feel about this track, actually. In Kanye's verses, he first brings up the topic of blood diamonds, which was a massive atrocity happening all throughout Africa. Kanye then goes on to criticize America's consumer culture for knowing about the problem of blood diamonds, yet still buying jewelry that uses these diamonds, and he makes these criticisms very well.

My problem with these claims, however, come in his second verse when he says: "People askin' me is I'm gon' give my chain back?/ That'll be the same day I give the game back," saying that while he's putting shame on the people that allow this business of conflict diamonds to go on, he's going to do the same thing as everyone else. I don't understand why he would say this! If he's going to make criticisms of an action and then end up supporting the action he just criticized, why would he even bring it up in the first place? As much as these two verses confuse me, the instrumental is fantastic, with an incredible sample from the James Bond theme song for the movie, "Diamonds are Forever." And as much as I dislike Jay Z and always have, he actually delivers a pretty decent verse here. After yet another skit, we come to another amazing song in the track listing, "Hey Mama," where Kanye praises his mother and thanks her for raising him and supporting him through his struggles in becoming famous.

Other than "Diamonds from Sierra Leone," which I'm still not quite sure how I feel about, there really aren't any tracks on this album that I don't enjoy. Even the skits here are very funny and match the tone of this album for the most part. To be fair, this album did come out before all of the Kanye "scandals" and before he started becoming a kind of antagonist in the public eye. But even still, "Late Registration" shows how creative and even how intuitive he can be when he focuses on his music and actually puts his soul into it. Even if you absolutely hate Kanye's guts and can't stand to even hear his name anymore, I highly recommend that you check out this album, as it shows the man in a much different light than what we are used to today.

Fav. Tracks: Heard 'Em Say, Touch the Sky, Gold Digger, Drive Slow, My Way Home, Crack Music, Roses, We Major, Hey Mama, Celebration

Least Fav. Track: Diamonds from Sierra Leone