More than anything, West wants to be understood, but on his terms - a difficult, if not impossible wish given all the baggage he's accumulated. West edits down Scott-Heron's work but retains its essence, that of an African-American male who feels cut off from his country and culture. 1" is excerpted on the final track, "Who Will Survive in America?" On the original 1970 spoken-word piece, Scott-Heron criticized the revolutionary youth movement of the '60s for failing to grasp the more basic needs of the African-American community. West gives the last word to Gil Scott-Heron, whose "Comment No. Now he's one of the world's biggest stars, with a multimillion-dollar recording budget and every indulgence at his fingertips.
West is a long way from the character he portrayed on his 2004 debut album, "The College Dropout," the blue-collar, minimum-wage retail clerk who rapped about his life with frankness and humor. Much of the album has that feel, a collision of opulence and emptiness, a meditation on the disconnect between the artist's intent and the public's perception. It's a turbulent combination of sounds: brooding and chastened in the verses, oddly triumphant and darkly humorous during the choruses. Brusque cello strokes contrast with elegiac violins, while a dirty guitar wends through the string section like a drunk, splattering mud on the white-tablecloth beauty.
A midtempo funky-drummer beat glides underneath the melancholy, reverberating piano notes, while a deep, mushrooming bass tone threatens to swallow everything. Ostensibly sung by a groom to his new bride at a wedding, the song plays as an apology, a warning and a defiant manifesto.
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