The Cold Cut

Kanye West's post-'Graduation' campaign is going well. Three great singles, some nice live performances, four Grammys, and now two good videos to his name (unfortunately, 'Stronger' wasn't up to scratch). That's right, the third single has been announced- 'Homecoming', featuring Chris Martin.

The video has some nice touches (that outline idea is pretty well executed), and the video fits the jaunty piano and weird dancing, from featuring artist Chris Martin. I guess that's one thing you can expect from a man who named his daughter 'apple'.

Some treats for you- as well as 'Homecoming', an inventive Diplo remix of what was the last single- 'Flashing Lights'.

Kanye West- Homecoming (Link 2) (Link 3)
Kanye West- Flashing Lights (Diplo Remix) (Link 2) (Link 3)

Update- Unfortunately, many people are beginning to doubt that it was actually Daft Punk at the Grammys, and also that they were playing live. I stand by the fact that it was them (why wouldn't it be?)- see here for 'proof'- and that they were playing live. Their Alive tour set-up was leaked a long while back, and the Lemur screens were on there. So why do people doubt that they were actually performing live? The 'Harder Better Faster Stronger' sample was on a loop, and they each controlled a variety of different filters and pitch modifiers. Okay, so it looked a little bit theatrical, but it was their first ever TV performance. They had to make it look great, didn't they?

I really picked a bad couple of days to go away (went for a friends bday- a great gig, which I will post about later today)- a couple of amazing albums were apparently released, the Grammys took place and more importantly, I missed Daft Punk's first TV appearance, EVER. And it was so ridiculous...

If Kanye ever performed 'Stronger', they were always going to be there. It had to be special... and it was. We saw more of Daft Punk's stage act than ever before, including a close up view of their set up. 4 JazzMutant Lemur's, each of which would set you back a cool £1600 (or approximately $3200 for my US readers) were shown- the Lemurs, a touch sensitive screen used to manipulate audio output, were used with the looping sample to apply different filters and effects. And yes... it was live. This was a never before seen version of 'Stronger', created specially to mark the event.

And Kanye himself? Unbelievable... with his trademark glasses (now lit up), he was really up for it (after winning 4 Grammys), and it was the performance of the evening. Watch it below, immortalised by Youtube...

Kanye West ft. Daft Punk- Stronger (Live At 50th Annual Grammy Awards)

I wonder how Mr. Curtis Jackson (aka 50 Cent) must be feeling at the moment. My bet is hysterical: how else would you be feeling when the most stupid promise of your life was looming over you? Let me elaborate: At the VMA's and on SOHH.com last week 50 Cent stated that he would retire if Kanye West's new album Graduation outsold 50's latest offering Curtis. And guess what? Well, Graduation outsold Curtis, and not by any small amount- in the week since both were released Graduation has sold 250,000 more copies than Curtis, and thus 50 is presented with a bit of a problem.

I don't have anything against Fiddy- I've listened to Get Rich Or Die Tryin' and The Massacre a great deal (haven't we all?) and lets just say I'm not averse to it. And even though Kanye has a tendency to act like a prick at times (VMA's anyone?), I love his music, and also the fact that he's a unique spin on the word rapper. For proof, how many other 'rappers' write songs like Family Business and Mama- both odes to the family life and all thats great about it-? Not many is the answer: most other rappers- 50 included- write about the textbook stuff, you know, guns, sex etc and so on.

My standing (after hearing most of both albums) is that Kanye comes out of this all as the superior rapper: Graduation is a brilliant album, full of life and raps about it (See Good Life in particular), and the production is solid, with a good selection of guest artists -barring Chris Martin on Homecoming, my least favourite song and the Mos Def featuring Drunk And Hot Girls)- to back West. 50 Cent, on the other hand, comes off much worse, with Curtis sounding completely flat and dead throughout. The raps are mediocre, and horrendous songs like AYO Technology shouldn't really be committed to record, at least not at this stage in his career.

But lets take 'me' out of the equation: 50 Cent made a promise, and I hope he keeps it, and in the process becomes one of the first rappers to actually retire, rather than just hanging around in the background like Jay-Z and Eminem. Either way it will be interesting to see how he responds to the fact that he has lost.

My advice is to pick a side- once the internet gets sorted out at school I'll post a few tracks to help you decide...