Kanye West is an incredibly controversial figure in music at the moment, but that doesn’t stop people from listening to him. So much so that his 2007 album, Graduation, has just received another certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
It’s been a busy weekend of accolades for the rapper as Graduation has reached seven times platinum status, along with some of his popular singles. ‘All of the Lights’ reached seven times platinum, ‘Runaway’ went five times platinum and ‘Follow God’, one of the popular singles from Kanye’s Jesus Is King, which received mixed reviews, has gone double platinum.
Graduation is filled with hits but is also considered by many to be a turning point for hip-hop. Mos Def once claimed that the release of Graduation was Kanye West’s “Thriller moment”, as did Talib Kweli, who compared the two records.
“It was so creative, it was funny…” said Mos Def, “Graduation is like a Thriller moment that people don’t properly appreciate. I always feel like they’re trying to hate on it ‘cause he really sold a million records in a [week]. I don’t care what they say.”
The album had a sales showdown with 50 Cent’s Curtis when it was released. Both albums were well-received, but Graduation did the best and has been more culturally significant.
“It wasn’t Coldplay, it wasn’t U2, it wasn’t any other genre – it was Kanye West with a beautifully, cleanly-produced album that was pure Hip Hop. I mean, ‘Barry Bonds?’ What are we even talking about? That shit was out of control… It opened up the paradigm creatively for what could be considered groundbreaking and inventive and also having a big scale.”
Check out some of the popular tracks from Graduation below.
