Future of rap points West

WHEN Kanye West released “Diamonds From Sierra Leone,” the first single from his highly anticipated new album, hip-hop radio programmers and fans reacted coolly.

West was stunned.

The song was a stinging look at the abusive working conditions in the diamond mines of Sierra Leone, and the track opens with a teasing sample from Shirley Bassey’s version of “Diamonds Are Forever,” the lush pop hit from the ‘70s James Bond film.

It was just the kind of mix of sound and subject that the 28-year-old rapper-producer saw as the next step in his ambitious plan to liberate hip-hop.

In his debut album, last year’s “The College Dropout,” West showed you could sell millions of records by replacing thug-life cliches with compelling human portraits. This time he wanted to redirect the music of hip-hop as dramatically as he had changed its themes.

His plan for the album, “Late Registration,” was to incorporate the arty pop sounds he heard in works by singer-songwriter Fiona Apple and the trip-hop devotees Portishead. We’re talking hip-hop with strings, pop music, horns, cellos, violin, exotic guitar noises.

The socially conscious message of “Diamonds” played well, but the music struck most listeners as way too pop and fluffy, lacking the jackhammer beats that define hip-hop.

“They thought it was too white,” West said, sitting in a room at Chalice Recording Studios Hollywood last weekend. (He uses “white” referring to pop music and “black” for R&B; and hip-hop.) “Others thought the sample was too corny, and I had to listen to them. Mainly, I realized I may be going too fast in trying to open new dimensions in hip-hop. I needed to take one step at a time if I wanted to bring my audience with me.”

West returned to the studio and threw out four tracks from the CD he had been working on in L.A. for months with pop producer Jon Brion, who produced Apple’s second album. They replaced them with tracks that West describes as more “black.” (He’s saving the “discards” for his next album, which he’s already titled “Graduation Day.”)

Most artists might not even admit reworking the album in fear of sounding like sellouts. But the four new tracks aren’t a retreat. “Touch the Sky,” one of the new tunes, is one of the CD’s most uplifting numbers -- and an integral part of what is easily the most exciting hip-hop album this year.

Due in stores Tuesday, “Late Registration” is a 71-minute tour de force that mixes everyman tales with sonic invention -- a record that could change the musical framework of rap more than anything since 1992’s “The Chronic” by Dr. Dre. First-week sales are expected to be the largest for any rap collection since 50 Cent’s “The Massacre” topped the million mark in March.

West’s last-minute retooling offers a valuable insight into his ambitions. He doesn’t just want to make great records. He also insists on making hits.

For all his love of the studio, West, who now lives in Los Angeles, says being on stage with fans singing along is the ultimate musical high.

“The feeling is so incredible that you want more of it,” he said. “That’s what you’re chasing in the studio. You are looking for songs that will touch people, tell their story, inspire them, connect with them.

“I can’t wait to get back on tour because I’m going to bring an orchestra with me. Imagine that.”

Putting up a good front

TWO words are invariably applied to Kanye West: brilliant and arrogant. Which raises an interesting question: If the most gifted hip-hop star since Eminem truly is brilliant, couldn’t it be that he’s just being honest when he describes himself that way?

West, wearing a Little Milo T-shirt and jeans, chuckled at the question in the recording studio on Highland Avenue. He’s all too familiar with the talk about his cocky image

“The funny thing is, a lot of the stuff I said last year about ‘my great album’ was out of fear. It was my first time out and I was singing ‘Jesus Walks’ in front of 20,000 screaming people.

“It was like walking into a Las Vegas casino and suddenly winning. Who knows if you’ll ever be able to do that again? Deep inside I didn’t know if I could ever make another record as unique or meaningful as that first album. I wanted to make sure people saw what I had done and gave me credit.”

The credit is already flowing his way for “Late Registration.” Time magazine lauds West in a cover story. Rolling Stone gives the CD its maximum five stars. The New Yorker calls it “thrilling.” Other rappers, from cult groups to such bestsellers as OutKast, have won praise for innovation, but no one has confronted the thug-centric superstar mentality as dramatically.

That doesn’t mean he can’t have fun with the music. “Gold Digger,” one of the most appealing tracks from the CD, is ridiculously entertaining R&B; ear candy that opens with Jamie Foxx’s growling vocal treatment of Ray Charles’ bluesy “I Got a Woman.” No wonder it’s already a smash on radio.

On a more substantial level, “Crack Music,” another of the album’s 14 songs, is a commentary about the proliferation of drugs in the ghetto and has the landmark feel of James Brown’s funkiest hits from the ‘60s.

It’s an almost perverse attempt to shake up mainstream pop radio, and West loves the idea of it blasting through radio speakers around America.

“Some people said ‘Jesus Walks’ sounded too black when the label tried to push it to pop stations last year,” said West. “So I thought, ‘OK, let’s see what they’ll think about this one.’ ”

West pauses, searching for the right way to describe the song’s ghetto punch.

“It’s so -- so in your face ... bam!” he said finally. “To me, the record is going to strike some people as so black that it’s like this black dude with super-big lips and pants hanging low getting into an elevator with old white ladies.”

But there’s more to the Atlanta native than assaulting pop sensibilities. Beyond the party time elements (and enough “bitches” and “n-word” references to require an advisory sticker), the heart of his music talks about family, community and personal struggle.

Clearly, West is also trying to lift the music’s moral tone. That’s why the only thing racing through the hip-hop world faster than West’s “Gold Digger” single last week was talk about his passionate plea on MTV for an end to gay-bashing in rap.

Drawing the line

FEW strains of pop culture are more uneventful than MTV specials that herald the release of a new album. Even the artists themselves must have trouble staying awake while watching them. But West used his time on MTV on Aug. 18 to say something startling.

After explaining how he frequently made fun of gays as a teenager until he learned one of his favorite cousins was homosexual, he looked into the camera and urged other rappers in a field where gays are a frequent target: “Yo, stop it.’”

In most cases, controversial remarks on the eve of an album release can be helpful to sales by drawing attention to the CD, but West’s brave comments could threaten sales because hostile references to gays are as common in bestselling rap albums as electrifying beats. By condemning the practice, West could encounter a backlash among young, hard-core rappers and fans who might dismiss him as soft or don’t want to be seen as soft themselves if they buy West’s new album.

“To me, that’s the hardest thing that a rapper could ever say ... putting his image on the line for something he believes in,” he said somewhat anxiously, little of the usual confidence in his voice.

Did he regret the statement?

“No, no,” he said quickly. “I wanted to say it. I think God wanted me to say it. I can’t be scared of what happens about that, especially if I’m trying to set the bar higher in hip-hop.”

West got his sense of moral commitment, along with his feel for wordplay, from his mother, who was head of the English department at Chicago State University until she recently retired.

To look at the extremely articulate, courteous, well-groomed West, you’d think he would have graduated from the same university and been voted most likely to succeed.

But he attended classes there only briefly before dropping out to pursue a music career, much to the displeasure of his mother (West’s parents were divorced when he was 3). Despite her misgivings, she did her best to support her son emotionally.

In his raps, West frequently draws from his own experience, and in “Hey Mama,” a tune on the new album that is a sweet ode to his mother, he thanks her for her love during that difficult period in his life. Like so many of his raps, the lines are both humorous and heartfelt.

My mama told me to go to school, get your doctorate

Something to fall back on, you could profit with

Still she supported me when I did the opposite.

West took advantage of his ability to create seductive beats and started producing records for other artists, eventually scoring an impressive number of hits, including tracks for such stars as Jay-Z, Alicia Keys and Twista.

The records were so stylish that he was eventually signed by Roc-A-Fella Records even though there was hesitancy about whether audiences would want someone with those fancy duds and talk about mama and Jesus.

After the triumph of his debut album, Columbia gave West his own label, Getting Out Our Dreams (GOOD). West’s first release on his label -- by R&B; singer John Legend -- has already sold 1.3 million copies.

Thinking inside the box

“IT all starts right there,” West says, pointing to a cardboard box in the studio, when asked to explain his creative process. The box contains perhaps 100 CDs, mostly from the ‘60s and ‘70s: Parliament, Aretha Franklin, Minnie Ripperton, Cameo.

He’ll spend hours listening to the albums, looking for something in a song that inspires him. Then he’ll tinker with the samples in the studio, sometimes speeding them up or manipulating them to make music that infuses hip-hop with the character of classic R&B; or soul.

It’s a merger similar to the sound pioneered by Dr. Dre, only West’s records employ an even more aggressive R&B;/pop sheen. Among artists sampled in the album: Bill Withers, Natalie Cole, Curtis Mayfield and Etta James.

“Themes are important to me, but the beats are what catches someone’s ear and makes a record a hit,” West said, looking over the stack of CDs. “The music is more important than anything. You can have instrumental tracks and people will listen to it. But if you put a really good theme to a bad beat, no one will care about it.”

West was so impressed by the unusual instrument touches that Brion employed on Fiona Apple’s 1999 album “When the Pawn” that he asked the musician-producer to join him on the “Late Registration” recording sessions.

Though unknown in hip-hop circles, L.A.-based Brion is hugely respected in sophisticated pop circles for an imaginative approach that has sometimes been described as pop-cabaret. That roughly means anything goes -- as long as it is fresh and original. He has also produced albums for Rufus Wainwright and Aimee Mann and written scores for such movies as “Magnolia” and “Punch-Drunk Love.”

“My role was to give him options,” said Brion. “With ‘Gold Digger,’ for instance, he had some of the verses and the basic sample and a drum beat. I immediately put on a bunch of weird little keyboard stuff inside the sample to make it ‘scrunchier,’ for lack of a better word. Within about 20 minutes we were actually recording.”

The collaboration is equally exciting on the multilayered “Gone,” which mixes a sample of Otis Redding’s vocal from “It’s Too Late” with Brion’s string arrangement featuring 18 violins, violas and cellos. The backing on another tune, “Bring Me Down,” adds French horn, contrabass, flugelhorn and more.

“It was so much fun conducting an orchestra and watching the musicians’ faces as some of Kanye’s lyrics went by,” Brion recalled. “They couldn’t believe what was going on.”

Setting his goals

INDEED, West isn’t all about sound. His socially conscious themes, particularly in “Crack Music” and “Diamonds From Sierra Leone,” are skillfully layered.

Sample lyrics from “Diamonds”:

Over here, it’s a drug trade, we die from drugs

Over there, they die from what we buy from drugs

The diamonds, the chains, the bracelets, the charmses

I thought my Jesus piece was so harmless.

As he prepares to head across town to sing “Gold Digger” and “Jesus Walks” before 10,000 fans at a concert sponsored by radio station KKBT-FM (100.3), West returns once more to his long-range goal in hip-hop.

“I’m trying to lead by example the same way some of my heroes did in the ‘80s and ‘90s,” he said, relishing the reaction to the new album.

“It’s like what Eminem did to white rappers. He set the bar so high that no other white rapper could compete.

“When people hear my new album, it’s going to up the bar in hip-hop so high that the same thing will happen. It’s going to be hard for other rappers to reach it.”

Some might call that arrogant, but I’d call it welcome.

Hip-hop may have found its Stevie Wonder.

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Contact Robert Hilburn, pop music critic of The Times, at calendar.letters@latimes.com