GRADUATED AT THE TOP OF THE CLASS

Kanye merked 50 in record sales this week. No surprise at all - but I was hoping that he'd have gone platinum in the first week out. He should have convinced Jay to buy the 43,000 cds that would have put him over the top. That's a drop in the bucket for Young Turbo.


Speaking of Hov, he popped up on the remix to 50's "I Got Money" on Monday. He and Puffy drop guest verses on easily the best song on "Curtis." 50 is 50 (aggressive and ready to kill you while talking about money), Diddy is Diddy (rhyming awfully, but it's amazing that he's still relevant after 10 years of doing nothing!), and Jay is Jay. Every time Jay comes on a track there's a sense that it's about to become an event. You can't say that about too many people nowadays.

Anyway, Jay speaks on the remix here. And also talks about Kanye's project. Probably the most interesting part of the interview is the fact that he was supposed to be on "Barry Bonds." As I've said before, Bonds is one of the songs on the album that I haven't been able to fully endorse yet, even though it grows on me with every listen. If Jay was on the track, my slurping of Graduation would have been even more pronounced. It would probably reach the point where I would actually take the cd behind the middle school and get it pregnant. More importantly, if Jay was supposed to be on the track, it showcases Kanye's effort to bridge gaps in the rap community. On "Late Registration" everyone made a big deal about how Kanye sequenced the Diamonds Remix (featuring Jay) right before We Major (featuring Nas). They thought it was a symbolic and subtle end to the very pronounced beef that the Jay and Nas had over the years. Well, if Ye was about to put Jay and Lilweezyana on a song together, the same thing would have been said - especially after Wayne's running off at the mouth this year about being the greatest rapper alive (and his subsequent backtracking...but whatever). But it is disappointing that Jay said that he didn't get on the remix because it was too late in the day...What the fuck does that mean?? The CD got pushed back for a month because the artwork took time to finish and Hov couldn't get in the studio for 30 minutes to get his Rain Man on and spit a verse. Weak.