The coinciding release dates between Graduation and fellow American rapper 50 Cent's Curtis generated much publicity over the idea of a sales competition, resulting in record-breaking sales performances by both albums.

Kanye's savvy enough (as he loves to remind us ad nauseum) to know that this music's place in mainstream culture has changed. After collaborating with West on the artwork and video, Murakami later worked with him on the cover art for West and Kid Cudi's eponymous debut studio album, Kids See Ghosts (2018).Using the same vocal styling, " Flashing Lights" tells the operatic narrative of man contemplating the complexities of a tragic relationship. Stronger" is built around a sample of " Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" by Daft Punk, while its echoing deep, hallow drums affect the electronic sound. The album prematurely concludes the education theme of West's first two studio albums, The College Dropout (2004) and Late Registration (2005), as his aborted "Good Ass Job" album would have concluded the concept album's themes as a tetralogy, rather than a trilogy. Drunk and Hot Girls" is a first-person narrative that illustrates a man courting an attractive intoxicated woman in a club but gets more than what he bargained for. Graduation 's intricate musical environments take a while to comprehend, and at times they seem at odds with West's confrontational lyrics.

West claimed that one day, while listening to "Sing Swan Song" by the German experimental-rock band Can, he heard the words "drunk and hot girls" rather than the actual "drunken hot ghost" lyrics. Five accompanying singles were released, including the international hits " Stronger", " Good Life" and " Homecoming", with the former of the three topping the US Billboard Hot 100. Well, going on Graduation , the third full-length artist album by hip-hop’s most famous Noughties auteur Kanye West, you hunt across the pop landscape for fresh sounds ripe for plunder. In addition, songs such as "Everything I Am" have been cited as "the best example of the soulful and introspective atmosphere that came to dominate the rap world, from Drake to The Weeknd".

The soul-fired track "I Wonder" starts off with its piano-based refrain, which contains samples of "My Song" by Labi Siffre. In West's attempt to accomplish this "stadium-status" endeavor, West incorporated layered electronic synthesizers into his hip-hop production, which also finds him utilizing slower tempos, being influenced by the music of the 1980s, and experimenting with electronic music. The low-key track has a scratched hook by DJ Premier formed with the vocal sample which says "Here we go again" taken from " Bring the Noise" by Public Enemy from their 1988 album It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. This album, on the other hand, included a much more electronic sound, featuring the use of layering synthesizers. S., but 50 Cent's own first two albums, Get Rich or Die Trying and The Massacre, sold nearly 14 million, almost exactly twice as much.

It was made available two years later under the new title "Home" on West's 2003 mixtape Get Well Soon. It contains a mix of dark orchestration and detuned electronics with elements of "Sing Swan Song" by German progressive rock band Can. By late September 2005, West had already completed three songs for the album, which he intended to contain a total of twelve tracks. West stated that he wanted to make inspirational music and placed more focus on individual perspective and experience that listeners could connect with in an attempt to create "people's theme songs".

But Kanye’s learnt more from the robots than this straight steal would suggest--indeed, a good proportion of Graduation sounds informed by their vintage synthesisers and noveau ‘80s feel. Graduation is credited with paving the way for other hip-hop artists who did not conform to gangster conventions to find commercial acceptance. USA Today ranked it as the best album of the year, with the staff lauding the "musical and thematic variety" as well as "its articulate and witty rhyming". Ben Detrick of XXL cites West beating 50 cent in sales as being responsible for altering the direction of hip-hop and paving the way for new rappers who didn't follow the hardcore- gangster mold, writing, "If there was ever a watershed moment to indicate hip-hop's changing direction, it may have come when 50 Cent competed with Kanye in 2007 to see whose album would claim superior sales.

After West had played the demo for "Everything I Am" over the phone for DJ Premier and asked him what he thought of it, DJ Premier then replied that he enjoyed the lyrics and the innovative beat and offered to scratch over it.Chris Martin sings the chorus and supplies a gospel-style piano motif while West raps over heavy yet buoyant drums on " Homecoming". like most kanye titles, his fearlessness and blindness to inhibiting boundaries, coupled with his fan driven core competence is evidence that he knows exactly what people yearn for. On October 18, 2007, Graduation officially went RIAA Double Platinum, being certified for over 2,000,000 album units. West elaborated that it was a fully conscious decision to keep his guest vocalists at a minimum, saying that, "When I hear the records of my favorite bands – The Killers or Coldplay – you only hear one voice from start to finish".