I love Kanye West

May I just say that I absolutely love Kanye West's music? I had always tended to like his singles that he would release, but I didn't care enough (at the time) to go and get any of his CDs. During the summer, I fell in love with his hit single "Stronger" from his new record Graduation. I finally decided to give his records a chance.
First, since I knew my brother bought his first CD College Dropout years back, I stole it from him (more like permanently borrowed it, but whatever). I was instantly hooked. Every song made me smile, feel giddy, and actually made me want to get up and dance. I then found myself at a Rasputin's Music one day, and decided to see if they had his second CD, Late Registration, in the used section, which they did. I bought it, and fell in love with it. It made me anxiously start counting down the days until I could purchase Graduation. And then finally, I got Graduation in my hands. And I was not disappointed at all.
Here's the thing about Kanye's music: he uses samples. Most hip hop/rap artists have songs with samples in them. P Diddy, or Puff Daddy, or Diddy (whatever he's calling himself today), used to have a reputation as sampling entire compostions in his songs, most notably the Police's "Every Breath You Take" for his song about his friend Notorious B.I.G., "I'll Be Missing You." Kanye has tended to take samples of other artist's composition's as well. However, unlike Puff Daddy Diddy Farty Licky (to quote Lewis Black), Kanye takes a small, basic sample, uses it as a hook, and then builds and builds upon it. For example, in the song "Good Life," which features T-Pain, he samples Michael Jackson's "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)," and I swear I can't even tell what part of the song he samples. He basically just takes a part of older soul and R&B compositions and then builds some amazing material on the top of it.
The man just has a great sense of musical style. I mean, he has sampled Otis Redding, Elton John, Chaka Khan, and others. It just makes for an interesting body of work. His production is flawless. Every song has been mixed to perfection, a result of his tireless work ethic. On Graduation, he has turned to more modern hip hop keyboard/synth sounds, and they all work wonderfully. It's like he took Lil Jon and made him more soulful. I guess it should be expected, since he was a producer first before he started rapping. His rhymes are super sarcastic and biting, and they are as good as ever on Graduation. There seriously isn't a bad song on Graduation, and there really isn't a bad song in his catalogue. Say what you will about the man's ego, but he has an unquestionable musical style that has allowed him to sell millions of records, and win a couple of Grammy's. He's a musical genius, hands down.