By By Jesse Cataldo

Beyond even his effusive and sometimes arrogant persona, Kanye West is most interesting for his ability to meld seemingly contradictory elements into a surprisingly cohesive message. He made the unheard of change from producer to platinum selling rapper and he wears sweater vests and white dress slacks without losing touch with an overwhelmingly “gangsta,” hip-hop culture. Most importantly, West intermarries the opposing aesthetics of indie and mainstream rap in an amazingly refreshing and conscious manner. Perhaps West said it best when he labeled himself the “first nigga with a Benz and a backpack.”

West uses the characteristics of the two systems as a way to examine the all too common internal conflict between conscience and greed. Such an interesting standpoint has more potential than either extreme to explore the duality of human existence, which West did on 2004’s brilliant The College Dropout. Over the course of 18 tracks, he wedged himself at the center of a maelstrom of opposing desires. West rapped about religion, greed, love for family and the need to project an image and how such varying capacities could exist inside one person.

On Late Registration, West’s themes remain fundamentally the same. The struggle rises anew in “Diamonds,” where West questions how he can not only wear diamonds stained with the blood of abused African child-laborers, but flaunt them for the wealth and status they reflect.

Although his message remains fresh, the inconsistencies and problems of the first only become more pronounced. A bevy of half-baked skits weaken the album’s structure and West’s overdone, if understandable, bias against college as a necessary rite of passage is distracting. Additionally, West’s flow is often clunky and his tendency to force lines to rhyme by changing their sound seems by now more laziness than a stylistic trait.

The Chronicle gives “Late Registration” by Kanye West three stars out of five.