Graduation by Kanye West

Graduation, Kanye West's third album, came out through Def Jam and Roc-A-Fella in September 2007 and closed the book on the school-themed trilogy he began with The College Dropout and Late Registration. West produced most of it himself, with help from DJ Toomp among others, and he traded the lush soul samples of his first two records for stadium-sized synths, house-music pulse and indie-rock ambition.

"Stronger" was the monster, a Hot 100 number one, and "Good Life" and "Homecoming" became global hits too. Chris Martin, T-Pain, Lil Wayne and Mos Def dropped by, Takashi Murakami gave Dropout Bear a cartoon makeover for the art, and the album's release-day face-off with 50 Cent's Curtis made headlines. Graduation opened at number one with over 957,000 copies in its first week, won West his third Grammy for Best Rap Album, and helped end gangsta rap's grip on the mainstream.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.