Late Registration Songwriting Credits by Kanye West

Late Registration is the second studio album by Kanye West, released in August 2005 on Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam Records and produced by West alongside Jon Brion, whose background in orchestral film scoring and indie rock production introduced string arrangements, analog textures, and unconventional instrumentation to what had been primarily a sample-based approach on the debut. West wrote all his own lyrics; the album demonstrates a more expansive compositional ambition than The College Dropout, with Brion's arrangements supporting longer musical movements and a broader tonal palette, while the lyrical content addresses hurricane Katrina, materialism, and social inequality alongside the personal narrative that had driven the debut. 'Gold Digger' (featuring Jamie Foxx interpolating Ray Charles's 'I Got a Woman') spent ten weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and became one of the best-selling rap singles of the decade; 'Diamonds from Sierra Leone' addressed blood diamond trade routes with analytical precision unusual for mainstream radio rap. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, sold 860,000 copies in its first week, and won the Grammy for Best Rap Album. Late Registration is widely considered West's finest album, the most complete expression of the soul-sample orchestral approach before his subsequent willingness to abandon it entirely.