Chords for Kanye West’s Graduation in 4 Minutes | Liner Notes
Tempo:
85.05 bpm
Chords used:
F
G
C
Ab
Ebm
Tuning:Standard Tuning (EADGBE)Capo:+0fret
Start Jamming...
[F] [Ebm] It's what you all been [N] waiting for, ain't it?
Well, people pay paper, folk, damn it.
On September 11, 2007, two rappers,
engaged in the most talked about [F] hip hop beef in the world,
squared off.
Unlike most famous hip hop feuds before,
this one wasn't to be settled with words or [G] weapons,
but by sales figures.
On one side was industry powerhouse 50 Cent,
who'd already released two of the best-selling
rap albums of the decade.
Underdog Kanye West, on the other hand,
had Grammys and a growing fan base,
but he also frequently clashed with rap's aesthetic standards.
Lately, he'd been raising eyebrows with a new look
and a recent mixtape that seemed more indebted
to indie rock and electro than traditional hip hop.
In the end, it wasn't even close.
50's album, Curtis, sold 691,000 copies in its first week.
Kanye's Graduation sold nearly a million.
[Db]
[Ab] [Ebm] [F]
Graduation was a much more daring album
than Kanye's previous two,
where he'd made the [E] transition from successful producer
to [C] bankable star.
Its songs are built from much different sounds
and [G] the dusty, pitched-up hyper soul
that he'd built his career on,
and drawn from much different sources.
Champion sampled 70's yacht rock legend Steely Dan.
[Ab] ♪ Did you realize ♪
♪ [Fm] That you were a champion?
[F] ♪
♪ Yes I did ♪
Drunken Hot Girl sampled 70's kraut rock [Bbm] legends Can.
♪ Don't do too much [Bb] bullshit just to mess with me ♪
♪ Drunken Hot Girl ♪
[G] And while Kanye wasn't the first rapper
to go in over a Daft Punk song,
he did it bigger and better than anyone else.
On top of becoming Kanye's third number one hit,
Stronger was an early example
of the obsessive perfectionism
that would become one of the defining characteristics
of Kanye's post-graduation [F] work.
The mix alone took eight audio engineers,
11 mix engineers, and 75 different versions
before he settled on the final [Ebm] one.
♪ That, that, that, that don't kill me [Db] ♪
♪ Can only make [Ab] me stronger ♪
♪ I need you to hurry up now ♪
♪ [Bb] Cause I can't wait much [F] longer ♪
Stronger helped prime the pop mainstream
for the EDM explosion that followed soon after.
But Kanye was also exploring his growing interest
in electronic music in subtler ways.
By combining a slowed [G] down Chicago house beat
and icy keyboards on flashing lights,
he created a new soulful style of synth pop
whose influence would reverberate wider in coming years
through artists ranging from Kid [Bm] Cudi to Lorde.
♪ Flashing lights, lights, lights, [D] lights ♪
Kanye's vision for graduation
differed from the hip hop mainstream
in terms of scope as well as style.
After rappers from the bling era
brought the genre from the streets back into the [G] club,
Kanye looked to scale it up to arena size.
Tracks [F] like I Wonder
and the Chris Martin featuring Homecoming
were specifically designed to replicate the epic energy
he'd seen U2 create night after night
while he opened for them on tour.
[E] ♪ Do you think about [Ab] me now and then?
♪
♪ Do [G] you think about me now and then?
♪
♪ Cause I'm [F] coming home again ♪ [Bm] Ow!
[G] Even the album's more straightforward rap cuts,
like Can't Tell Me Nothing,
had a sense of magnitude
that his earlier work barely hinted at.
With its confrontational edge and hint of media paranoia,
Can't Tell Me Nothing also predicted
some of the darker themes his music would take on
after he reached a higher level of [C] fame.
♪ I'm so, [Eb] I'm so blind ♪
♪ [Fm] I wait till I get my [Cm] money right, [C] right, [Eb] right [Fm] ♪
♪ And you can't tell me [Eb] nothing right ♪
Graduation represented a turning point for Kanye's career,
establishing [C] him not only as a next-level creative force,
but as a full-blown superstar
who [N] could fill arenas with his glow-in-the-dark tour
the following year.
Ultimately, it also represented a turning point
for hip-hop as a whole.
It proved that the radio-friendly gangster formula
that 50-cent road to multi-platinum [C] success
had already peaked,
and in the years to come,
Kanye's eccentric style would become the new norm.
I [G] was doing Stronger for three months.
I'm not [D] just doing it for one week
and going off and smoking some weed
and going to the club and partying.
I'm delivering product on a whole new level.
I'm like a machine.
I'm a robot.
You cannot offend a
Well, people pay paper, folk, damn it.
On September 11, 2007, two rappers,
engaged in the most talked about [F] hip hop beef in the world,
squared off.
Unlike most famous hip hop feuds before,
this one wasn't to be settled with words or [G] weapons,
but by sales figures.
On one side was industry powerhouse 50 Cent,
who'd already released two of the best-selling
rap albums of the decade.
Underdog Kanye West, on the other hand,
had Grammys and a growing fan base,
but he also frequently clashed with rap's aesthetic standards.
Lately, he'd been raising eyebrows with a new look
and a recent mixtape that seemed more indebted
to indie rock and electro than traditional hip hop.
In the end, it wasn't even close.
50's album, Curtis, sold 691,000 copies in its first week.
Kanye's Graduation sold nearly a million.
[Db]
[Ab] [Ebm] [F]
Graduation was a much more daring album
than Kanye's previous two,
where he'd made the [E] transition from successful producer
to [C] bankable star.
Its songs are built from much different sounds
and [G] the dusty, pitched-up hyper soul
that he'd built his career on,
and drawn from much different sources.
Champion sampled 70's yacht rock legend Steely Dan.
[Ab] ♪ Did you realize ♪
♪ [Fm] That you were a champion?
[F] ♪
♪ Yes I did ♪
Drunken Hot Girl sampled 70's kraut rock [Bbm] legends Can.
♪ Don't do too much [Bb] bullshit just to mess with me ♪
♪ Drunken Hot Girl ♪
[G] And while Kanye wasn't the first rapper
to go in over a Daft Punk song,
he did it bigger and better than anyone else.
On top of becoming Kanye's third number one hit,
Stronger was an early example
of the obsessive perfectionism
that would become one of the defining characteristics
of Kanye's post-graduation [F] work.
The mix alone took eight audio engineers,
11 mix engineers, and 75 different versions
before he settled on the final [Ebm] one.
♪ That, that, that, that don't kill me [Db] ♪
♪ Can only make [Ab] me stronger ♪
♪ I need you to hurry up now ♪
♪ [Bb] Cause I can't wait much [F] longer ♪
Stronger helped prime the pop mainstream
for the EDM explosion that followed soon after.
But Kanye was also exploring his growing interest
in electronic music in subtler ways.
By combining a slowed [G] down Chicago house beat
and icy keyboards on flashing lights,
he created a new soulful style of synth pop
whose influence would reverberate wider in coming years
through artists ranging from Kid [Bm] Cudi to Lorde.
♪ Flashing lights, lights, lights, [D] lights ♪
Kanye's vision for graduation
differed from the hip hop mainstream
in terms of scope as well as style.
After rappers from the bling era
brought the genre from the streets back into the [G] club,
Kanye looked to scale it up to arena size.
Tracks [F] like I Wonder
and the Chris Martin featuring Homecoming
were specifically designed to replicate the epic energy
he'd seen U2 create night after night
while he opened for them on tour.
[E] ♪ Do you think about [Ab] me now and then?
♪
♪ Do [G] you think about me now and then?
♪
♪ Cause I'm [F] coming home again ♪ [Bm] Ow!
[G] Even the album's more straightforward rap cuts,
like Can't Tell Me Nothing,
had a sense of magnitude
that his earlier work barely hinted at.
With its confrontational edge and hint of media paranoia,
Can't Tell Me Nothing also predicted
some of the darker themes his music would take on
after he reached a higher level of [C] fame.
♪ I'm so, [Eb] I'm so blind ♪
♪ [Fm] I wait till I get my [Cm] money right, [C] right, [Eb] right [Fm] ♪
♪ And you can't tell me [Eb] nothing right ♪
Graduation represented a turning point for Kanye's career,
establishing [C] him not only as a next-level creative force,
but as a full-blown superstar
who [N] could fill arenas with his glow-in-the-dark tour
the following year.
Ultimately, it also represented a turning point
for hip-hop as a whole.
It proved that the radio-friendly gangster formula
that 50-cent road to multi-platinum [C] success
had already peaked,
and in the years to come,
Kanye's eccentric style would become the new norm.
I [G] was doing Stronger for three months.
I'm not [D] just doing it for one week
and going off and smoking some weed
and going to the club and partying.
I'm delivering product on a whole new level.
I'm like a machine.
I'm a robot.
You cannot offend a
Key:
F
G
C
Ab
Ebm
F
G
C
_ [F] _ _ [Ebm] _ It's what you all been [N] waiting for, ain't it?
Well, people pay paper, folk, damn it.
On September 11, 2007, two rappers,
engaged in the most talked about [F] hip hop beef in the world,
squared off.
Unlike most famous hip hop feuds before,
this one wasn't to be settled with words or [G] weapons,
but by sales figures.
On one side was industry powerhouse 50 Cent,
who'd already released two of the best-selling
rap albums of the decade.
Underdog Kanye West, on the other hand,
had Grammys and a growing fan base,
but he also frequently clashed with rap's aesthetic standards.
Lately, he'd been raising eyebrows with a new look
and a recent mixtape that seemed more indebted
to indie rock and electro than traditional hip hop.
In the end, it wasn't even close.
50's album, Curtis, sold 691,000 copies in its first week.
Kanye's Graduation sold nearly a million.
[Db] _ _
_ _ _ [Ab] _ _ [Ebm] _ _ [F]
Graduation was a much more daring album
than Kanye's previous two,
where he'd made the [E] transition from successful producer
to [C] bankable star.
Its songs are built from much different sounds
and [G] the dusty, pitched-up hyper soul
that he'd built his career on,
and drawn from much different sources.
Champion sampled 70's yacht rock legend Steely Dan.
[Ab] ♪ Did you realize ♪
♪ [Fm] That you were a champion?
_ [F] ♪
♪ Yes I did ♪
Drunken Hot Girl sampled 70's kraut rock [Bbm] legends Can.
♪ Don't do too much [Bb] bullshit just to mess with me ♪
♪ Drunken Hot Girl ♪
[G] And while Kanye wasn't the first rapper
to go in over a Daft Punk song,
he did it bigger and better than anyone else.
On top of becoming Kanye's third number one hit,
Stronger was an early example
of the obsessive perfectionism
that would become one of the defining characteristics
of Kanye's post-graduation [F] work.
The mix alone took eight audio engineers,
11 mix engineers, and 75 different versions
before he settled on the final [Ebm] one.
♪ That, that, that, that don't kill me [Db] ♪
♪ Can only make [Ab] me stronger ♪
♪ I need you to hurry up now ♪
♪ [Bb] Cause I can't wait much [F] longer ♪
Stronger helped prime the pop mainstream
for the EDM explosion that followed soon after.
But Kanye was also exploring his growing interest
in electronic music in subtler ways.
By combining a slowed [G] down Chicago house beat
and icy keyboards on flashing lights,
he created a new soulful style of synth pop
whose influence would reverberate wider in coming years
through artists ranging from Kid [Bm] Cudi to Lorde.
♪ Flashing lights, lights, lights, [D] lights ♪
Kanye's vision for graduation
differed from the hip hop mainstream
in terms of scope as well as style.
After rappers from the bling era
brought the genre from the streets back into the [G] club,
Kanye looked to scale it up to arena size.
Tracks [F] like I Wonder
and the Chris Martin featuring Homecoming
were specifically designed to replicate the epic energy
he'd seen U2 create night after night
while he opened for them on tour.
[E] ♪ Do you think about [Ab] me now and then?
♪
♪ Do [G] you think about me now and then?
♪
♪ Cause I'm [F] coming home again ♪ [Bm] Ow!
_ [G] Even the album's more straightforward rap cuts,
like Can't Tell Me Nothing,
had a sense of magnitude
that his earlier work barely hinted at.
With its confrontational edge and hint of media paranoia,
Can't Tell Me Nothing also predicted
some of the darker themes his music would take on
after he reached a higher level of [C] fame.
♪ I'm so, [Eb] I'm so blind ♪
♪ [Fm] I wait till I get my [Cm] money right, [C] right, [Eb] right [Fm] ♪
♪ And you can't tell me [Eb] nothing right ♪
Graduation represented a turning point for Kanye's career,
establishing [C] him not only as a next-level creative force,
but as a full-blown superstar
who [N] could fill arenas with his glow-in-the-dark tour
the following year.
Ultimately, it also represented a turning point
for hip-hop as a whole.
It proved that the radio-friendly gangster formula
that 50-cent road to multi-platinum [C] success
had already peaked,
and in the years to come,
Kanye's eccentric style would become the new norm.
I [G] was doing Stronger for three months.
I'm not [D] just doing it for one week
and going off and smoking some weed
and going to the club and partying.
I'm delivering product on a whole new level.
I'm like a machine.
I'm a robot.
You cannot offend a
Well, people pay paper, folk, damn it.
On September 11, 2007, two rappers,
engaged in the most talked about [F] hip hop beef in the world,
squared off.
Unlike most famous hip hop feuds before,
this one wasn't to be settled with words or [G] weapons,
but by sales figures.
On one side was industry powerhouse 50 Cent,
who'd already released two of the best-selling
rap albums of the decade.
Underdog Kanye West, on the other hand,
had Grammys and a growing fan base,
but he also frequently clashed with rap's aesthetic standards.
Lately, he'd been raising eyebrows with a new look
and a recent mixtape that seemed more indebted
to indie rock and electro than traditional hip hop.
In the end, it wasn't even close.
50's album, Curtis, sold 691,000 copies in its first week.
Kanye's Graduation sold nearly a million.
[Db] _ _
_ _ _ [Ab] _ _ [Ebm] _ _ [F]
Graduation was a much more daring album
than Kanye's previous two,
where he'd made the [E] transition from successful producer
to [C] bankable star.
Its songs are built from much different sounds
and [G] the dusty, pitched-up hyper soul
that he'd built his career on,
and drawn from much different sources.
Champion sampled 70's yacht rock legend Steely Dan.
[Ab] ♪ Did you realize ♪
♪ [Fm] That you were a champion?
_ [F] ♪
♪ Yes I did ♪
Drunken Hot Girl sampled 70's kraut rock [Bbm] legends Can.
♪ Don't do too much [Bb] bullshit just to mess with me ♪
♪ Drunken Hot Girl ♪
[G] And while Kanye wasn't the first rapper
to go in over a Daft Punk song,
he did it bigger and better than anyone else.
On top of becoming Kanye's third number one hit,
Stronger was an early example
of the obsessive perfectionism
that would become one of the defining characteristics
of Kanye's post-graduation [F] work.
The mix alone took eight audio engineers,
11 mix engineers, and 75 different versions
before he settled on the final [Ebm] one.
♪ That, that, that, that don't kill me [Db] ♪
♪ Can only make [Ab] me stronger ♪
♪ I need you to hurry up now ♪
♪ [Bb] Cause I can't wait much [F] longer ♪
Stronger helped prime the pop mainstream
for the EDM explosion that followed soon after.
But Kanye was also exploring his growing interest
in electronic music in subtler ways.
By combining a slowed [G] down Chicago house beat
and icy keyboards on flashing lights,
he created a new soulful style of synth pop
whose influence would reverberate wider in coming years
through artists ranging from Kid [Bm] Cudi to Lorde.
♪ Flashing lights, lights, lights, [D] lights ♪
Kanye's vision for graduation
differed from the hip hop mainstream
in terms of scope as well as style.
After rappers from the bling era
brought the genre from the streets back into the [G] club,
Kanye looked to scale it up to arena size.
Tracks [F] like I Wonder
and the Chris Martin featuring Homecoming
were specifically designed to replicate the epic energy
he'd seen U2 create night after night
while he opened for them on tour.
[E] ♪ Do you think about [Ab] me now and then?
♪
♪ Do [G] you think about me now and then?
♪
♪ Cause I'm [F] coming home again ♪ [Bm] Ow!
_ [G] Even the album's more straightforward rap cuts,
like Can't Tell Me Nothing,
had a sense of magnitude
that his earlier work barely hinted at.
With its confrontational edge and hint of media paranoia,
Can't Tell Me Nothing also predicted
some of the darker themes his music would take on
after he reached a higher level of [C] fame.
♪ I'm so, [Eb] I'm so blind ♪
♪ [Fm] I wait till I get my [Cm] money right, [C] right, [Eb] right [Fm] ♪
♪ And you can't tell me [Eb] nothing right ♪
Graduation represented a turning point for Kanye's career,
establishing [C] him not only as a next-level creative force,
but as a full-blown superstar
who [N] could fill arenas with his glow-in-the-dark tour
the following year.
Ultimately, it also represented a turning point
for hip-hop as a whole.
It proved that the radio-friendly gangster formula
that 50-cent road to multi-platinum [C] success
had already peaked,
and in the years to come,
Kanye's eccentric style would become the new norm.
I [G] was doing Stronger for three months.
I'm not [D] just doing it for one week
and going off and smoking some weed
and going to the club and partying.
I'm delivering product on a whole new level.
I'm like a machine.
I'm a robot.
You cannot offend a