I've been listening to the new Kanye West CD (College Dropout) nearly non-stop for the last month (its one of the best albums of the year). But it shares a strange connection to Macy Gray's first CD (...On How Life Is): both include both a song driven by religion (KW- Jesus Walks, MG- I Can't Wait to Meetchu) and a song detailing the frustrations of low income jobs and shifty managers (KW- Spaceship, MG- I Committed Murder).

The difference? Macy comes off as hypocritical (in the way that boxers seem hypocritcal when they thank god for helping them to beat down their opponent). I've Committed Murder details Macy's imagined tale of killing her boyfriend's scheming retail store manager. By itself, I don't have a lot of problems with exagerated tales to make a societal point or get out one's frustrations (I do own the original Ice-T CD with the infamous Cop Killer song- though Macy seems more righteous and less political in her ramblings). But just two songs before that I was forced to sit through I Can't Wait to Meetchu where Macy nasceaously goes over the top in a gospel-esque song about how she just can't wait to get to heaven so she can meet God. Really Macy? And so the store-manager-murder thang, that was simply a tale of WWJD?

On the other hand, Kanye's whole CD embraces and admits to conflicts like this, making them all more palatable. Admittedly, Kanye doesn't kill anyone on the album which lessen's the hypocracy, but he certainly gets his bling on at several points. But he deals honestly with this dicotomy on the album. His lyrics are so well crafted around his internal conflicts that even I (who most of the time can't stand any God talk in my music) enjoyed Jesus Walks (the phat beat helps too).

Update: I was reminded that the initial annoyance with Macy's hypocracy was brought up by my wife, not me. I simply latched on to it :)