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KANYE WEST Late Orchestration Roc-A-Fella/Universal ***

Following the plot has never been an option favoured by Kanye West. Most live hip-hop shows have become exercises in product placement and how to get away with musical murder, but West now employs string sections to add additional grandeur to an already sparkling array of chamber-rap gems. Recorded last September at Abbey Road studios in London, before West had truly road-tested the strings-and-rhymes line-up, Late Orchestration is a wow as much for the material as the audacity of the concept in hip-hop terms. Be it guest vocalist John Legend smooching away on Heard 'Em Say or the ever-dramatic cut of Jesus Walks (made even more exaggerated emotionally by those strings), West never shies away from making the biggest statements or taking the longest strides. You may find yourself wishing that more and more rappers go West when it comes to their live rumbles. www.kanyewest.com Jim Carroll