Kanye West doesn't really do low stakes. He once identified his competition as "Michelangelo, Picasso, the pyramids," and it's not like you form a group with Jay-Z, name it the Throne and put a gold embossed cover on the album because you're afraid of high expectations. So consider Cruel Summer the first real creative vacation West has taken in his illustrious career – an occasionally exhilarating, ultimately underwhelming showcase for Kanye and his friends (many of whom are signed to his G.O.O.D. Music label) to have a little fun together, shooting hoops in the backyard without anyone confusing the pickup game for the Olympics.

The album trades sonic extravagance for a largely stripped-down palette of 808 bass and tinny melodies ("Mercy," "Cold"). Guests include a marvelously surly R. Kelly ("The whole world is a couch/ Bitch, I'm Rick James toniiiight!" he belts on "To the World"), Jay-Z (whose breezy self-regard overflows into Spanish on "Clique") and younger comers, like 2 Chainz and Big Sean, who keep the goofy punch lines flowing. But the star is West, who bum-rushes every song he's on like it's someone else's acceptance speech. His "Clique" verse is a classic head-spinner: One moment he's slyly referencing girlfriend Kim Kardashian's sex tape; the next he's musing on race and wealth via an (imagined?) exchange with Bush-era CIA boss George Tenet, then eyeing real estate next to Tom Cruise's place. There are no grand statements, but plenty of hot lines.

Listen to 'Cruel Summer':

“Everyday People”

"Everyday People" managed to trailblaze in two different ways -- it was one of the first pop hits to deal with the subject of racial harmony, and it utilized Larry Graham's "slap" technique on the bass guitar, which would soon be copied by countless other bassists. Graham once said about his pulsating style, "I'd never done that before … that's where the freedom of creativity came in for the band, that we'd be allowed to do that." In 1978, the song's line "Different strokes for different folks" would be borrowed for the title of the hit television show Diff'rent Strokes.