Kanye West released his third studio album, Graduation, 12 years ago today. The project marked his latest evolution, taking influence from indie rock and house music to create a more expansive sound suited for performing at stadiums. This change was prompted by his stints as an opening act on both U2’s Vertigo Tour and The Rolling Stones‘ A Bigger Bang Tour, where the Chicago rapper observed how he could make hip-hop resonate better with more mainstream audiences.
According to MTV, Kanye revealed at the album’s New York City listening party that the Graduation cut, “I Wonder,” is his version of U2’s “City Of Blinding Lights.” Seeing the Irish rock band open stadium tours every night to huge ovations inspired him to focus on “speaking volumes without using too many words.”
“City of Blinding Lights” opened the majority of concerts on the Vertigo Tour. Taken from U2’s 2004 album, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, it reached No. 1 in Spain while peaking in the Top 10 of charts in Canada, Ireland, Spain, and the UK.
Kanye isn’t the only prominent Chicago figure inspired by the uplifting tune. Former President Barack Obama used the song as his entrance theme for his February 2007 presidential candidacy announcement and continued to play it as he entered the stage for 2008 US presidential election campaign events.
To create a hip-hop version of “City of Blinding Lights” with “I Wonder,” Kanye combined lush strings and distorted synths with a sample of the piano and vocals from British singer-songwriter Labi Siffre’s 1972 track, “My Song.”
He also delivers his introspective lyrics in a truncated flow:
When you hop back in the car
Drive back to the crib
Run back to their arms
The smokescreens
The chokes and the screams
You ever wonder what it all really means
During the listening party, he also explained how touring with The Rolling Stones had a similar effect on his lyrics. “I’d be saying my super raps, and this 50-year-old white lady would be looking like, ‘I can’t wait till the Rolling Stones come on,’” Kanye remembered.
Graduation was pitted against 50 Cent’s Curtis in a battle for first-week sales that Kanye won easily. Graduation sold 957,000 copies to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, while Curtis moved 691,000.
Catch up on all of the lyrics to Kanye West’s Graduation on Genius now.
