This has been touted as the year’s most anticipated release — less because of what Kanye West has achieved as half of Roc-A-Fella’s hit-making house production team and more because of what he represents: the long-awaited bridge between hip-hop’s over- and underground. He’s a guy who admits that he wants…

Self-contained female performers have always been a rarity in R&B, so when one comes along, overreaction is perhaps inevitable. In 2001, plenty of those who heard Alicia Keys were so knocked out by the preternaturally poised 19-year-old pianist that they failed to notice that much of the music from Songs…