it was a side project, he said so himself. he said it was just something that he wanted to do and that he didn't care whether it sold or not because it was just an experiment he really wanted to do. there's a reason that this has hardly been promoted at all, especially when compared to the media attention Graduation was grabbing.
of course we all know that none of this will matter to those haters who only like musicians who aren't successful, or remix the same old songs for the thousandth time and lay a little rhyme on top.
i like this album because it's fresh, i've never heard these beats before, and there isn't a lot of music out there that sounds like this. it's not straight up rapping, but it is rhyming, and it wasn't mixed in some mom's basement with a couple of 60s records that have been played on so many tracks already (i'm not naming anybody but some of you "rap lovers" know exactly who i'm talking about.