Kanye West has just hit number 1 in the UK with his latest single, Stronger. Unsurprisingly really, considering that he’s been doing a serious promotional round this week that included an appearance at Radio 1 and taking on the guest host spot on the Friday Night Project.

Stronger lifts a massive chunk of Daft Punk’s Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger. The electronica is a huge departure for Kanye, considering the style we’d become accustomed to on Late Registration. Hard to get used to at first, because the Daft Punk sample is so high in the mix, but you do get used to it and you do find yourself trying to sing in a vocoder style…

I’ve gotta say that I’m loving Kanye West right now. Having overdosed on Ice-T and Dr. Dre during my hip-hop years, it’s nice to hear someone coming along and rapping about interesting topics and doing things differently. Don’t get me wrong, I love Ice-T and Dre, but West is the man of the hour.

Stronger: The Video

The Stronger video. Not Kanye’s finest hour. He’s roped in Hype Williams and ended up with a video loaded with special effects. Unfortunately, despite everything I said above, the video is so generic it’s tragic.

Earlier videos like Touch The Sky really showed Kanye’s personality and set him apart. You could stick any other rap star in front of this video and it’d just be the same.

All the same, judging purely on music, this gets a thumbs up from Unreality Music. There’s more talk about the Stronger video over on Arjan’s blog if you’re hankering for more Kanye.