Pitchfork

Going straight from Late Registration to Graduation is missing a few steps in between (what about Skipping Class? Changing Meal Plans? Drinking So Much You Wake Up the Next Day at the Airport Wearing a Badge That Says, "Hello, My Name Is: Sloppy McBlzioiuarhgh"?), but Kanye West has never been one to follow the beaten path.

Unless that path has been beaten by Jay-Z. According to Billboard.com, West has chosen Coldplay's Chris Martin to appear on "Homecoming", the first single from Graduation, the higher education-obsessed producer and MC's third album.

Graduation is tentatively scheduled for a Def Jam release later this year, and though Kanye did admittedly great things with Maroon 5's Adam Levine on Late Registration's "Heard 'Em Say", we're still a little skeptical about the Chris Martin collaboration. (Jigga's "Beach Chair" wasn't all that.)

The good news, however, is that West has re-teamed with producer and multi-instrumentalist Jon Brion, telling Billboard.com, "We'll be working together again on the new project. Jon wasn't just a producer-- he was such a good friend and a great person to bounce ideas off of in the studio. It was the whole experience."

Back in the world of semi-troubling collaborations, MTV.com reports that Kanye has plans to remix Fall Out Boy's "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race", the first single from their forthcoming Infinity on High LP. The album features production from Babyface and a verse from Jay-Z on one track, and pin-up Boy bassist Pete Wentz hopes to get Kanye's remix on the disc as well, even though it's scheduled for a fast-approaching February 6 release. Wentz also said Fall Out Boy have plans to put their own spin on one of Kanye's new songs.

We can only imagine who Kanye might collaborate with next. Might we suggest, um, the guy from Travis?