Advocates for "Graceland" feel its music transcends the racial and cultural barriers of its production. ""Graceland" was never just a collection of songs, after all; it was a bridge between cultures, genres and continents, not to mention a global launching pad for the musicians whose popularity had been suppressed under South Africa's white-run apartheid rule," said Andrew Leahey of "American Songwriter". Presenting the album in a modern context, Tris McCall of the "Star-Ledger" writes that "In a sense, Simon was ahead of his time: The curatorial approach he took to assembling full tracks from scraps of songs and pre-existing recordings is closer in execution to that of Kanye West than it is to any of his contemporaries."