![]() Joining forces with film composer Jon Brion of such elegant soundtracks as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Kanye produced an album that was 21-tracks deep of orchestration style strings laid over more chopped-up oldies intermittent with brazenly humorous skits. If The College D ropout was soulful cookout music, Late Registration was an opera. ![]() Still, critics, as they would with any newcomer, quietly wondered if he would fall victim to the artistic cliché: “the Sophomore Slump.” Late Registration While Dropout was massively successful at the time, it has since received extreme praise as its influence became timeless. Cole, Kid Cudi and countless others have cited ‘Ye’s creativity and willingness to turn hip-hop on its head as major influences on their own careers. In the long term, he was laying groundwork for a genre for which he would serve as the principal driver throughout the remainder of the decade. Kanye muses on the all-timer All Falls Down, “We’re all self-conscious, I’m just the first to admit it.” He was unafraid for us to perceive him exactly as we should in his early years: cocky, innovative and, naturally, accessible.Ī freshman in college raps the second verse of Get Em High: “At NYU, but she hails from Kansas, right now she just lamping, chilling on campus!” Who didn’t love Dropout? In the short term, it was so relatable, personally and collectively, for friends and acquaintances on a massive campus all agonizing over degrees, success and the uncertainties of adulthood. It’s equal parts corny andĬocky, showcasing vulnerable, sarcastic and genuine explorations of working- and middle-class woes generally absent in the lyrics of his older contemporaries. and elevated himself to a producer-star, reviving the soul sample most notable for Jay Z’s The Blueprint, a style he would showcase on his own albums.ĭropout famously broke away the gangster-rap mold that had persisted into the new millennium as a dominant subgenre in hip-hop music. He had emerged as a producer in the late 90s under the mentorship of fellow Chicagoan No I.D. Kanye documents his own rise into the mise-en-scène through his rap monologue Last Call, the outro of The College Dropout, in which he speaks casually of his newfound success as if it were annoyingly unsurprising. Despite these historic entries into rap’s canon, the mid-2000s was a time of stagnant uncertainty for hip-hop, a setting ripe for revolution. The rap genre was dominated by Eminem via the massive success of his pair of alter-ego LPs and The Eminem Show, 50 Cent with Get Rich or Die Tryin’, and Jay Z retired off The Black Album. We were sporting iPods with music loaded off CDs and bought digitally from iTunes. Bush was on the verge of a predictable reelection. In 2004, Facebook was in its heyday, Tobey Maguire was still Spider-Man, and George W. The College Dropout College Dropout Era Kanye West Who exactly was the Old Kanye and how did he arrive at New ‘Ye? From a fan’s perspective, the entire transition from superstar to ultra-scrutinized pseudo-villain (with a few other identities along the way) serves as a fascinating commentary on the art of Yeezus and the double-edged sword of enormous egoism. ![]() As he aptly (and mockingly) observes on the self-rhyming track of The Life of Pablo, we miss the old ‘Ye. While his award-show stunts and other cringe-worthy moments began long before the VMA incident, we were generally willing to love Kanye as much as he loved himself because his arrogance gleamed more in amicable swagger rather than in vibrant, albeit directionless, invectives. That’s not hyperbole, nor is it news publications have been willing to give the “College Era” of Yeezy’s career its glowing due diligence since we were in medias res, 2004-2008.īack then, the mainstream audience was willing to match the adulation of critics without the nervous reservations that seem to occupy most casual conversations about the man who was once facing down 50 Cent on the cover of Rolling Stone and who moved us to tears with performances of Hey Mama at the Grammys and on the Glow in the Dark Tour in tribute to his passed idol. ![]() The College Era Lyrics and Ego of Kanye Westīefore Donda West passed away, before fiancée Alexis Phifer broke off their engagement, before he took the mic away from America’s de facto sweetheart, and before you felt obligated to preface your fandom by saying, “I think he’s an asshole as a person,” Kanye West had put together one of the most successful and impactful runs of any pop artist in modern American music.
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