dropoutNo. 5: The College Dropout

When people talk about missing “the old Kanye,” this is the project to which they are referring. When Kanye’s debut album, The College Dropout was released, it changed the entire landscape of hip-hop. Kanye rhymes over sped-up soul samples and drum machine fills about topics that every kid growing up in the early 2000s could relate to.

College Dropout shows Kanye at his emotionally purest. His verses don’t center around being the greatest of all time, but instead on how he managed to overcome all of the struggles he had faced. He talks about his personal struggles with God on “Jesus Walks” and with greed on “All Falls Down.” College Dropout was game changing, but it was clear that Kanye was still developing and that this album served more as a warm up than anything else.