Kanye West — The College Dropout

Chicago-born producer Kanye West made a name for himself by speeding old soul samples to rap time signatures so they sound like Alvin and The Chipmunks. He laces them with equally dusty drum samples and gives them to the best rappers in the game — including Jay-Z, for whom Kanye produced about half of The Blueprint. Further, West is responsible for Alicia Keys’ "You Don’t Know My Name," Ludacris’s "Stand Up" and Cam’ron’s "Oh Boy." So much hype surrounds this guy that Jay-Z signed him to Roc-A-Fella before anyone knew he could rap.  Now, out comes the inevitable, incredible outcome: an album that quietly beats the pants off of even the beloved Speakerboxxx/The Love Below.

How?

First, consistency: over 76 minutes of album and not a second to skip. Even the skits are genuinely funny, if not appropriate to the album’s anti-university theme (a unique motif adhered to not stringently enough to bog the record down with concept).

Second, lyrics. Get over that old producers-can’t-rap stigma and West has a strong sense of humour ("She got a light skinned friend look like Michael Jackson/Got a dark-skinned friend look like Michael Jackson") and substantial things to rap about.

Third: spectacularly progressive, uplifting production. And we’re not just talking about his Alvinesque samples, which West doesn’t overdo here. We’re talking about soul-saturated beats that seamlessly transmute into other soul-saturated beats, an unabashed use of the vocoder, the inspired employment of violinist Miri Ben Ari and The Harlem Boys Choir and generally inventive sampling choices. I guess it’s a bit early to call this album a hip-hop classic. But fuck it, this album is a hip-hop classic. 

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