How would you rank Kanye West’s Discography, best to worst?
After the minor-controversy caused by Chance the Rapper recently, in which he ranked Kanye West’s Discography from best to worst, our very own Selecta Suave thought it a good idea to pose the same question to some of our members.
Firstly, for comparison, we have to show you Chano’s list.
Kanye West’s 2nd record, 2005’s Late Registration, was top of the pile while his 4th, 808s & Heartbreak, was ranked last by Chance. Interesting, right? Some of the other positions you could argue make sense, especially the mash up positions of Watch the Throne, The Life of Pablo and Yeezus.
The Internet completely lost it over the list. Some said his list was “literally backwards,” and others were just plain angry.
Chance joked that the uproar was just a distraction from the fact that a certain someone went “Double Platinum with no features.” The less said about that, for now, the better.. ’cause that’s a discussion for another time 😉
As you can imagine, the results were mixed.. to say the least. From our not-too extensive research My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy appears to be a firm favourite, with The College Dropout right up there as well. Meanwhile, Yeezus and TLOP didn’t fare so well. All of the rankings have been averaged below — 1st place gaining 1 point, 2nd place 2 points, and so on — and you can see how each of the albums fared in relation to one another.
MBDTF was only just the most favoured album, with an average placing of 1.77, with The College Dropout just behind with 2. Note TLOP and Yeezusway down with 5.75 and 6.11 respectively.
Read on for a break down of all of our rankings and a bit of discussion on the way.
Lewis Levi — one half of your favourite Video Direction duo The Rest—was first to give his ranking;
1. The College Dropout,
- My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,
3. Graduation,
4. Yeezus,
5. 808s & Heartbreak,
6. The Life of Pablo,
7. Late Registration
Admittedly, he knew he would get some stick for the placement of Late Registration (from me especially.) But, honestly, ranking records isn’t the easiest thing to do. Lewis added that The College Dropout and MBDTF are joint first because of “two different moods” — something I completely relate to.
Lewis notes that TLOP has “some gems” and “is great at the moment” but doesn’t think it will last with him.
Suave’s own rankings would put MBDTF right up there, too. Placing it 1st ahead of 808s, with The College Dropout making up his top 3 ‘Ye records. Suave ranks Kanye like so;
1. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
2. 808s & Heartbreak
3. The College Dropout
4. Late Registration
5. Graduation
6. Watch the Throne
7. The Life of Pablo
8. Yeezus
Yes. Yes, yes… 808s deserves that place. For me it was the most underrated record of them all (so far.) I think it came at a peculiar time in which listeners weren’t really ready to take it in. It certainly paved the way for a majority of the artists we enjoy today, let alone the style of music that they have embraced. As UX Designer Efosa Omorogbe pointed out, “808s & Heartbreaks is the birth of all these Drake *style* rappers of today,” and that only now is the rap game “catching up to the sound he peeked almost 10 years in advance.”
Efosa ranked 808s right in the middle of the bunch, though. As you might expect by now, MBDTF took first place. Ranked last is Yeezus, though he would place it second if it was ranked in terms of production levels. Efosa ranks as follows;
1. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
2. The College Dropout
3. Graduation
4. 808s & Heartbreak
- Late Registration
6. Watch The Throne
7. The Life of Pablo
8. Yeezus
TLOP was consistently ranked 2nd from last by Lewis, Suave, and Efosa. It’s the one Kanye record I never really bothered with. It’s for that reason I didn’t even give it a spot on the list; truth be told I think I’ve only actually listened to one of the tracks from the record but that was prior to release. You know, when he kept changing the tracks? Yeah.
Suave added that “there’s too many versions of each track” which meant he couldn’t be bothered to keep up. I hear you.
My ranking is as follows;
1. Late Registration
- My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
3. 808s & Heartbreak
4. The College Dropout
- Watch The Throne
6. Graduation
7. Yeezus
Late Registration and MBDTF tie for first position. Though nostalgia tells me to just be done with it and have Late Registration in a category all by itself. That’s how much I love it. Then, and now. I vividly remember playing the Just Cause game on my Xbox.. when I had Late Registration saved on the Xbox. That was the soundtrack to that game — for me — and I absolutely rinsed that game.
808s comes in 3rd through no fault of its own, but simply because the other two were better. Dependent on my mood I could quite easily have 808s take the place of MBDTF in first place but it’s quite rare that I’m in that mood. It’s a similar tale for the remaining records. Watch The Throne is lifted massively because of the production and the features — particularly the relatively unheard of Frank Ocean.
You might be shocked at how low I ranked The College Dropout and Graduation but it’s just a case of never really taking to them. Both had a select few tracks that I really enjoyed, though.
One ranking that really went against the grain came from Writer Courtney, who placed MBDTF way down in 6th. The College Dropout took top spot for him, with Yeezus coming last. When asked to comment on his rankings, we were told that “Yeezus was terrible.” Here’s Courtney’s;
1. The College Dropout
2. Graduation
3. 808s & Heartbreak
4. Watch the Throne
5. The Life of Pablo
6. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
7. Late Registration
8. Yeezus
Tev is left astounded;
Yeezus is sonically ahead of it’s time what do you mean?
Alex Motlhabane, the other half of The Rest, has my favourite rankings of them all. He even had to put a disclaimer on his ranking, stating “Kanye is the hardest artist for me to rank albums ’cause I think they’re all classics.” I think he ranked in a way no-one else considered, but when you approach it with the viewpoint they are all classics, then it’s hard to rank them with a different method to this;
1. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
1. Late Registration
1. The College Dropout
1. Graduation
1. Yeezus
2. Watch the Throne
2. 808s & Heartbreak
3. The Life of Pablo
Brilliant. He didn’t even say “joint first” and then “joint sixth.” Literally, all five in first. Both Watch the Throne and 808s in second. TLOP didn’t join those two because Alex felt that “he [Kanye] lost sense of self on that one.”
There are a select few rankings to round off the list, though.
Rachel ranks;
1. The College Dropout
2. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
3. Late Registration
4. Graduation
5. Yeezus
6. 808s & Heartbreak
7. The Life of Pablo
Tev ranks;
1. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
2. Late Registration
3. 808s & Heartbreak
4. The College Dropout
5. Graduation
6. Yeezus
7. The Life of Pablo
Tashinga ranks;
1. The College Dropout
2. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
3. Graduation
4. The Life of Pablo
5. 808s & Heartbreak
6. Watch the Throne
7. Late Registration
8. Yeezus
I think a difficulty with ranking records — especially as a fan of the artist you are ranking — is that you don’t want to put one of them in 5th place (for example.) So, in some of the rankings above, you can see records like 808s and Graduation coming 5th and it sounds kinda crazy. In relation to the others it makes sense.
How would you rank Kanye West’s Discography? Are you amongst the (apparent) majority that holds MBDTF so high or do you have other thoughts? Leave your rankings as a response below, or over on Twitter, and let us know 👊🏼
Interested in contributing or signing up for updates? ⛵️
