Today in Hip Hop History: The College Dropout Hits its Teenage Years
By: CJ Maruyama
I miss the old Kanye, chop up the soul Kanye.
In 2004, the relatively unknown producer and rapper Kanye West set out to show the world just who exactly he was. Low and behold, 13 years later he is now one of the most well-known and controversial celebrities in human existence. It wasn’t always this way.
When Kanye dropped his debut album, The College Dropout, through Roc-A-Fella and Def Jam, he was more known through his production work with Common, Jay Z, and J Dilla, among others. As such, he was mostly involved in the behind the scenes work. Alongside a timely feature in The Chappelle’s Show performing “The Food” live, The College Dropout sling-shotted Kanye into the forefront of the music industry. Just who exactly was this reserved rapper from Chi-Town dressed as a bear mascot?
The College Dropout is now heralded as one of the greatest hip hop albums of all time. It reminisces of the beginnings of early, innocent Kanye in his purest form. You can hear the perfectionist nature of this album throughout; the soul samples, the comical skits, the rhymes dropping relevant knowledge. Front to back, The College Dropout drops hits after hits after hits. I’ve heard that if you listen to the album enough you might actually drop out of college.
I could go on about the impeccable album more, but why bother when we already have in our classic album review here.
Who knows if 2004 Kanye would approve of 2017 Kanye. All we know is that his career is without a doubt one of the greatest in hip hop history. And The College Dropout was just the beginning. Stream the album below and for all things hip hop keep reading at True Too.
Originally published at truetoo.co on February 10, 2017.
