It’s essentially impossible to talk about The College Dropout without the story behind its creation. That was a joke even as the album was being released – hell there’s a nine minute monologue on the album of Kane telling us this himself – but it’s important to recognise not just for understanding the importance of this album’s release, but the thematic qualities of the album itself. So buckle in, here’s a crash course.
Kanye West’s story begins in the mid nineties as a prolific producer, at one point working for Diddy’s Hitmen productions and forming his signature sound of high-pitched soul samples. He would go on to showcase this sound as one the key producers of the Jay-Z classic The Blueprint (along with Just Blaze), but even with this success Kanye wanted to be recognised a rapper. He had a couple of mixtapes to his name, but given the prevalence of gangster rap, and Kanye’s “polos and backpack” persona, his album requests were laughed at even as he was working on it for years behind the scenes. That all changed with Kanye West’s car crash in October 2002, which resulted in the Get Well Soon mixtape and “Through the Wire”, and with that song’s showcase of skill yadda yadda yadda The College Dropout. Well, the leak first, then the official College Dropout.
And this album does have the feel of something worked on for years, both in ways that unify the work and show the outliers. Of all the record on what I’ll call Kanye’s “Education Trilogy” (with the trademark teddy bear on the cover) this is the one that feels the most honestly conceptual, with a narrative feel flowing between song more clearly beyond just the skits. It also showcases the progression of Kanye’s mindset over the years, from his dislike of the education system (Kanye did indeed drop out of college) to working remedial jobs to religion to family to hardship and of course one of Kanye’s favourite subjects, the intercourse. It would easy to call thes combination of sin and spirituality, and conscience rap with seeming anti-intellectual themes, hypocritical or contradictory (I say having just done an REM retrospective using that word a billion times), but they all coalesce to show the complicated mind of its artist.
Though to call this a conceptual album would be disingenuous. Its structure has not been completely thought out, with one piece of evidence being that my copy is missing one of the album’s biggest hits, “Slow Jamz”. The “chipmunk” soul samples create such a consistent base that it makes the detours into Dirty South or symphonics somewhat distracting (even if the latter gave us sense for what was to come). And with a man who sees himself as rap’s Michael Jackson, this record does have some of the hallmarks of late period King of Pop, that being too long and overstuffed with guest stars. Yet all my reservations are a testament to the records ambition, meaning I would still undoubtedly call The College Dropout a great album. It uses sounds that Kanye had established for the gangster rap scene to discuss varying and encompassing subjects to his contemporaries – much of this on account of his middle class upbringing – and showcased an artist in a very “cool” environment that was completely unafraid to show his emotions.
The first song on this album, “We Don’t Care”, plays around with Kanye’s position in industry in association with his peers. In the context of the album it’s clearly a funny song, making a song that is quite clearly not for the kids and getting them to sing about celebrating drug dealing. This is complete with a children’s choir singing “drug dealing just to get by”, which wouldn’t be the last time he used a children’s choir subversively. At the same time it also makes concession to gangster rap in a way that the rest of the album would noticeably move away from, starting the first verse with kids growing up in deprived cities forced into selling drugs to make money, and the second verse moving into office workers also selling drugs on the sky. The song both highlights the struggles of the poor black community, whilst still somewhat poking satirical holes at songs that talk about selling drugs “just to get by” whilst talking about how the money stacks so high. Pretty bold as the first song for the first album.
The “Graduation Day” skit moves the album in the more melancholic direction the next songs will present, with a soulful hook by a pre-fame John Legend that I honestly think is a shame is only in a skit (the symphonic production with autotune does sound like a prototype for songs five years later). The next song though is “All Falls Down”, which is my favourite song off the album. Based on a Lauryn Hill interpolation (with a lovely singing from Syleena Johnson), it has a bouncing beat upon which Kanye writes one of his greatest verses, moving from people only in college to impress their parents to materialism as an oppression of the upper class, to the line “We’re all self conscious I’m just the first to admit it”, a lyric which I think sums up a lot of Kanye’s philosophy today).
We Don’t Care: “Cause ain’t no tuition for having no ambition/And ain’t no loans for sittin’ your ass at home/So we forced to sell crack, rap, and get a job/You gotta do somethin’ man, your ass is grown”
All Falls Down: “Cause they make us hate ourself and love they wealth/That’s why shorty’s hollerin’ “where the ballers at?”/Drug dealer buy Jordans, crackhead buy crack/And a white man get paid off of all of that”
After a short rendition of “I’ll Fly Away” by Kanye West and John Legend that as a thematically appropriate transition (themes of escapism and moving on), the album moves to “Spaceship”, which is all about contrasting the life of a Gap worker to the life’s of the rappers he inspires to. He also raps about ghost writing and feeling like the token black employee at the store in which he worked. The track samples Marvin Gaye’s “Distant Lover”, which not only has a great swinging sound but is also thematically appropriate for the thing Kanye loves (fame) being so distant. The two guest verses from GLC and Consequence, two of Kanye’s contemporaries, are neither particularly mind-blowing, but of the two Consequence’s fits more into the tone of the song.
This moves into what is maybe the album’s most famous single, “Jesus Walks”. Over a gospel-style sample with a propulsive dream beat and choral sounds, Kanye airs with increasing intensity his problems with religion and his struggles with God. It’s an incredibly passionate number about a topic that could be perceived as controversial, which he makes fit to point out in the final lyrics, probably in a double-dog dare to radio stations. It’s a great piece of art that is clear about its religious intentions (in a very Kanye way) without playing on that belief to exploit a pre-built audience. Hey, that’s a novelty (*stares at Gods Not Dead*)
Spaceship: “They take me to the back and pat me/Askin’ me about some khakis/But let some black people walk in/I bet you they show off their token blackie”
Jesus Walks: “I ain’t here to argue about his facial features/ Or here to convert atheists into believers/ I’m just tryna say the way school need teachers/The way Kathie Lee needed Regis, that’s the way I need Jesus”
“Never Let Me Down” has a great hook sampled from Blackjack’s “Maybe it’s the Power of Love”, with three verses from different artists with varying subjects and varying degrees of success. Each though is about letting people down. The first from Jay-Z is about how he won’t let the rap game down and will always be on top, which a stretch because its mainly a phoned in verse from Hova that is about how great he is. Kanye’s verse though is emotional and on point, talking about his grandparents and how they have always tried to provide for him and his mum. The last verse from Ivy is quite bizarre in that it has a very Def Jam poetry, Gil Scott Heron type flow about how he feels God will always be watching out for him (definite contrast to the last song). Not the best song on the album, but maybe the perfect capsulation of the different scenes at the time.
Whilst Jay-Z stuck too close to his typical persona to the detriment of the song – by the way, every review that talked about him being retired (3rd time) is hilarious in hindsight – “Get ‘Em High” is unusual in how it intentionally brings in two of the most “conscious rappers” of the time, Talib Kweli and Common, and gets them to sing the hook for a “Dirty South” sounding song that is clearly a euphemism for smoking blunts (and trying to get with women on the internet, which is definitely a different perspective to the norm). Unlike other guest appearances, though, every verse flows on top of each and works as a whole, and the presence of Kweli and Common seems to have made Kanye push even harder when it comes to his flow.
Never Let Me Down: “Made her sit in that seat where white folks ain’t want us to eat/At the tender age of 6 she was arrested for the sit-ins/And with that in my blood I was born to be different
Get ‘Em High: “My teacher said I’se a loser, I told her why don’t you kill me/ I give a fuck if you fail me, I’m gonna follow/ My heart, and if you follow the charts/ Or the plaques or the stacks/ You ain’t gotta guess who’s back”
So I don’t know how much I buy that “The New Workout Plan” is satire about females being valued for their body and men for money, rather than just a Kanye sex anthem (my answer for the former would be “probably?”), but either way it’s one of the songs that don’t really fit in with the tone of the rest of the album. This is necessarily the subject matter or the lyrics (though that too), but more the Eastern influenced beat, which although shows the experimentation and maximal production that would characterise future releases sticks out here as being out of place.
The American edition then moves straight into “Slow Jamz”, Kanye’s first number one hit, and the strongest song of this trilogy of humpty hump themed song. Both lyrically and beat wise it is a tribute to old soul singers, but with the synth and bongo layers it still has a quintessential Kanye sound. The song also plays with that interplay between soul and rap sex songs, encapsulated by the funny cameo from Aisha Tyler where saying “faster” is seen as a cue for Twista to come in and give Busta Rhyme a run for his money in terms of speed. I would have more to talk about if my copy of the album had the damn song!
The New Workout Plan: “Ooh girl your breath is harsh!/ Cover your mouth up like you got SARS”
Slow Jamz:” She got a light-skinned friend look like Michael Jackson/Got a dark-skinned friend look like Michael Jackson” (I don’t care if it rhyme with itself, it made me laugh)
Like “The New Workout Plan,” the Dirty South beat of “Breathe In Breathe Out” doesn’t’ really fit into the rest of the aesthetic of The College Dropout. This was 2004, so it was necessary to have Ludacris in everything, and this is definitely Kanye’s corniest song on the album (he actually used the “Phd/Pretty huge dick” line for goodness sake). But this song is much more obvious in its glib intent, and I would be lying if I said I didn’t find the saxophone and guitar lead beat and Ludacris’ hook incredibly infectious.
Although another high pitched soul sample, this time from Aretha Franklin’s “Spirit in the Dark”, “School Spirit” seems to have an almost country like atmosphere as a result of pitching up the song. This song is the overt fuck you to his college years – in case you didn’t get that message, the two three skits before and after it should tell you – where he points out his own success in relation to his classmates and the seeming uselessness of degrees for join today’s job culture. Also it has a Pootie Tang reference. Kanye’s movie references are always different than “Scarface on repeat”.
Breathe In Breathe Out: “I blow past low class niggas with no cash/ In the four dot six, bitch you can go ask/ So when I go fast popo just laugh/ Right until I run out of gas or ’til I go crash”
School Spirit: “This nigga graduated at the top of our class/ I went to Cheesecake, he was a motherfucking waiter there”
“Two Words” is another track with another seeming Eastern influence, but for me the beat here is much stronger, not adding more of a pitched up rock sound that works in the College Dropout context, but also is a somewhat precursor that Kanye would go on to perfect in My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. In sound in particular are the tone of the guitars and the violin outro, but it also has the level of bravado on those tracks, though in terms of verses Kanye’s are overshadowed by Mos Def’s spitting on topics from the crack epidemic of the 80’s to presidential scandals in such a short amount of time.
Nobody is there to outshine Kanye on the next track, the one that showcased his skills and allowed him to release the album in the first place, “Through the Wire”. Through a clever use of “Through the Fire” (which Kanye samples in large 2 minute chunks), Kanye sees this song as “life-or-death”, a means to showcase his skills or go home. And indeed he does, landing one punchline after the other, all the while showcasing and commenting on his injuries casually and without pity. It’s a great song and I can see why it silenced his critics. Also his voice sounds like 50 Cent if 50 Cent actually had some energy left in his voice.
Two Words: “You know how the game be/ I can’t let ’em change me/ Cause on judgment day, you gon’ blame me/And I basically know now/We get racially profiled/’Cuffed up and hosed down, pimped up and ho’d down”
Through the Wire: “Good dude, bad night, right place, wrong time/In the blink of a eye, his whole life changed/If you could feel how my face felt, you would know how Mase felt/Thank God I ain’t too cool for the safe belt!
We then move on to what I think might be the most overlooked on The College Dropout, “Family Business”. Over a beautiful piano melody (sampled from “Fonky Thang, Diamon’ Rang”) atmospheric drums and fantastic bass line, Kanye talks about his relationship with his large family, all of them with a strong bond in varying degrees of struggle (be that money or in trouble with the law). It occasionally moves into sentiment hard to swallow (bringing the children in is not as effective it was for “We Don’t care”) but otherwise it is a moving song that shows naked emotional in a successful and powerful way.
“Family Business” feels like the climax to a narrative, but “Last Call” is a definite conclusion. Sampling Bette Midler’s “Mr. Rockerfeller” is both a fantastic choice for a soulful beat and works as a good double-entendre to thank the Rock-a-Fella record label for releasing his records. The song is both a thank you and a backhand to the people who doubted his skills. It’s a celebratory song that also contains some his funniest lyrics, and brings Kanye’s first epic album to a clo… oh, right the monologue! Well let’s just say that some days I’ll listen to the monologue and find it an interesting and personal recap on Ye’s life. But most of the time I turn it off. At least it’s at the end though.
Family Business: “Who knew that life would move this fast?/ Who knew I’d have to look at you through a glass?/ And look, tell me you ain’t did it then you ain’t did it/ And if you did, then that’s family business”
Last Call: “Now was Kanye the most overlooked? Yes sir/ Now is Kanye the most overbooked? Yes sir/ Though the fans want the feeling of A Tribe Called Quest/ But all they got left is this guy called West”
Any rapper would kill for The College Dropout to be the crowning jewel in their discography, so the fact that a great album like this one is for me on the lower end of Kanye’s discography is a testament for what is to come. There’s a sense of ambition throughout its entire runtime, with the variety and contradictions showcasing the incredibly strong personality that people would come to love and hate with great clarity (even amidst all the guest stars). Even with this albums length though, Kanye still had a lot of beats that he had not yet shown the world. And if he was going to follow an album as instantly classic as this one, he was going to have to do something a little different…
What did you think, though?
Kanye West Album Rankings
- The College Dropout