By: Cole Negen
Kanye West was born in Atlanta Georgia in 1977. He moved to Chicago at the age of 3 after the split of his parents. Thus began the turbulent life of Kanye West. West got his beginnings as a producer for the infamous hip hop artist, Jay Z. He produced a single for him, and then would go on to produce 4 songs on Jay Z’s album The Blueprint, one of the greatest hip hop albums of all time. Kanye had quite a track record for producing, but wasn’t just satisfied with that role. In 2004, Kanye released his debut album The College Dropout. The album was not only entirely produced by him, but also consisted of him rapping throughout the length of the project. The album was a massive concept piece, detailing his life as a dropout-turned-musician, and attacking the idea of people who go to college because they were pressured into it, and get degrees in things they have no passion for, and in the end, can’t find work and make no money. It was a whale of a project on an issue nobody had really tackled before, at least not to the extent West did. More impressive though, was his style of music. The College Dropout contained old-school, simple, bass heavy drums mixed with samples of the 60's and 70’s soul music. It was a very simple style, but was done really well. The production was fun and beautiful, and allowed Kanye’s lyrics to take center stage. It’s straightforward and to casual listeners may not sound like anything that special, but at the time of its release it was a huge U-turn from where hip-hop, especially popular hip-hop, was heading. In 2004, hip hop was very short on innovation. Most hip hop of the time sounded like generic pop music, full of songs designed to be more catchy than memorable. West’s album was a safe-haven for people who wanted hip hop with something more than what was presented on the surface. West received a grammy for the album, but the question remained; was Kanye a one-album-wonder, or was he here to stay. He proved his spot in hip hop with his sophomore album Late Registration. It was of the same style of the first, and some of the same topics of school and college come up, but yet Late Registration stands out on its own. The samples used are a lot more up tempo and jubilant, and West raps about a lot of different things, such as his mother, race relations in America, and celebrating his spot as one of the best new voices in hip hop. These 2 albums, while unique in and of themselves, were generally similar. On his third album, Kanye completely flipped the switch. In an effort to break away from what he saw as a singular lane he was stuck in, Kanye switched up his style completely. Instead of a stripped back soul style, Kanye’s third album, Graduation, was full of electronic and dance elements. The instrumentals were grand, full of synthesizers and 808s. Instead of super focused personal themes, Kanye made songs intended to be catchier, pop rap songs. While this was by far his most contemporary album yet, Kanye still was at the top of the game, for being able to make it sound so grand and elegant. The album as a whole doesn’t match up with his previous albums in quality, but it was far from something generic. It is because of that that this album is a standout from the late 2000’s. Kanye was at the top of his game. He had released 3 straight albums, all very good. Unfortunately for Kanye, things would take a quick spiral from the grandiose of Graduation to his 4th album.
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