The College Dropout
| Kanye West
The College Dropout
The College Dropout is the debut studio album by American rapper Kanye West, released on February 10, 2004 by Roc-A-Fella Records and Def Jam Recordings. Prior to the album, West had received praise for his production work for rappers such as Jay-Z and Talib Kweli, but faced difficulty being accepted as an artist in his own right by figures in the music industry. Nonetheless, intent on pursuing a solo career, it was several years before he finally received a record deal from Roc-A-Fella, and the album was recorded over a period of four years, beginning in 1999. -Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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Pitchfork
Bloated tracklist, guest star overload, lyrical paradoxes: It all might sound a bit critical for an 8+ album, but College Dropout's flaws tend to only help make Kanye West all the more personable as an artist.
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Billboard
It never gets boring or dull. The music is dynamic, the story is engaging, and Kanye sounds excited just to be living his dream.
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Genius
This album was a breath of fresh air.
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Rolling Stone
Kanye West has made his name by letting his production — not his voice — do the talking for him.rwise chilly gangsters.
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The A.V. Club
With sterling quality to match its massive advance hype, The College Dropout is one of those wonderful crossover albums that appeal to a huge audience without sacrificing a shred of integrity.
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Tiny Mixtapes
The College Dropout contains some of the most intelligent and clever lyrics hip-hop has produced in a while, be it mainstream or underground.
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Sputnik
Some of the songs on Dropout honestly don’t feel needed, as they don’t break any new ground lyrically or sonically. But for a debut album, this shines bright among the best.
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True Too
His ability to totally change personas makes this album so special. That’s what I love about this album, it has so much to offer.
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AXS
From start to finish, The College Dropout is a lyrical and sonic masterpiece, and you could tell that a lot of blood, sweat and tears went into making this album.
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Hip Hop DX
This is the kind of variety the mainstream scene has needed for too long and hopefully this opens the floodgates. Damn Kanye, I’m glad you dropped out of college.
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Uncut
The idea of a producer leaving the studio desk to enter the recording booth suggests ambition outstripping ability and falling heavily on its arse, but Kanye West has managed the transition quite brilliantly.
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Pop Matters
The College Dropout is an example of a much-hyped, long-delayed, heavily bootlegged album that is worth every second of the wait, that is just as good as you expected it to be.
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Plugged In
Kanye West does his best to discredit education while exalting illegal, immoral behavior. Despite moments of social and spiritual conscience, The College Dropout should be expelled.
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Spin
Most producers who approach the mic do so at their peril, but on Dropout, West turns out to be a full-service hip-hop artiste.
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Slant
Kanye West’s The College Dropout is marred by too many guest artists, too many interludes, and just too many songs period.
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All Music
Prior to this album, we were more than aware that West's stature as a producer was undeniable; now we know that he's also a remarkably versatile lyricist and a valuable MC.
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Entertainment Weekly
College Dropout, is the most impressive hip-hop CD of the young year.
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BBC
Kanye pulled off an audacious stunt that only one with his towering ego would dare attempt: to transform himself not just into a rapper, but a mainstream hit-maker, with a career plan – from dropout to graduate, and beyond – sketched out in front of him.
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Mind Equals Blown
With The College Dropout, Kanye West opened the door for a new kind of hip-hop, one that doesn’t try to exaggerate and glorify, but instead attempts to connect and empathize.
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The Guardian
After surviving a near-fatal car crash, Kanye West, hip hop's finest producer, recorded his own album. Now the success of The College Dropout has silenced the critics and made him a star.
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Scene Point Blank
West delivered enough lyrical innovation to overcome everything he fought against record labels and people who saw him only for his productions.
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Beat
Kanye’s first album is technically a classic. The only weakness in the album is its lyrics, which aren’t perfect but that’s not much to complain about.
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Head Stuff
The College Dropout, is the snapshot of Kanye 2004, with just a hint of where it might lead.
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Prefix
On this, his oft-delayed solo debut, West’s skills are most obvious in his capacity to focus his unbridled energy on wistful rhymes, production, theme and even appearance.
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The 405
The College Dropout irrefutably follows an autobiographical focus, a trait which is nothing new in hip-hop, yet it's Yeezy's unashamed candidness that gives the album a certain charm.
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Blush
The College Dropout not only criticizes the American education system but also tells the story of Kanye’s journey from starting as a producer to achieving hip-hop stardom.
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Stop The Breaks
Kanye took Talib Kweli, Mos Def and Common, threw them on the same record as Jay-Z and Freeway, successfully merging the world of hardcore, street rhymes with conscientious poetry like no other hip-hop artists.
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Huffington Post
One of the reasons why the album was so good was because its lead character didn’t live in a fantasy world.
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Christianity Today
The College Dropout offers vacuous, uninspiring lyrics about everything that's wrong with hip–hop; on the other, it brings to life a fire–and–brimstone advocate for the Lord, willing to indict the very ills he himself celebrates.
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Vibe
When it’s all said and done, College Dropout will be the defining album of Kanye West’s catalog.
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