The College Dropout - Kanye West

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is my favorite album of the year, and it cemented Kanye West as my favorite hip hop artist, but before it leaked, I went on a huge Kanye kick and listened to each of his albums a whole fucking bunch. I love Late Registration and know it like the back of my hand, but over the past few months I've come to realize that The College Dropout is nearly its equal. It doesn't quite have Late Registration's scale, but it jumps from place to place seamlessly, having a bunch of fun along the way. Throughout it, we get a hands-in-the-air anthem, a religious outcry that would later be set to scenes of the Persian Gulf War, an ideal workout song, a slow dancefloor jam (if you think Nicki Minaj outshone West on "Monster," Twista's verse on "Slow Jamz" definitely has that same effect), a solemn lament on a family gone wrong, and a long, rambling origin story. That's a lot of ground to cover, but West does it all with what seems like effortless perfection and, unlike on the new one and not as apparent on Late Registration, a smile on his face.

Out of all of the successes on The College Dropout, though, "All Falls Down" is the most impressive. Featuring Syleena Johnson singing Lauryn Hill's "Mystery of Iniquity" hook (man, this song would be so much lamer if he actually got that sample cleared) and a killer bassline, "All Falls Down," more than any other song here, tackles the album's titular premise of dropping out of college. As a sophomore, this is the kind of shit I have to worry about all the time: "She has no idea what she's doing in college/That major that she majored in don't make no money/But she won't drop out, her parents will look at her funny." Right after, he playfully fucks a rhyme: "Now tell me that ain't insec-urr/The concept of school seems so sec-urr/Sophomore three yurrs/Ain't picked a car-urr/She like, 'fuck it,' I'll just stay down hurr and do hair." He's so perfectly comfortable with the fact that he bullshitted that stanza that you don't even think about it that way. Finally, he drops the bomb that every "douchebag" accuser needs to hear: "We all self-conscious, I'm just the first to admit it."

The College Dropout in 320 kbps MP3