Kanye West - The College Dropout (2004)

Reason for Listening:
#48 on the Billboard 200 (Week of 20220402). Weeks on Chart greater than 2x the rank.
Last Week: 41 | Peak: 2 | Weeks on Chart: 101

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Released 20040210.
21 songs. 76:13. The College Dropout (2004)
Wikipedia

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Notes:
--20220402--
First listen.
Catchy hook. But somehow I don't like the track as a whole ("We Don't Care")
Wow. That line is... dark. "But I can't complain what the accident did to my left eye | 'Cause look what an accident did to Left Eye."
--20220404--
The point that Kanye West makes across "School Spirit Skit 1", "School Spirit Skit 2", and "Lil Jimmy Skit" has truth to it. College is overrated, generally doesn't provide the appropriate skills for non-academic jobs, and has the opportunity to deprieve a person of experiences.

4: "Jesus Walks"; "Slow Jamz" (ft. Twista and Jamie Foxx);
3: "All Falls Down" (ft. Syleena Johnson); "Through the Wire";
2: "Never Let Me Down" (ft. Jay-Z and J. Ivy); "School Spirit Skit 1"; "School Spirit Skit 2";
1: "I'll Fly Away"; "Spaceship" (ft. GLC and Consequence); "Get Em High" (ft. Talib Kweli and Common); "Breathe in Breathe Out" (ft. Ludacris); "Lil Jimmy Skit"; "Family Business"; "Last Call";
0: "We Don't Care"; "Graduation Day"; "The New Workout Plan"; "School Spirit"; "Two Words" (ft. Mos Def, Freeway, and The Boys Choir of Harlem);
N: "Intro"; "Workout Plan";

Summary:
Unfortunately I didn't have the opportunity to rate this album in a bubble, which is to say that Kanye's reputation precedes him: among other news, he's arrogant, but he's put out great music, and to some extent his success validates his arrogance. Furthermore, the songs I've rated highly are songs I've heard before - a common pattern I've found (i.e., the more I listen to a song, the more I like it). In general, I like that the album feels cohesive; various tracks conceptually run from one to the other. There's also a decent display of lyricism. In short, the album as a whole has a high artistic value, but I might not be inclined to listen to the entire album as often as I might with other albums. As such, I'm rating the album a 5.0 out of 5.

"Jesus Walks" and "Slow Jamz" are such different songs. I guess between the two, I like the energy of "Jesus Walks" more.
Overall Rating: 5.0/5
Favorite Song: "Jesus Walks"

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