[5] The song also appeared on Twista's album Kamikaze. Kanye West, The College Dropout", "NME: The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time: October 2013", "Consequence of Sound's Top 100 Albums Ever", "The 25 Greatest Hip-Hop Debut Albums of All Time", "The 50 Best Albums of the Decade (2000-2009)", "The 200 Greatest Hip-Hop Albums of All Time", "The 300 Best Albums of the Past 30 Years (1985-2014)", "The 50 Best Hip-Hop Debut Albums Since 'Reasonable Doubt', "The 100 best pop albums of the Noughties", "Usher Scores Five Nominations For NAACP Image Awards", "Thoughts on the tenth birthday of Kanye West's The College Dropout", "25 Greatest Chipmunk Soul Beats from the Roc-A-Fella Dynasty", "Kanye's Blueprint: 10 Albums Directly Influenced By 'College Dropout', "The Definitive Kanye West Album Rankings: A Roundtable", "Lescharts.com Kanye West The College Dropout", "Offiziellecharts.de Kanye West The College Dropout", "Norwegiancharts.com Kanye West The College Dropout", "Dutchcharts.nl Kanye West The College Dropout", "Irish-charts.com Discography Kanye West", "Swedishcharts.com Kanye West The College Dropout", "Swisscharts.com Kanye West The College Dropout", "Kanye West Chart History (Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums)", "Kanye West Chart History (Top Catalog Albums)", "Kanye West Chart History (Vinyl Albums)", "Ultratop.be Kanye West The College Dropout", "Hitlisten.NU Album Top-40 Uge 8, 2022", "2004 Year-End Charts Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Albums", "Top 50 Global Best Selling Albums for 2004", "2005 Year-End Charts - Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Albums", "Billboard 200 Albums Decade-end Chart", "Canadian album certifications Kanye West The College Dropout", "Danish album certifications Kanye West The College Dropout", "British album certifications Kanye West The College Dropout", Fame Kills: Starring Kanye West and Lady Gaga, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_College_Dropout&oldid=1098911467, Albums recorded at Record Plant (Los Angeles), CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes), Short description is different from Wikidata, Album chart usages for BillboardRandBHipHop, Certification Table Entry usages for Canada, Pages using certification Table Entry with shipments figures, Certification Table Entry usages for Denmark, Pages using certification Table Entry with streaming figures, Certification Table Entry usages for New Zealand, Certification Table Entry usages for United Kingdom, Certification Table Entry usages for United States, Pages using certification Table Entry with shipments footnote, Pages using certification Table Entry with streaming footnote, Articles with MusicBrainz release group identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, The 25 Greatest Hip-Hop Debut Albums of All Time, The 50 Best Albums of the Decade (20002009), The 100 Greatest Debut Albums of All Time, The 200 Greatest Hip-Hop Albums of All Time, The 300 Best Albums of the Past 30 Years (19852014), The 50 Best Hip-Hop Debut Albums Since 'Reasonable Doubt', "The New Workout Plan (Remix)" (featuring, "Two Words (Cinematic)" (featuring The Harlem Boys Choir), Light @ the End of the Tunnel (New York City). Kanye West began his early production career in the mid-1990s, making beats primarily for burgeoning local artists, eventually developing a style that involved speeding up vocal samples from classic soul records. For the article on dropping out of college, see, Recording Industry Association of America, (Don't Worry) If There's a Hell Below, We're All Going to Go, "500 Greatest Albums of All Time: #464 (The Blueprint)", "Road to the Grammys: The Making Of Kanye West's College Dropout", "Kanye West: The Man, the Music, and the Message.(Biography)". West had already taken pictures dressed as the Dropout Bear - which would reappear in his later work - and Duvauchelle picked the image of him sitting on a set of bleachers, as he was attracted to the loneliness of what was supposed to be "the most popular representation of a school". Acknowledge the groaner irony of discussing an album's anti-intellectualism in syllabus form. [11] The song provides a mostly comedic account of his difficult recovery, and features West rapping with his jaw still wired shut from the accident. (2007) by Consequence, A Kid Named Cudi (2008) by Kid Cudi, Asleep in the Bread Aisle (2009) by Asher Roth, Kendrick Lamar's self-titled first EP (2009), Camp (2011) by Childish Gambino, Cole World: The Sideline Story (2011) by J. Cole, When Fish Ride Bicycles (2011) by The Cool Kids, and Acid Rap (2013) by Chance the Rapper. "9. [122] West instead created a space in the mainstream for rappers to express themselves and black identity without resorting to hip hop's prevalent theme of gang culture. [35] Garry Mulholland of The Observer described it as a "towering inferno of martial beats, fathoms-deep chain gang backing chants, a defiant children's choir, gospel wails, and sizzling orchestral breaks". I remember listening to it on my way to catch the bus to go to a school out of my zone, so that I could get a better education. In a way, it's strange that West would be the first of the current producer bumper crop to find such success with his own name on the spine, with The Neptunes and Timbaland having colonized the charttops for a much longer period of time, and with much more adventurous and characteristic sounds. In a scene still dominated by authenticity battles and gangsta posturing, he's a middle-class, politically conscious, post-thug, bourgeois rapper and that's nothing to be ashamed of. In the years leading up to release, 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.

[3] The staff of Rolling Stone were more receptive in a retrospective review than Caramanica was previously for the publication, calling the album "a demonstration that hip-hopreal, banging, commercial hip-hopcould be a vehicle for nuanced self-examination and musical subtlety". [69], Some reviewers were more qualified in their praise. At that point he was like, 'Ok, Well let me see what you do on this song.' I remember listening to it as I walked by two black mothers in bed slippers fighting in the street. At one point, West hovered between making a portion of the production in the studio and the majority within his own apartment in Hoboken, New Jersey. Compare/contrast rise of hip-hop artist/producers with singer/songwriter movement of 1970s; Is Kanye West Neil Young or Neil Diamond? [22] In 2011, an uncensored version of the track was distributed online. Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

[36][38] "Jesus Walks" is built around a sample of "Walk With Me" as performed by the ARC Choir. So many extracurricular angles, so little time; so let's just suffice it to say that College Dropout is the first great hip-hop album of the still pre-pubescent 2004. [48], The artwork for the album was developed by Eric Duvauchelle, who was then part of Roc-A-Fella's in-house brand design team. "All Falls Down" contains interpolations of "Mystery of Iniquity", written and performed by, "Jesus Walks" contains samples of "Walk with Me", performed by The ARC Choir and ", "Never Let Me Down" contains samples of "Maybe It's the Power of Love", written by, "Two Words" contains samples of "Peace & Love (Amani Na Mapenzi) Movement IV (Encounter)", written by Lou Wilson, Ric Wilson and Carlos Wilson, and performed by, "Family Business" contains samples of "Fonky Thang", written by, "Last Call" contains samples of "Mr. Rockefeller", written by Jerry Blatt and, Sumeke Rainey additional vocals (tracks 9, 11), Riccarda Watkins additional vocals (track 2), Candis Brown additional vocals (track 10), Brandi Kuykenvall additional vocals (track 10), Tiera Singleton additional vocals (track 10), Thomasina Atkins additional vocals (track 20), Linda Petty additional vocals (track 20), Beverly McCargo additional vocals (track 20), Lavel Mena additional vocals (track 20), Thai Jones additional vocals (track 20), Kevin Shannon additional vocals (track 20), Tarey Torae additional vocals (track 20), Diamond Alabi-Isama "kids" vocals (track 2), James "JT" Knight "kids" vocals (track 2), Ervin "EP" Pope keyboards (tracks 8, 12), piano (tracks 5, 11, 17, 21), Glenn Jefferey guitars (tracks 8, 12, 21), Keenan "Kee-note" Holloway bass (tracks 8, 12), additional bass (track 21), Frank Walker percussion (tracks 3, 8, 12), Eric "E-Bass" Johnson guitars (tracks 4, 11), Rabeka Tunei recording (tracks 1, 46, 8, 10, 1417, 20, 21), Eugene A. Toale recording (tracks 2, 3, 7, 11, 13, 22), Tatsuya Sato recording (tracks 4, 6, 7), Keith Slattery recording (tracks 11, 18), Eric Duvauchelle art direction and design, Stephanie Reynolds art direction and design, This page was last edited on 18 July 2022, at 02:25. Discuss the failure of Chicago to produce a bona fide hip-hop star despite possessing more than enough fertile neighborhoods of racial segregation and socioeconomic difficulty. It was first delayed to October 2003, then to January 2004, before finally being released to stores on February 10, 2004. All tracks are produced by Kanye West, except "Last Call" (co-produced by Evidence; additional production by Porse) and "Breathe In Breathe Out" (co-produced by Brian Miller). 'Spaceship,' 'All Falls Down,' 'Never Let Me Down,' 'Jesus Walks,' 'Family Business.' Need help? 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. [27] It was regarded by Pitchfork critic Rob Mitchum as a "flawed, overlong, hypocritical, egotistical, and altogether terrific album".

Music Talks Most Memorable Studio Sessions With Kanye", "Kanye West on His Next Album, Designing Yeezy, and Kobe Bryant", "No Reading And Writing, But Rapping Instead", "Kanye West Collaborating With Lauryn Hill on New LP", "Common, John Mayer Drop in to Preview Kanye West's Dropout", "15 Things You Didn't Know About Kanye West's "The College Dropout", "The 100 Best Kanye West Songs: 24. A widespread critical success, The College Dropout was praised for West's production, humorous and emotional raps, and the music's balance of self-examination and mainstream sensibilities. Engage the anti-education themes of College Dropout's songs and skits, discussing why this particular message is greatly emphasized by West. Songs from Kanye's earliest mixtapes. [35], On "All Falls Down", West wages an attack on consumerism. The song features Jay-Z, who rhymes about maintaining status and power given his chart success, while West comments on racism and poverty. It was released on February 10, 2004, by Roc-A-Fella Records and Def Jam Recordings. Week 2: Chitown, What's Going On? She later said, "It was drummed into my head that college is the ticket to a good life but some career goals don't require college. Williams had impressed West by singing improvisations to "Spaceship" during one of their drives together. Kanye West "Last Call" (2004)". [66] At one point, "Two Words" was also intended to be released as a single, and a video for the song was filmed, and later uploaded by West online in 2009. [12][13] West added that "the album was my medicine", as working on the record distracted him from the pain. Scrobble, find and rediscover music with a Last.fm account, Do you know any background info about this album? [89] In 2006, the album was named by Time as one of the 100 best albums of all time. ", "Kanye West's "The New Workout Plan": Revisit His Hilariously Brilliant 'College Dropout' Single", Kanye West's Lost "Spaceship" Video | Kanye West, "Rhapsody's 100 Best Albums of the Decade", "25 Rap Albums From the Past Decade That Deserve Classic Status: Kanye West, The College Dropout (2004)", "The 50 Greatest Debut Albums in Hip-Hop History: 20. [60][61] As of 2018, The College Dropout is the fourteenth highest selling rap album in the UK in the 21st-century. [3] The Blueprint has been named by Rolling Stone as the 252nd greatest album of all time and the critical and financial success of the album generated substantial interest in West as a producer. [53][54] In 2004, The College Dropout ranked as the twelfth most popular of the year on the Billboard 200. [79], The College Dropout was voted as the best album of the year by The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop, an annual poll of American critics. Best of mixtape - Kanye West (pre College dropout), Users who like Best of mixtape - Kanye West (pre College dropout), Users who reposted Best of mixtape - Kanye West (pre College dropout). He recorded the remainder of the album in Los Angeles while recovering from the car accident. [52] The College Dropout remained at the second spot behind Feels Like Home for two consecutive weeks, with 196,000 units sold in the second week and 132,000 in the third week, respectively. As a result, certain tracks originally destined for the album were subsequently retracted, among them "Keep the Receipt" with Ol' Dirty Bastard and "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" with Consequence. [24] In a January 2020 interview with GQ, West revealed that around 30 to 40 percent of the album was recorded on a Roland VS-1680. [15] At the same time, West announced that he was working on an album called The College Dropout, whose overall theme was to "make your own decisions. [1][2] The group released their first and only studio album World Record Holders in 1999. According to John Monopoly, West's friend, manager and business partner, the album "[didn't have] a particular start date. [64] "The New Workout Plan" was the fifth and last single. Rolling Stone's Jon Caramanica felt that "West isn't quite MC enough to hold down the entire disc", though claimed that West's "ace in the hole is his signature cozy sound",[72] while Slant Magazine's Sal Cinquemani observed "too many guest artists, too many interludes, and just too many songs period" on what he considered a "chest-beatingly self-congratulatory" yet humorous, deeply sincere, and affecting record. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. Week 4: School Spirit. I was uncertain of my future. [6][18], West brought a Louis Vuitton backpack filled with old disks and demos to the studio, producing tracks in less than fifteen minutes at a time. Connect your Spotify account to your Last.fm account and scrobble everything you listen to, from any Spotify app on any device or platform.

The lyrics are mostly critical of the working world, where West muses about flying away in a spaceship to leave his boring job, and guest rappers GLC and Consequence add comparisons to modern day retail environment with slavery. In the same discussion, music journalist Eric Sundermann cited The College Dropout as the first in West's pop rap album trilogy that would be followed by Late Registration in 2005 and Graduation in 2007, while Craig Jenkins called it "a watershed moment in 2000s rap history where the nerds stormed the school to seize control from the jocks, a shift memorialized two albums later when Graduation trounced 50 Cent's Curtis album in their 2007 sales showdown."[131]. The image is framed inside gold ornaments, which Duvauchelle found in a book of illustrations from the 16th-century and West wanted to use to "bring a sense of elegance and style to what was typically a gangster-led image of rap artists". Diddy. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the album received an average score of 87, based on 25 reviews.[67]. Is your network connection unstable or browser outdated? Because it was a two-bedroom apartment, West was able to set up a home studio in one of the rooms and his bedroom in the other. The record was hailed by Kelefa Sanneh from The New York Times as "2004's first great hip-hop album". [44], "Through the Wire" features a high-pitched vocal sample of Chaka Khan and relates West's real life experience with being in a car accident. [84] Dutch magazine OOR named it the seventh best album of 2004. [43], The College Dropout was met with widespread critical acclaim. [29] The next track, "Graduation Day", features Miri Ben-Ari on violin[34] and vocals by John Legend. The skit is followed by "We Don't Care" featuring West comically celebrating drug life with lines like "We wasn't supposed to make it past 25, joke's on you, we still alive" and then criticizing its influence amongst children. Mixtape downloaders have known this for a while, thanks to his whip-smart verses on "Heavy Hitters" and "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly", but College Dropout brings a new evidence file, whether he's probing creative tax accounting on "We Don't Care" or puncturing the air bag of designer materialism in "All Fall Down". [5] On the song "School Spirit", West relates the experience of dropping out of school and contains references to well-known fraternities, sororities, singer Norah Jones, and record label Roc-A-Fella Records. Start the wiki. I think that's when we did 'Last Call.' The singer later recounted recording with West for The College Dropout at the Record Plant: "I get in, go in the booth, start vibing out on 'Spaceship' and finished it up. [9] Desperate to keep West from defecting to another label, then-label head Damon Dash reluctantly signed West to Roc-A-Fella Records. He was always producing with the intention of being a rapper. '"[16], West began recording The College Dropout in 1999, taking four years to complete. [36][42] "Get Em High" is a collaboration by West with two socially conscious rappers, Talib Kweli and Common. That "Two Words" is sequestered (along with the chock-full-of-clever "Through the Wire") behind a painful stretch of three clunker skits in four tracks (with the song island, "School Spirit", one of the album's weakest) shows that Kanye hasn't quite soaked in the lesson of the Jay-Z album that made his reputation: less skits = longer shelf life. You can write it off as a safer or less original approach, but the sugar-high soul technique tends to be an addictive substance in West's hands, as anyone who's had the hook from "H to the Izzo" stuck in their head for a week or eight can attest. [20], The song "School Spirit" was censored for the album because Aretha Franklin would not allow the rapper to sample her music without censorship being promised. One begins to wish there were even more examples of Kanye's mic-work, as the album is also laden with distracting guest appearance speed-bumps-- spots that safety-net the album's bottom line but dilute the spotlight on its lead performer. [124] In 2005, comedian Chris Rock attested to listening to The College Dropout while writing his stand-up material. Don't let society tell you, 'This is what you have to do. [26] Entertainment Weekly's Michael Endelman elaborated on West's avoidance of the then-dominant "gangsta" persona of hip hop: West delivers the goods with a disarming mix of confessional honesty and sarcastic humor, earnest idealism and big-pimping materialism.