Happy Birthday to College Dropout
One of the greatest albums of my generation turns 17 this year.
The number of albums that I can throw on and listen to all the way through can probably be counted on one hand and this is 100% one of those albums. Seeing that I was 2 and a half when this masterpiece released, I’m not to sure what the buzz around the release was but, this album has stood the test of time.
For its 17th birthday, I am going to rank my top 5 favorite songs off this grail of an album. While you may not agree with my top 5, you at least need to respect it because, there really isn’t a wrong answer when talking about College Dropout.
Just Missed the Cut: Family Business, Last Call, The New Workout Plan
5. All Falls Down: The beginning of this song with the guitar playing and Syleena Johnson on vocals just gives me an unreal boost of serotonin. The first verse of the song talks about a girl in college that has no clue what she wants to do. She’s a “sophomore, three yurrs ain’t picked a carurr” and is broke after college. She could never build up the courage to dropout because, of her self consciousness and pressure from her parents.
The second verse, Kanye talks about his self consciousness and how he feels like he needs to wear Versace and designer brands to fit in with the upper echelon of celebrities he ascended too. He says “the prettiest people do the ugliest things” referring to celebrities and the ways they act to save face.
4. Get Em High: This song made me a Talib Kweli fan. The song starts off with Kanye rapping on how he wants to dropout of college because of depression and mental health issues and how he eventually built up the courage to dropout of Chicago State. He felt pressure from teachers calling him a loser and how he would rather them kill him. When he leaves school he says “I give a fuck if you fail me, I’m gonna fol-low my heart”, he believes this is his best option to pursue his dreams.
For some odd reason, the second verse makes me laugh. He raps about a girl emailing him on Black Planet trying to hook up and he lets this girl know that he is boys with Talib Kweli. The girl doesn’t believe Ye so, he calls up his good buddy Talib. That’s when Kweli steps in and spits “I can’t believe this n**** use my name for picking up dimes, But never mind, I need some tracks…”. Overall, this song is awesome just off the fact that it goes from Ye wanting to kill himself to name dropping to pick up chicks.
3. Through the Wire: This song may not lyrically be the best but, the fact that Kanye had his jaw wired shut and could still spit bars is so fascinating to me. He raps over the Chaka Khan song, Through the Fire and talks about how his life going forward is effected because of the metal plating in his jaw. The inspiration for this song came when Ye fell asleep at the wheel and crashed his car, shattering his jaw.
Ye starts the first verse saying “I drink a Boost for breakfast, an Ensure for dessert, Somebody ordered pancakes, I just sip the sizzurp”. With his mouth wired closed, Kanye is on a full liquid diet. Kanye then spits “And just imagine how my girl feel, On a plane, scared as hell that her guy look like Emmett Till”. He is comparing his facial damage to that of Chicago teen Emmett Till who was brutally murdered in 1955 by two white men.
The second verse, Ye goes through a bit of the incident. “Good dude, bad night, right place, wrong time, In the blink of a eye, his whole life changed, If you could feel how my face felt, You would know how Mase felt (Mason Betha!), Thank God I ain't too cool for the safe belt, I swear to God, driver two wanna sue, I got a lawyer for the case, to keep what's in my safe safe”. He talks about how the driver he hit who broke both of his legs wanted to sue and how he is thankful that he wore a seatbelt because, had he not, Ye could have died that night. Much like Get Em High, Ye makes a sad and difficult time in his life into a catchy song.
2. Jesus Walks: The first verse of Jesus Walks displays the violence that occurs day in and day out in the city of “Chi-Raq”. In the second verse, he explains how Jesus walks with everyone, even though people are sinners. He lets drug dealers and strippers know Jesus is with them all the time.
The unique side of this song to me is that this is the first time Kanye spits about Jesus and he carried this theme through his whole career. In 2019, Kanye dropped Jesus is King which is a gospel album and I believe heavily influenced by Jesus Walks. While this song may not have a beat that reels me in, the idea of Kanye making this song about how if he raps about “God his shit won’t get played.”
1. Spaceship: My absolute favorite Kanye song ever and is in my top 5 songs of all time. Something about this song instantly throws me in a great mood and I love playing it in my car so that I can scream/sing it. The first verse cracks me up because, it’s honestly about Kanye hating his manager and how he wants to steal from him and then beat the shit out of him.
The two features by GLC and Consequence are amazing and the way in which Kanye West produced and rapped in this song is magical. He is the greatest artist and visionary of my generation and Spaceship is the embodiment of his illustrious career.
Overall, I think that College Dropout fascinates me because, no one expected a kid to rap about what he did and how he did in 2004. Kanye is an absolute trailblazer and made one of the greatest albums of all time.