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The College Dropout

The College Dropout is the debut studio album by the American rapper and record producer Kanye West. It was released on February 10, 2004, by Def Jam Recordings and Jay-Z's Roc-A-Fella Records. 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. Intent on pursuing a solo career, he signed a record deal with Roc-A-Fella and recorded the album over a period of four years, beginning in 1999.

The College Dropout
Studio album by
ReleasedFebruary 10, 2004 (2004-02-10)
Recorded1999–2003
Studio
  • Baseline (New York City)
  • Full Time Dreamer (New York City)
  • Light @ the End of the Tunnel (New York City)
  • Quad (New York City)
  • Sony Music (New York City)
  • Conway (Los Angeles)
  • Larrabee Sound North (Los Angeles)
  • Digital Insight (Las Vegas)
  • Edie Road (Argyle)
  • The Enterprise (Burbank)
  • Record Plant (Hollywood)
Genre
Length76:13
Label
ProducerKanye West
Kanye West chronology
Kon the Louis Vuitton Don
(2004)
The College Dropout
(2004)
Late Registration
(2005)
Singles from The College Dropout
  1. "Through the Wire"
    Released: September 30, 2003
  2. "Slow Jamz"
    Released: December 2, 2003
  3. "All Falls Down"
    Released: March 8, 2004
  4. "Jesus Walks"
    Released: May 25, 2004
  5. "The New Workout Plan"
    Released: August 31, 2004

The production of The College Dropout was primarily handled by West and showcased his "chipmunk soul" musical style, which made use of sped-up, pitch shifted vocal samples from soul and R&B records, in addition to West's own drum programming, string accompaniments, and gospel choirs; the album also features contributions from Jay-Z, Mos Def, Jamie Foxx, Syleena Johnson, and Ludacris, among others. Diverging from the then-dominant gangster persona in hip hop, West's lyrics concern themes of family, self-consciousness, materialism, religion, racism, and higher education.

The College Dropout debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200, selling 441,000 copies in its first week of sales. It was a large-scale commercial success, with domestic sales of over 3.4 million copies by 2014 and was certified 4x platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in 2020. The album was promoted with singles such as "Through the Wire", "Jesus Walks", "All Falls Down", and "Slow Jamz", the latter two of which peaked within the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100, with "Slow Jamz" becoming West's first number-one single as a lead artist.

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. The album earned the rapper several accolades, including nominations for Album of the Year and Best Rap Album at the 2005 Grammy Awards, winning for the latter. It has since been named by numerous publications as one of the greatest albums of all time, including Rolling Stone and NME, who ranked it at 74 and 273 respectively on their 500 Greatest Albums of All Time lists, and is credited for popularizing the chipmunk soul and conscious rap subgenres in the 2000s.

Background edit

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 a time, he acted as a ghost producer for Deric "D-Dot" Angelettie. Due to his association with D-Dot, West wasn't able to release a solo album, so he formed and became a member and producer of the Go-Getters, a late-1990s Chicago rap group composed of him, GLC, Timmy G, Really Doe, and Arrowstar.[1][2] The group released their first and only studio album World Record Holders in 1999.[1] West came to achieve recognition with his contributions to Jay-Z's influential 2001 album The Blueprint.[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.[4] Serving as an in-house producer for Roc-A-Fella Records, West produced records for other artists from the label, including Beanie Sigel, Freeway, and Cam'ron. He also crafted hit songs for Ludacris, Alicia Keys, and Janet Jackson.[3][5][6][7]

Although he had attained success as a producer, Kanye West aspired to be a rapper, but had struggled to attain a record deal.[6] Record companies ignored him because he did not portray the gangsta image prominent in mainstream hip hop at the time.[8] After a series of meetings with Capitol Records, West was ultimately denied an artist deal.[9] According to Capitol Record's A&R, Joe Weinberger, he was approached by West and almost signed a deal with him, but another person in the company convinced Capitol's president not to.[9] Desperate to keep West from defecting to another label, then-label head Damon Dash reluctantly signed West to Roc-A-Fella Records. Jay-Z, West's colleague and one of his mentors, later admitted that Roc-A-Fella was initially reluctant to support West as a rapper, claiming that many saw him as a producer first and foremost, and that his background contrasted with that of his labelmates.[8][10]

West's breakthrough came a year later on October 23, 2002, when, while driving home from a California recording studio after working late, he fell asleep at the wheel and was involved in a near-fatal car crash.[11] The crash left him with a shattered jaw, which had to be wired shut in reconstructive surgery. The accident inspired West; two weeks after being admitted to a hospital, he recorded a song at the Record Plant with his jaw still wired shut.[11] The composition, "Through the Wire", expressed West's experience after the accident, and helped lay the foundation for his debut album, as according to West "all the better artists have expressed what they were going through".[12][13] West added that "the album was my medicine", as working on the record distracted him from the pain.[14] "Through the Wire" was first available on West's Get Well Soon... mixtape, released December 2002.[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. Don't let society tell you, 'This is what you have to do.'"[16]

Recording edit

West began recording The College Dropout in 1999, taking four years to complete.[17] Recording sessions took place at Record Plant in Los Angeles, California, but the production featured on the record took place elsewhere over the course of several years. According to John Monopoly, West's friend, manager and business partner, the album "...[didn't have] a particular start date. He's been gathering beats for years. He was always producing with the intention of being a rapper. There's beats on the album he's been literally saving for himself for years". 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. 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.[6][18]

 
Violinist Miri Ben-Ari contributed to seven tracks.

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. He recorded the remainder of the album in Los Angeles while recovering from the car accident. Once he had completed the album, it was leaked months before its release date.[6] However, West decided to use the opportunity to review the album, and The College Dropout was significantly remixed, remastered, and revised before being released. 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.[19] West meticulously refined the production, adding string arrangements, gospel choirs, improved drum programming and new verses.[6] On his personal blog in 2009, West stated he was most inspired by The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill and listened to the album every day while working on The College Dropout.[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.[21] It was revealed by Plain Pat that there were around three other versions of the song, but West disliked them. Pat said in reference to the Franklin sample: "That song would have been so weak if we didn't get that sample cleared".[22] In 2011, an uncensored version of the track was distributed online.[23]

West finished recording around December 2003, according to his older cousin and singer Tony Williams, who was recruited by the rapper two weeks before the album's deadline to contribute vocals. Williams had impressed West by singing improvisations to "Spaceship" during one of their drives together. 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. At that point he was like, 'Ok, Well let me see what you do on this song.' I think that's when we did 'Last Call.' One song lead to another, and by the end of the weekend, I was on like five songs. Then we did the 'I'll Fly Away' joint".[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.[25]

Music and lyrics edit

The College Dropout diverged from the then-dominant gangster persona in hip hop in favor of more diverse, topical subjects for the lyrics.[13] Throughout the album, West touches on a number of different issues drawn from his own experiences and observations, including organized religion, family, sexuality, excessive materialism, self-consciousness, minimum wage labor, institutional prejudice, and personal struggles.[26][27][28] Music journalist Kelefa Sanneh wrote, "Throughout the album, Mr. West taunts everyone who didn't believe in him: teachers, record executives, police officers, even his former boss at the Gap".[29] West explained, "My persona is that I'm the regular person. Just think about whatever you've been through in the past week, and I have a song about that on my album".[30] The album was musically notable for West's unique development of his "chipmunk soul" production style,[31] in which R&B and soul music samples were sped up and pitch shifted.[32][33]

The album begins with a skit featuring a college professor asking West to deliver a graduation speech. 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.[29] The next track, "Graduation Day", features Miri Ben-Ari on violin[34] and vocals by John Legend.[35]

On "All Falls Down", West wages an attack on consumerism.[5][36] The song features singer Syleena Johnson and contains an interpolation of Lauryn Hill's "Mystery of Iniquity".[35] West called upon Johnson to re-sing a vocal portion of "Mystery of Iniquity", which ended up in the final mix.[37] Gospel hymn with doo-wop elements "I'll Fly Away" precedes "Spaceship", a track with a relaxed beat containing a soulful Marvin Gaye sample. 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.[36]

On "Jesus Walks", West professes his belief in Jesus, while also discussing how religion is used by various people and how the media seems to avoid songs that address matters of faith while embracing compositions on violence, sex, and drugs.[36][38] "Jesus Walks" is built around a sample of "Walk With Me" as performed by the ARC Choir.[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".[39] The first verse of the song is told through the eyes of a drug dealer seeking help from God, and it reportedly took over six months for West to draw inspiration for the second verse.[40]

"Never Let Me Down" is influenced by West's near-death car crash. The song features Jay-Z, who rhymes about maintaining status and power given his chart success, while West comments on racism and poverty.[36][41] The song features verses by spoken word performer J. Ivy who offers comments of upliftment. "Never Let Me Down" reuses a Jay-Z verse first heard in the remix of his song "Hovi Baby".[36][42] "Get Em High" is a collaboration by West with two socially conscious rappers, Talib Kweli and Common.[43] "The New Workout Plan" is a call to fitness to improve one's love life.[36] "Slow Jamz" features Twista and Jamie Foxx and serves as a tribute to classic smooth soul artists and slow jam songs.[5] The song also appeared on Twista's album Kamikaze.[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. "Two Words" features commentary on social issues and features Mos Def, Freeway, and the Harlem Boys Choir.[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.[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.[11][35] The chorus and instrumentals sample a pitched up version of Chaka Khan's 1985 single "Through the Fire".[5] "Family Business" is a soulful tribute to the godbrother of Tarrey Torae, one of the many collaborators in the album.[45] The song "Last Call" is about West's transition from being a producer to a rapper, and the album ends with a nearly nine-minute autobiographical monologue that follows the song "Last Call". However, this is not a separate track.[46]

Title and packaging edit

 
Graffiti depicting the Dropout Bear

The album's title is in part a reference to West's decision to drop out of college to pursue his dream of becoming a musician.[47] This action greatly displeased his mother, who was a professor at the university from which he withdrew. 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. For Kanye to make an album called [The] College Dropout it was more about having the guts to embrace who you are, rather than following the path society has carved out for you".[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. 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". 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". The inside cover follows a college yearbook, with photos of the featured artists from their youth.[49]

While the original release of the album features a brown background on the cover artwork, later remasters of the album feature a white background.[45]

Marketing and sales edit

The College Dropout was originally scheduled for release in August 2003, but West's perfectionist habits producing the album led to it being postponed three times. It was first delayed to October 2003, then to January 2004, before finally being released to stores on February 10, 2004.[50][51]

In its first week of release, the album sold 441,000 copies and debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200 chart, being held off the top spot by Norah Jones' second studio album Feels Like Home.[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.[53][54] In 2004, The College Dropout ranked as the twelfth most popular of the year on the Billboard 200.[55] The album had sold 2.3 million units in the United States by November 2004.[56] By June 2014, the album had become West's best-selling album in the US at the time, with domestic sales of 3,358,000 copies.[57][58] On November 23, 2020, The College Dropout was certified four-times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).[59] On the UK Albums Chart, the album peaked at number 12, and the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) had certified it double platinum by November 25, 2004; this indicated shipments of 600,000 copies.[60][61] As of 2018, The College Dropout is the fourteenth highest selling rap album in the UK in the 21st-century.[62] The album has sold over 4 million copies worldwide.[63]

Four of the singles released in promotion of the album became top-20 chart hits: "Through the Wire", "Slow Jamz", "All Falls Down" and "Jesus Walks".[64] "The New Workout Plan" was the fifth and last single.[65] "Spaceship" was planned to be the sixth single, but Def Jam decided to move on from The College Dropout's promotional campaign to begin marketing West's next album, Late Registration (2005).[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.[43]

Critical reception edit

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic87/100[67]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic     [5]
Blender     [68]
Entertainment WeeklyA−[69]
Los Angeles Times    [70]
Mojo     [71]
Pitchfork8.2/10[3]
Rolling Stone     [72]
SpinB+[73]
USA Today    [74]
The Village VoiceA[75]

The College Dropout was met with widespread critical acclaim. 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]

The record was hailed by Kelefa Sanneh from The New York Times as "2004's first great hip-hop album".[29] Reviewing it for The A.V. Club, Nathan Rabin observed in the music "substance, social commentary, righteous anger, ornery humanism, dark humor, and even Christianity", calling it "one of those wonderful crossover albums that appeal to a huge audience without sacrificing a shred of integrity".[76] The staff of Mojo said its exceptional hip hop production was miraculous during a time when hip hop's practice of sampling was becoming "increasingly litigious",[71] and those of Urb deemed it "both visceral and emotive, sprinkling the dancefloors with tears and sweat".[77] Dave Heaton from PopMatters found it "musically engaging" and "a genuine extension of Kanye's personality and experiences",[36] while Hua Hsu of The Village Voice felt that his sped-up samples "carry a humble, human air", allowing listeners to "hear tiny traces of actual people inside".[78] Fellow Village Voice critic Robert Christgau wrote that "not only does [West] create a unique role model, that role model is dangerous—his arguments against education are as market-targeted as other rappers' arguments for thug life".[75] In the opinion of Stylus Magazine's Josh Love, West "subverts cliches from both sides of the hip-hop divide" while "trying to reflect the entire spectrum of hip-hop and black experience, looking for solace and salvation in the traditional safehouses of church and family".[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. 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.[69]

Some reviewers were more qualified in their praise. 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.[27] It was regarded by Pitchfork critic Rob Mitchum as a "flawed, overlong, hypocritical, egotistical, and altogether terrific album".[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-hop—real, banging, commercial hip-hop—could be a vehicle for nuanced self-examination and musical subtlety".[79]

Rankings edit

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.[80] The album elsewhere topped year-end lists by Rolling Stone,[81] Spin,[82] Vibe,[83] and PopMatters.[84] Dutch magazine OOR named it the seventh best album of 2004.[85] Billboard named The College Dropout the second best album of 2004.[86] Rhapsody named it the seventh best album of the decade and the fourth best hip hop album of the decade.[87][88]

In 2005, Pitchfork named it No. 50 in their best albums of 2000–2004.[89] In 2006, the album was named by Time as one of the 100 best albums of all time.[90] In its retrospective 2007 issue, XXL named it one of the magazine's "XXL"-rated releases; this perfect rating had previously been given by the magazine to only sixteen other albums.[91] In 2012, Complex named the album one of the classic albums of the last decade,[92] and the 20th best hip hop debut album ever.[93] Dagsavisen listed the album eleventh in its list of the top forty albums of the 2000s decade.[94] The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.[95] NME placed the album at 273 on its 2013 list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time,[96] while Rolling Stone ranked it at 74 on their list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2020.[97]

Select rankings of The College Dropout
Publication List Year Rank Ref.
The A.V. Club The 50 Best Albums of the 2000s 2009
2
Consequence The Top 100 Albums of the 2000s 2009
16
The Top 100 Albums Ever 2010
100
The 25 Greatest Hip-Hop Debut Albums of All Time 2018
2
Entertainment Weekly The 100 Best Albums from 1983 to 2008 2008
4
The 10 Best Albums of the Decade 2009
1
NME The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time 2013
273
Paste The 50 Best Albums of the Decade (2000–2009) 2009
17
Pitchfork Top 50 Albums of 2004 2004
18
The 200 Best Albums of the 2000s 2009
28
Rolling Stone The 100 Albums of the 2000s 2009
10
The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time 2012
298
The 100 Greatest Debut Albums of All Time 2013
19
500 Greatest Albums of All Time 2020
74
The 200 Greatest Hip-Hop Albums of All Time 2022
52
Spin The 300 Best Albums of the Past 30 Years (1985–2014) 2015
59
The 50 Best Hip-Hop Debut Albums Since 'Reasonable Doubt' 2016
1
The Times The 100 Best Pop Albums of the Noughties 2009
13
The Village Voice The 2004 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll 2004
1

Industry awards edit

Awards and nominations for The College Dropout
Year Organization Award Result Ref.
2004 American Music Awards Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Album Nominated
Billboard Music Awards R&B/Hip-Hop Album of the Year Nominated
MOBO Awards Best Album Won
The Source Awards Album of the Year Won
Teen Choice Awards Album of the Year Won
2005 Grammy Awards Album of the Year Nominated
Best Rap Album Won
Groovevolt Music and Fashion Awards Album of the Year Won
Best Hip-Hop Album Won
NAACP Image Awards Outstanding Album Nominated

Influence edit

As a young black kid, especially one who got to walk the line between some dangerous environments and some much better ones, Kanye was this beautiful means to be true to both sides of me. I remember listening to The College Dropout on the bus from a Leadership Broward event where I was selected as one of the leaders of tomorrow or whatever. I remember listening to it as I walked by two black mothers in bed slippers fighting in the street. 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. … 'Spaceship,' 'All Falls Down,' 'Never Let Me Down,' 'Jesus Walks,' 'Family Business.' Those were anthems of mine that I kept in the back pocket of my heart as I walked the line between black people finding me too white or proper and white people clamoring for me to be their 'black friend.'

—Aundre Larrow, Chicago Reader (2014)[122]

The College Dropout sparked a resurgence of socially conscious rap in the mid 2000s,[123] arriving at a time when pop rap was saturated with songs featuring product placement and intensely violent lyrics, epitomized by rappers like 50 Cent, Nelly, Ja Rule, Ludacris, and P. Diddy.[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.[124] Raul Verma of The Independent said "West is charged with proving mainstream hip hop has a conscience with his nourishing messages of substance flying in the face of the amoral majority perpetuating clichés of guns, girls and bling",[125] while Vibe senior editor Noah Callahan-Bever argued that West's infusion of "pop sensibility" into his otherwise progressive hip hop had "bridged the gap" and encouraged rappers to gravitate more towards the center between mainstream and alternative forms.[126] Today commented that "The College Dropout, stood out in the rap landscape because of its atypical prose. It avoided the usual plotlines about sex, money and violence and touched on everything from his faith to his fears of failure and other crises from his life."[127]

According to DJBooth journalist Brad Callas, the album also "helped solidify chipmunk soul as not only the defining sound of the Roc-A-Fella era but also the most popular sub-genre in hip-hop".[128] "It feels like that album birthed an entire sub-genre", Max Weinstein wrote in retrospect for Vibe, going on to say, "The palette of emotions was so broad, the depth of topics so searingly relevant, that it was bound to make an impression on any artist that heard it. RZA might have birthed chipmunk soul, and Black Star perfected smart lyricism for the JanSport bunch, but 'Ye brought all that to the masses in one single, digestible product, breaking down the divisions between mainstream rap and Rawkus-grade consciousness." Weinstein also credited The College Dropout with directly influencing 10 albums: Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor (2006) by Lupe Fiasco, School Was My Hustle (2006) by Kidz in the Hall, Don't Quit Your Day Job! (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.[129]

With the album, West began to develop a following of listeners who could not relate to lyrics glorifying gangster lifestyle but still enjoyed rap music and connected more with his musings on family and love.[124] In 2005, comedian Chris Rock attested to listening to The College Dropout while writing his stand-up material.[130] Music journalists such as Meaghan Garvey, Andrew Barber, and Erika Ramirez also connected to the album during their formative years, with Barber saying in a roundtable discussion for Noisey, "I could identify with this project the most because I was in college at the time, and I felt like an underdog in my own life. I was uncertain of my future. [West's] words on 'Last Call' inspired me to follow my dreams, and motivated me to graduate despite the album title." 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]

Track listing edit

All tracks are produced by Kanye West, except "Last Call" (co-produced with Evidence; additional production by Porse) and "Breathe In Breathe Out" (co-produced with Brian Miller).

The College Dropout standard edition
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Intro (Skit)"Kanye West0:19
2."We Don't Care"
3:59
3."Graduation Day"
1:22
4."All Falls Down" (featuring Syleena Johnson)3:43
5."I'll Fly Away"Albert E. Brumley1:09
6."Spaceship" (featuring GLC and Consequence)5:24
7."Jesus Walks"3:13
8."Never Let Me Down" (featuring Jay-Z and J. Ivy)5:24
9."Get Em High" (featuring Talib Kweli and Common)4:49
10."Workout Plan (Skit)"West0:46
11."The New Workout Plan"
  • West
  • Stephens
  • Bosco Kante
  • Sumeke Rainey
  • Ben-Ari
5:22
12."Slow Jamz" (Twista featuring Kanye West and Jamie Foxx)5:16
13."Breathe In Breathe Out" (featuring Ludacris)
  • West
  • Brian Miller
4:06
14."School Spirit (Skit 1)"West1:18
15."School Spirit"3:02
16."School Spirit (Skit 2)"West0:43
17."Lil Jimmy (Skit)"West0:53
18."Two Words" (featuring Mos Def, Freeway and The Boys Choir of Harlem)4:26
19."Through the Wire"3:41
20."Family Business"West4:38
21."Last Call"12:40
Total length:76:13

2005 Japanese special edition edit

Bonus track
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
22."Heavy Hitters" (featuring GLC)
  • West
  • Harris
3:55
Total length:80:08
Bonus CD
No.TitleLength
1."We Don't Care (Reprise)" (featuring Keyshia Cole)2:57
2."Jesus Walks (Remix)" (featuring Mase and Common)4:58
3."It's Alright" (featuring Mase and John Legend)3:51
4."The New Workout Plan (Remix)" (featuring Fonzworth Bentley, Luke and Twista; produced by Lil Jon)4:02
5."Two Words (Cinematic)" (featuring The Harlem Boys Choir)4:06
6."Never Let Me Down (Cinematic)"5:16
Total length:25:07

Sample credits edit

Personnel edit

Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes.[35][132]

Charts edit

Certifications edit

Certifications and sales for The College Dropout
Region Certification Certified units/sales
Canada (Music Canada)[162] Platinum 100,000^
Denmark (IFPI Danmark)[163] Platinum 20,000
New Zealand (RMNZ)[164] Gold 7,500^
United Kingdom (BPI)[165] 3× Platinum 900,000
United States (RIAA)[59] 4× Platinum 4,000,000

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.
Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ a b Barber, Andrew (July 23, 2012). "93. Go-Getters "Let Em In" (2000)". Complex. from the original on July 27, 2012. Retrieved August 7, 2012.
  2. ^ Reid, Shaheem (September 30, 2005). "Music Geek Kanye's Kast of Thousands". MTV. from the original on April 15, 2006. Retrieved April 23, 2006.
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Bibliography edit

External links edit

college, dropout, process, dropping, college, dropping, restaurant, college, dropout, restaurant, debut, studio, album, american, rapper, record, producer, kanye, west, released, february, 2004, recordings, fella, records, years, leading, release, west, receiv. For the process of dropping out of college see Dropping out For the restaurant see College Dropout restaurant The College Dropout is the debut studio album by the American rapper and record producer Kanye West It was released on February 10 2004 by Def Jam Recordings and Jay Z s Roc A Fella Records 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 Intent on pursuing a solo career he signed a record deal with Roc A Fella and recorded the album over a period of four years beginning in 1999 The College DropoutStudio album by Kanye WestReleasedFebruary 10 2004 2004 02 10 Recorded1999 2003StudioBaseline New York City Full Time Dreamer New York City Light the End of the Tunnel New York City Quad New York City Sony Music New York City Conway Los Angeles Larrabee Sound North Los Angeles Digital Insight Las Vegas Edie Road Argyle The Enterprise Burbank Record Plant Hollywood GenreHip hop chipmunk soul pop rap conscious rap progressive rapLength76 13LabelDef Jam Roc A FellaProducerKanye WestKanye West chronologyKon the Louis Vuitton Don 2004 The College Dropout 2004 Late Registration 2005 Singles from The College Dropout Through the Wire Released September 30 2003 Slow Jamz Released December 2 2003 All Falls Down Released March 8 2004 Jesus Walks Released May 25 2004 The New Workout Plan Released August 31 2004 The production of The College Dropout was primarily handled by West and showcased his chipmunk soul musical style which made use of sped up pitch shifted vocal samples from soul and R amp B records in addition to West s own drum programming string accompaniments and gospel choirs the album also features contributions from Jay Z Mos Def Jamie Foxx Syleena Johnson and Ludacris among others Diverging from the then dominant gangster persona in hip hop West s lyrics concern themes of family self consciousness materialism religion racism and higher education The College Dropout debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200 selling 441 000 copies in its first week of sales It was a large scale commercial success with domestic sales of over 3 4 million copies by 2014 and was certified 4x platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America RIAA in 2020 The album was promoted with singles such as Through the Wire Jesus Walks All Falls Down and Slow Jamz the latter two of which peaked within the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 with Slow Jamz becoming West s first number one single as a lead artist 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 The album earned the rapper several accolades including nominations for Album of the Year and Best Rap Album at the 2005 Grammy Awards winning for the latter It has since been named by numerous publications as one of the greatest albums of all time including Rolling Stone and NME who ranked it at 74 and 273 respectively on their 500 Greatest Albums of All Time lists and is credited for popularizing the chipmunk soul and conscious rap subgenres in the 2000s Contents 1 Background 2 Recording 3 Music and lyrics 4 Title and packaging 5 Marketing and sales 6 Critical reception 6 1 Rankings 6 2 Industry awards 7 Influence 8 Track listing 8 1 2005 Japanese special edition 8 2 Sample credits 9 Personnel 9 1 Musicians 9 2 Production 9 3 Design 10 Charts 10 1 Weekly charts 10 2 Year end charts 10 3 Decade end charts 11 Certifications 12 See also 13 References 14 Bibliography 15 External linksBackground editKanye 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 a time he acted as a ghost producer for Deric D Dot Angelettie Due to his association with D Dot West wasn t able to release a solo album so he formed and became a member and producer of the Go Getters a late 1990s Chicago rap group composed of him GLC Timmy G Really Doe and Arrowstar 1 2 The group released their first and only studio album World Record Holders in 1999 1 West came to achieve recognition with his contributions to Jay Z s influential 2001 album The Blueprint 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 4 Serving as an in house producer for Roc A Fella Records West produced records for other artists from the label including Beanie Sigel Freeway and Cam ron He also crafted hit songs for Ludacris Alicia Keys and Janet Jackson 3 5 6 7 Although he had attained success as a producer Kanye West aspired to be a rapper but had struggled to attain a record deal 6 Record companies ignored him because he did not portray the gangsta image prominent in mainstream hip hop at the time 8 After a series of meetings with Capitol Records West was ultimately denied an artist deal 9 According to Capitol Record s A amp R Joe Weinberger he was approached by West and almost signed a deal with him but another person in the company convinced Capitol s president not to 9 Desperate to keep West from defecting to another label then label head Damon Dash reluctantly signed West to Roc A Fella Records Jay Z West s colleague and one of his mentors later admitted that Roc A Fella was initially reluctant to support West as a rapper claiming that many saw him as a producer first and foremost and that his background contrasted with that of his labelmates 8 10 West s breakthrough came a year later on October 23 2002 when while driving home from a California recording studio after working late he fell asleep at the wheel and was involved in a near fatal car crash 11 The crash left him with a shattered jaw which had to be wired shut in reconstructive surgery The accident inspired West two weeks after being admitted to a hospital he recorded a song at the Record Plant with his jaw still wired shut 11 The composition Through the Wire expressed West s experience after the accident and helped lay the foundation for his debut album as according to West all the better artists have expressed what they were going through 12 13 West added that the album was my medicine as working on the record distracted him from the pain 14 Through the Wire was first available on West s Get Well Soon mixtape released December 2002 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 Don t let society tell you This is what you have to do 16 Recording editWest began recording The College Dropout in 1999 taking four years to complete 17 Recording sessions took place at Record Plant in Los Angeles California but the production featured on the record took place elsewhere over the course of several years According to John Monopoly West s friend manager and business partner the album didn t have a particular start date He s been gathering beats for years He was always producing with the intention of being a rapper There s beats on the album he s been literally saving for himself for years 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 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 6 18 nbsp Violinist Miri Ben Ari contributed to seven tracks 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 He recorded the remainder of the album in Los Angeles while recovering from the car accident Once he had completed the album it was leaked months before its release date 6 However West decided to use the opportunity to review the album and The College Dropout was significantly remixed remastered and revised before being released 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 19 West meticulously refined the production adding string arrangements gospel choirs improved drum programming and new verses 6 On his personal blog in 2009 West stated he was most inspired by The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill and listened to the album every day while working on The College Dropout 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 21 It was revealed by Plain Pat that there were around three other versions of the song but West disliked them Pat said in reference to the Franklin sample That song would have been so weak if we didn t get that sample cleared 22 In 2011 an uncensored version of the track was distributed online 23 West finished recording around December 2003 according to his older cousin and singer Tony Williams who was recruited by the rapper two weeks before the album s deadline to contribute vocals Williams had impressed West by singing improvisations to Spaceship during one of their drives together 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 At that point he was like Ok Well let me see what you do on this song I think that s when we did Last Call One song lead to another and by the end of the weekend I was on like five songs Then we did the I ll Fly Away joint 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 25 Music and lyrics editThe College Dropout diverged from the then dominant gangster persona in hip hop in favor of more diverse topical subjects for the lyrics 13 Throughout the album West touches on a number of different issues drawn from his own experiences and observations including organized religion family sexuality excessive materialism self consciousness minimum wage labor institutional prejudice and personal struggles 26 27 28 Music journalist Kelefa Sanneh wrote Throughout the album Mr West taunts everyone who didn t believe in him teachers record executives police officers even his former boss at the Gap 29 West explained My persona is that I m the regular person Just think about whatever you ve been through in the past week and I have a song about that on my album 30 The album was musically notable for West s unique development of his chipmunk soul production style 31 in which R amp B and soul music samples were sped up and pitch shifted 32 33 nbsp Through the Wire source source Through the Wire is an autobiographical song about West s 2002 car accident when he had to have his jaw wired shut The track is representative of his production style in which he samples and speeds up sections from classic soul records and uses them to create melodic hooks The song s hook primarily samples Chaka Khan s 1984 hit Through the Fire Problems playing this file See media help The album begins with a skit featuring a college professor asking West to deliver a graduation speech 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 29 The next track Graduation Day features Miri Ben Ari on violin 34 and vocals by John Legend 35 On All Falls Down West wages an attack on consumerism 5 36 The song features singer Syleena Johnson and contains an interpolation of Lauryn Hill s Mystery of Iniquity 35 West called upon Johnson to re sing a vocal portion of Mystery of Iniquity which ended up in the final mix 37 Gospel hymn with doo wop elements I ll Fly Away precedes Spaceship a track with a relaxed beat containing a soulful Marvin Gaye sample 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 36 On Jesus Walks West professes his belief in Jesus while also discussing how religion is used by various people and how the media seems to avoid songs that address matters of faith while embracing compositions on violence sex and drugs 36 38 Jesus Walks is built around a sample of Walk With Me as performed by the ARC Choir 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 39 The first verse of the song is told through the eyes of a drug dealer seeking help from God and it reportedly took over six months for West to draw inspiration for the second verse 40 Never Let Me Down is influenced by West s near death car crash The song features Jay Z who rhymes about maintaining status and power given his chart success while West comments on racism and poverty 36 41 The song features verses by spoken word performer J Ivy who offers comments of upliftment Never Let Me Down reuses a Jay Z verse first heard in the remix of his song Hovi Baby 36 42 Get Em High is a collaboration by West with two socially conscious rappers Talib Kweli and Common 43 The New Workout Plan is a call to fitness to improve one s love life 36 Slow Jamz features Twista and Jamie Foxx and serves as a tribute to classic smooth soul artists and slow jam songs 5 The song also appeared on Twista s album Kamikaze 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 Two Words features commentary on social issues and features Mos Def Freeway and the Harlem Boys Choir 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 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 11 35 The chorus and instrumentals sample a pitched up version of Chaka Khan s 1985 single Through the Fire 5 Family Business is a soulful tribute to the godbrother of Tarrey Torae one of the many collaborators in the album 45 The song Last Call is about West s transition from being a producer to a rapper and the album ends with a nearly nine minute autobiographical monologue that follows the song Last Call However this is not a separate track 46 Title and packaging edit nbsp Graffiti depicting the Dropout Bear The album s title is in part a reference to West s decision to drop out of college to pursue his dream of becoming a musician 47 This action greatly displeased his mother who was a professor at the university from which he withdrew 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 For Kanye to make an album called The College Dropout it was more about having the guts to embrace who you are rather than following the path society has carved out for you 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 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 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 The inside cover follows a college yearbook with photos of the featured artists from their youth 49 While the original release of the album features a brown background on the cover artwork later remasters of the album feature a white background 45 Marketing and sales editThe College Dropout was originally scheduled for release in August 2003 but West s perfectionist habits producing the album led to it being postponed three times It was first delayed to October 2003 then to January 2004 before finally being released to stores on February 10 2004 50 51 In its first week of release the album sold 441 000 copies and debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200 chart being held off the top spot by Norah Jones second studio album Feels Like Home 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 53 54 In 2004 The College Dropout ranked as the twelfth most popular of the year on the Billboard 200 55 The album had sold 2 3 million units in the United States by November 2004 56 By June 2014 the album had become West s best selling album in the US at the time with domestic sales of 3 358 000 copies 57 58 On November 23 2020 The College Dropout was certified four times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America RIAA 59 On the UK Albums Chart the album peaked at number 12 and the British Phonographic Industry BPI had certified it double platinum by November 25 2004 this indicated shipments of 600 000 copies 60 61 As of 2018 The College Dropout is the fourteenth highest selling rap album in the UK in the 21st century 62 The album has sold over 4 million copies worldwide 63 Four of the singles released in promotion of the album became top 20 chart hits Through the Wire Slow Jamz All Falls Down and Jesus Walks 64 The New Workout Plan was the fifth and last single 65 Spaceship was planned to be the sixth single but Def Jam decided to move on from The College Dropout s promotional campaign to begin marketing West s next album Late Registration 2005 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 43 Critical reception editProfessional ratingsAggregate scoresSourceRatingMetacritic87 100 67 Review scoresSourceRatingAllMusic nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp 5 Blender nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp 68 Entertainment WeeklyA 69 Los Angeles Times nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp 70 Mojo nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp 71 Pitchfork8 2 10 3 Rolling Stone nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp 72 SpinB 73 USA Today nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp 74 The Village VoiceA 75 The College Dropout was met with widespread critical acclaim 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 The record was hailed by Kelefa Sanneh from The New York Times as 2004 s first great hip hop album 29 Reviewing it for The A V Club Nathan Rabin observed in the music substance social commentary righteous anger ornery humanism dark humor and even Christianity calling it one of those wonderful crossover albums that appeal to a huge audience without sacrificing a shred of integrity 76 The staff of Mojo said its exceptional hip hop production was miraculous during a time when hip hop s practice of sampling was becoming increasingly litigious 71 and those of Urb deemed it both visceral and emotive sprinkling the dancefloors with tears and sweat 77 Dave Heaton from PopMatters found it musically engaging and a genuine extension of Kanye s personality and experiences 36 while Hua Hsu of The Village Voice felt that his sped up samples carry a humble human air allowing listeners to hear tiny traces of actual people inside 78 Fellow Village Voice critic Robert Christgau wrote that not only does West create a unique role model that role model is dangerous his arguments against education are as market targeted as other rappers arguments for thug life 75 In the opinion of Stylus Magazine s Josh Love West subverts cliches from both sides of the hip hop divide while trying to reflect the entire spectrum of hip hop and black experience looking for solace and salvation in the traditional safehouses of church and family 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 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 69 Some reviewers were more qualified in their praise 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 27 It was regarded by Pitchfork critic Rob Mitchum as a flawed overlong hypocritical egotistical and altogether terrific album 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 hop real banging commercial hip hop could be a vehicle for nuanced self examination and musical subtlety 79 Rankings edit The College Dropout was voted as the best album of the year by The Village Voice s Pazz amp Jop an annual poll of American critics 80 The album elsewhere topped year end lists by Rolling Stone 81 Spin 82 Vibe 83 and PopMatters 84 Dutch magazine OOR named it the seventh best album of 2004 85 Billboard named The College Dropout the second best album of 2004 86 Rhapsody named it the seventh best album of the decade and the fourth best hip hop album of the decade 87 88 In 2005 Pitchfork named it No 50 in their best albums of 2000 2004 89 In 2006 the album was named by Time as one of the 100 best albums of all time 90 In its retrospective 2007 issue XXL named it one of the magazine s XXL rated releases this perfect rating had previously been given by the magazine to only sixteen other albums 91 In 2012 Complex named the album one of the classic albums of the last decade 92 and the 20th best hip hop debut album ever 93 Dagsavisen listed the album eleventh in its list of the top forty albums of the 2000s decade 94 The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die 95 NME placed the album at 273 on its 2013 list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time 96 while Rolling Stone ranked it at 74 on their list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2020 97 Select rankings of The College Dropout Publication List Year Rank Ref The A V Club The 50 Best Albums of the 2000s 2009 2 98 Consequence The Top 100 Albums of the 2000s 2009 16 99 The Top 100 Albums Ever 2010 100 100 The 25 Greatest Hip Hop Debut Albums of All Time 2018 2 101 Entertainment Weekly The 100 Best Albums from 1983 to 2008 2008 4 102 The 10 Best Albums of the Decade 2009 1 103 NME The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time 2013 273 96 Paste The 50 Best Albums of the Decade 2000 2009 2009 17 104 Pitchfork Top 50 Albums of 2004 2004 18 105 The 200 Best Albums of the 2000s 2009 28 106 Rolling Stone The 100 Albums of the 2000s 2009 10 107 The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time 2012 298 108 The 100 Greatest Debut Albums of All Time 2013 19 109 500 Greatest Albums of All Time 2020 74 97 The 200 Greatest Hip Hop Albums of All Time 2022 52 110 Spin The 300 Best Albums of the Past 30 Years 1985 2014 2015 59 111 The 50 Best Hip Hop Debut Albums Since Reasonable Doubt 2016 1 112 The Times The 100 Best Pop Albums of the Noughties 2009 13 113 The Village Voice The 2004 Pazz amp Jop Critics Poll 2004 1 114 Industry awards edit Awards and nominations for The College Dropout Year Organization Award Result Ref 2004 American Music Awards Favorite Rap Hip Hop Album Nominated 115 Billboard Music Awards R amp B Hip Hop Album of the Year Nominated 116 MOBO Awards Best Album Won 117 The Source Awards Album of the Year Won 118 Teen Choice Awards Album of the Year Won 118 2005 Grammy Awards Album of the Year Nominated 119 Best Rap Album Won Groovevolt Music and Fashion Awards Album of the Year Won 120 Best Hip Hop Album Won NAACP Image Awards Outstanding Album Nominated 121 Influence editAs a young black kid especially one who got to walk the line between some dangerous environments and some much better ones Kanye was this beautiful means to be true to both sides of me I remember listening to The College Dropout on the bus from a Leadership Broward event where I was selected as one of the leaders of tomorrow or whatever I remember listening to it as I walked by two black mothers in bed slippers fighting in the street 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 Spaceship All Falls Down Never Let Me Down Jesus Walks Family Business Those were anthems of mine that I kept in the back pocket of my heart as I walked the line between black people finding me too white or proper and white people clamoring for me to be their black friend Aundre Larrow Chicago Reader 2014 122 The College Dropout sparked a resurgence of socially conscious rap in the mid 2000s 123 arriving at a time when pop rap was saturated with songs featuring product placement and intensely violent lyrics epitomized by rappers like 50 Cent Nelly Ja Rule Ludacris and P Diddy 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 124 Raul Verma of The Independent said West is charged with proving mainstream hip hop has a conscience with his nourishing messages of substance flying in the face of the amoral majority perpetuating cliches of guns girls and bling 125 while Vibe senior editor Noah Callahan Bever argued that West s infusion of pop sensibility into his otherwise progressive hip hop had bridged the gap and encouraged rappers to gravitate more towards the center between mainstream and alternative forms 126 Today commented that The College Dropout stood out in the rap landscape because of its atypical prose It avoided the usual plotlines about sex money and violence and touched on everything from his faith to his fears of failure and other crises from his life 127 According to DJBooth journalist Brad Callas the album also helped solidify chipmunk soul as not only the defining sound of the Roc A Fella era but also the most popular sub genre in hip hop 128 It feels like that album birthed an entire sub genre Max Weinstein wrote in retrospect for Vibe going on to say The palette of emotions was so broad the depth of topics so searingly relevant that it was bound to make an impression on any artist that heard it RZA might have birthed chipmunk soul and Black Star perfected smart lyricism for the JanSport bunch but Ye brought all that to the masses in one single digestible product breaking down the divisions between mainstream rap and Rawkus grade consciousness Weinstein also credited The College Dropout with directly influencing 10 albums Lupe Fiasco s Food amp Liquor 2006 by Lupe Fiasco School Was My Hustle 2006 by Kidz in the Hall Don t Quit Your Day Job 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 129 With the album West began to develop a following of listeners who could not relate to lyrics glorifying gangster lifestyle but still enjoyed rap music and connected more with his musings on family and love 124 In 2005 comedian Chris Rock attested to listening to The College Dropout while writing his stand up material 130 Music journalists such as Meaghan Garvey Andrew Barber and Erika Ramirez also connected to the album during their formative years with Barber saying in a roundtable discussion for Noisey I could identify with this project the most because I was in college at the time and I felt like an underdog in my own life I was uncertain of my future West s words on Last Call inspired me to follow my dreams and motivated me to graduate despite the album title 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 Track listing editAll tracks are produced by Kanye West except Last Call co produced with Evidence additional production by Porse and Breathe In Breathe Out co produced with Brian Miller The College Dropout standard editionNo TitleWriter s Length1 Intro Skit Kanye West0 192 We Don t Care WestMiri Ben AriRoss Vannelli3 593 Graduation Day WestJohn StephensBen Ari1 224 All Falls Down featuring Syleena Johnson WestLauryn Hill3 435 I ll Fly Away Albert E Brumley1 096 Spaceship featuring GLC and Consequence WestLeonard HarrisDexter MillsMarvin GayeGwen Gordy FuquaSandra Greene5 247 Jesus Walks WestChe SmithBen AriCurtis Lundy3 138 Never Let Me Down featuring Jay Z and J Ivy WestShawn CarterJames RichardsonMichael BoltonBruce Kulick5 249 Get Em High featuring Talib Kweli and Common WestTalib Kweli GreeneLonnie Rashid Lynn Jr 4 4910 Workout Plan Skit West0 4611 The New Workout Plan WestStephensBosco KanteSumeke RaineyBen Ari5 2212 Slow Jamz Twista featuring Kanye West and Jamie Foxx WestCarl MitchellBurt BacharachHal David5 1613 Breathe In Breathe Out featuring Ludacris WestBrian Miller4 0614 School Spirit Skit 1 West1 1815 School Spirit WestAretha Franklin3 0216 School Spirit Skit 2 West0 4317 Lil Jimmy Skit West0 5318 Two Words featuring Mos Def Freeway and The Boys Choir of Harlem WestDante SmithLeslie PridgenLou WilsonRic WilsonCarlos Wilson4 2619 Through the Wire WestDavid FosterTom KeaneCynthia Weil3 4120 Family Business West4 3821 Last Call WestMichael PerrettaTony WilliamsKen Lewis12 40Total length 76 13 2005 Japanese special edition edit Bonus trackNo TitleWriter s Length22 Heavy Hitters featuring GLC WestHarris3 55Total length 80 08 Bonus CDNo TitleLength1 We Don t Care Reprise featuring Keyshia Cole 2 572 Jesus Walks Remix featuring Mase and Common 4 583 It s Alright featuring Mase and John Legend 3 514 The New Workout Plan Remix featuring Fonzworth Bentley Luke and Twista produced by Lil Jon 4 025 Two Words Cinematic featuring The Harlem Boys Choir 4 066 Never Let Me Down Cinematic 5 16Total length 25 07 Sample credits edit We Don t Care contains samples of I Just Wanna Stop written by Ross Vannelli and performed by The Jimmy Castor Bunch All Falls Down contains interpolations of Mystery of Iniquity written and performed by Lauryn Hill Spaceship contains samples of Distant Lover written by Marvin Gaye Gwen Gordy Fuqua and Sandra Greene and performed by Marvin Gaye Jesus Walks contains samples of Walk with Me performed by The ARC Choir and Don t Worry If There s a Hell Below We re All Going to Go written and performed by Curtis Mayfield Never Let Me Down contains samples of Maybe It s the Power of Love written by Michael Bolton and Bruce Kulick and performed by Blackjack Slow Jamz contains samples of A House Is Not a Home written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David and performed by Luther Vandross School Spirit contains samples of Spirit in the Dark written and performed by Aretha Franklin Two Words contains samples of Peace amp Love Amani Na Mapenzi Movement IV Encounter written by Lou Wilson Ric Wilson and Carlos Wilson and performed by Mandrill Through the Wire contains samples of Through the Fire written by David Foster Tom Keane and Cynthia Weil and performed by Chaka Khan Family Business contains samples of Fonky Thang written by Terry Callier and Charles Stepney and performed by The Dells Last Call contains samples of Mr Rockefeller written by Jerry Blatt and Bette Midler and performed by Bette Midler Personnel editCredits are adapted from the album s liner notes 35 132 Musicians edit John Legend vocals track 3 additional vocals tracks 2 6 7 11 21 background vocals track 8 piano track 3 DeRay additional vocals tracks 1 5 14 16 17 Tony Williams additional vocals track 5 6 15 17 21 Sumeke Rainey additional vocals tracks 9 11 Tracie Spencer additional vocals track 12 background vocals track 8 Riccarda Watkins additional vocals track 2 Candis Brown additional vocals track 10 Brandi Kuykenvall additional vocals track 10 Tiera Singleton additional vocals track 10 Aisha Tyler additional vocals track 12 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 Rude Jude additional vocals track 22 Terrence Hardy kids vocals track 2 Diamond Alabi Isama kids vocals track 2 James JT Knight kids vocals track 2 Keyshia Cole background 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 Ken Lewis acoustic guitar track 4 sample recreation and performance track 8 additional instrumentation track 20 guitar bass keyboard percussion vocal track 21 Eric E Bass Johnson guitars tracks 4 11 Bosko talkbox track 11 Keith Slattery keyboards track 18 Scott Ward bass guitar track 19 Josh Zandman piano track 20 Miri Ben Ari violins production writing arrangement and performance tracks 2 3 7 11 13 18 22 Production edit Rabeka Tunei recording tracks 1 4 6 8 10 14 17 20 21 Eugene A Toale recording tracks 2 3 7 11 13 22 Andrew Dawson recording tracks 6 7 11 15 Anthony Kilhoffer recording tracks 3 8 9 Tatsuya Sato recording tracks 4 6 7 Rich Balmer recording tracks 2 22 Brent Kolatalo recording tracks 8 21 assistant engineering track 22 Keith Slattery recording tracks 11 18 Jacob Andrew recording tracks 13 20 Gimel Guru Keaton recording track 8 Jacelyn Parry recording track 8 Michael Eleopoulos recording track 9 Dave Dar recording track 9 Jason Rauhoff recording track 13 Marc Fuller recording track 18 Carlisle Young recording track 18 Francis Graham recording track 19 Manny Marroquin mixing tracks 1 10 12 17 19 21 Jared Lopez mixing track 11 Mike Dean mixing track 18 Ken Lewis mixing track 22 Eddy Schreyer mastering Design edit Danny Clinch photography Eric Duvauchelle art direction and design Mike Godshall art direction and design Jim Morris art direction and design Stephanie Reynolds art direction and design Lauri Rowe art direction and design Bobby Naugle Dropout Bear logo design Sam Hansen Dropout Bear logo designCharts editWeekly charts edit 2004 chart performance for The College Dropout Chart 2004 Peakposition Canadian Albums Nielsen SoundScan 133 11 Canadian R amp B Albums Nielsen SoundScan 134 5 Dutch Albums Album Top 100 135 53 French Albums SNEP 136 98 German Albums Offizielle Top 100 137 77 Irish Albums IRMA 138 13 Norwegian Albums VG lista 139 27 Scottish Albums OCC 140 23 Swedish Albums Sverigetopplistan 141 39 Swiss Albums Schweizer Hitparade 142 96 UK Albums OCC 143 12 UK R amp B Albums OCC 144 2 US Billboard 200 145 2 US Top R amp B Hip Hop Albums Billboard 146 1 2007 chart performance for The College Dropout Chart 2007 Peakposition US Top Catalog Albums Billboard 147 1 2014 chart performance for The College Dropout Chart 2014 Peakposition US Vinyl Albums Billboard 148 13 2022 chart performance for The College Dropout Chart 2022 Peakposition Belgian Albums Ultratop Flanders 149 55 Canadian Albums Billboard 150 38 Danish Albums Hitlisten 151 30 US Billboard 200 152 11 Year end charts edit 2004 year end chart performance for The College Dropout Chart 2004 Position UK Albums OCC 153 34 US Billboard 200 55 12 US Top R amp B Hip Hop Albums Billboard 154 4 Worldwide Charts IFPI 155 21 2005 year end chart performance for The College Dropout Chart 2005 Position US Billboard 200 156 176 US Top R amp B Hip Hop Albums Billboard 157 94 2016 year end chart performance for The College Dropout Chart 2016 Position Australian Urban Albums ARIA 158 94 2022 year end chart performance for The College Dropout Chart 2022 Position US Billboard 200 159 97 US Top R amp B Hip Hop Albums Billboard 160 68 Decade end charts edit Decade end chart performance for The College Dropout Chart 2000 2009 Position US Billboard 200 161 155Certifications editCertifications and sales for The College Dropout Region Certification Certified units sales Canada Music Canada 162 Platinum 100 000 Denmark IFPI Danmark 163 Platinum 20 000 New Zealand RMNZ 164 Gold 7 500 United Kingdom BPI 165 3 Platinum 900 000 United States RIAA 59 4 Platinum 4 000 000 Shipments figures based on certification alone Sales streaming figures based on certification alone See also edit2004 in hip hop music Kanye West albums discography Kanye West production discography The College Dropout Video Anthology List of Billboard number one R amp B albums of 2004 College Dropout restaurant References edit a b Barber Andrew July 23 2012 93 Go Getters Let Em In 2000 Complex Archived from the original on July 27 2012 Retrieved August 7 2012 Reid Shaheem September 30 2005 Music Geek Kanye s Kast of Thousands MTV Archived from the original on April 15 2006 Retrieved April 23 2006 a b c d Mitchum Rob February 20 2004 Kanye West The College Dropout Pitchfork Archived from the original on July 31 2009 Retrieved July 23 2009 500 Greatest Albums of All Time 464 The Blueprint Rolling Stone November 18 2003 Archived from the original on October 22 2012 Retrieved June 21 2007 a b c d e f Kellman Andy The College Dropout Kanye West AllMusic Archived from the original on June 3 2012 Retrieved January 21 2011 a b c d e Reid Shaheem February 9 2005 Road to the Grammys The Making Of Kanye West s College Dropout MTV Archived from the original on July 18 2011 Retrieved January 4 2009 Serpick Evan Kanye West Archived December 16 2011 at the Wayback Machine Rolling Stone Retrieved December 26 2009 a b Hess p 556 a b Calloway Sway Reid Shaheem February 20 2004 Kanye West Kanplicated MTV Archived from the original on April 6 2009 Retrieved April 21 2009 Williams Jean A October 1 2007 Kanye West The Man the Music and the Message Biography The Black Collegian Archived from the original on January 25 2015 Retrieved April 27 2008 a b c d Kearney Kevin September 30 2005 Rapper Kanye West on the cover of Time Will rap music shed its gangster disguise Archived February 24 2016 at the Wayback Machine World Socialist Web Site Retrieved September 23 2007 Birchmeier Jason 2007 Kanye West Biography AllMusic Retrieved April 24 2008 a b Davis Kimberly The Many Faces of Kanye West Archived January 6 2016 at the Wayback Machine June 2004 Ebony Davis Kimberly Kanye West Hip Hop s New Big Shot Archived January 6 2016 at the Wayback Machine April 2005 Ebony Kamer Foster March 11 2013 9 Kanye West Get Well Soon 2003 The 50 Best Rapper Mixtapes Complex Archived from the original on March 13 2013 Retrieved April 9 2013 Reid Shaheem December 10 2002 Kanye West Raps Through His Broken Jaw Lays Beats For Scarface Ludacris Archived December 28 2013 at the Wayback Machine MTV Retrieved October 23 2007 Sarad February 10 2015 Today in Hip Hop History Kanye West Drops His College Dropout LP 11 Years Ago The Source Archived from the original on January 19 2019 Retrieved January 18 2019 Toure April 29 2004 Kanye West Head of the Class Rolling Stone Retrieved February 22 2022 Patel Joseph June 5 2003 Producer Kanye West s Debut LP Features Jay Z ODB Mos Def MTV Archived from the original on October 26 2012 Retrieved April 21 2009 The College Dropout is EW s Top Album of the Decade KanyeUniverseCity December 7 2009 Archived from the original on February 8 2019 Retrieved February 8 2019 When Rap Lyrics Get Censored Even on the Explicit Version Complex Archived from the original on September 13 2018 Retrieved September 13 2018 The Making of Kanye West s The College Dropout Complex Archived from the original on September 13 2018 Retrieved 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2022 Bibliography editBrown Jake 2006 Kanye West in the Studio Beats Down Money Up 2000 2006 Colossus Books ISBN 0 9767735 6 2 Hess Mickey 2007 Icons of Hip Hop an Encyclopedia of the Movement Music and Culture Greenwood Publishing Group ISBN 978 0 313 33904 2 West Donda Hunter Karen 2007 Raising Kanye Life Lessons from the Mother of a Hip Hop Superstar Simon amp Schuster ISBN 978 1 4165 4470 8 External links editThe College Dropout at Discogs Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title The College Dropout amp oldid 1219147163, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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