Kanye West - College Dropout
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CD Details
Artist: Kanye WestEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Format: Explicit Lyrics
CD Release Date: 2004-02-10
Music Label: Roc-a-Fella
Product features:
- WEST KANYE THE COLLEGE DROPOUT
- Intro
- We Don't Care
- Graduation Day
- All Falls Down
- I'll Fly Away
- Spaceship
- Jesus Walks
- Never Let Me Down
- Get Em High
- Workout Plan
- The New Workout Plan
- Slow Jamz
- Breathe In Breathe Out
- School Spirit Skit 1
- School Spirit Skit 2
- School Spirit Skit 2
- Lil Jimmy Skit
- Two Words
- Through The Wire
- Family Business
Music reviews of College Dropout
Music Review: Finally, the Social Classes Blend
Rating: 5 Stars
Finally, middle class rap with enough soul to pass the "real nigga" test...Kanye West is a nouveau-riche, urbanized, seething, two-fisted pro-black advocating, pants sagging b-boy struggling with Christian values in a world of mind numbing materialism, knee-buckling sexualization and outright self-hatred. Just like most of us. West's "College Drop Out" boldly sets up this engaging debut album in the atmosphere officially deemed the antithesis of the hyper-machismo of the ghetto (i.e. blackness/black manliness).
That's right, Polo rocking, blazer-friendly K Wizzle represents from the milieu of the college campus. The best example of this is "School Spirit." Spike Lee's "School Daze" was the last artistic offering to pull this off with any resounding success.
West's achievement is fascinating after seeing scores of brothers stroll the yard on FAMU's, Morehouse's (the heterosexual ones) and Howard's campuses trying to be hard with backpacks ripping at the seams from Calculus, Philosophy and Humanities textbooks. West's album is monumental to such men who've been through an identity crisis thanks to the pressure by the media, the 'hood and many of the women they've tried to pursue on these campuses. Kanye West and the pensive teddy bear mascot gracing the album cover are the poster children for surviving academia and maintaining street credibility.
A strange position for an album named "College Drop Out", yet there lies a method to West's schizophrenia. "We Don't Care" is West shouting out to the ghetto right off the top, to the drug dealers that had to do something to keep they peoples afloat, the Tyrone Squares slaving 9 to 5's, even bootleggers trying to get by, as if letting the audience know off the top that his academic presentation is without the snobbery that tends to breed hatred of the talented tenth. This gives him the persona of the cat in school that enjoyed asking questions that made teachers look stupid. So you figure, since he's pissing off the administration that put you in a learning disability class because the teachers didn't teach worth a damn, you'll take a rain check on trying to beat him down in the hallway - for a while. "Graduation Day" endears even more. West laments that he does not wish to do the good-job-predictable-rigamarole every parent seems to wish for their child. West captures the spirit of entrepreneurship hip hop has inspired beautifully with the final line, stating that "I'm just not everybody."
"All Falls Down" is the best commentary on the rampant materialism of our time in recent memory. From females "addicted to retail" to insecure thug wannabes who can't run to grocery store without a throwback jersey, West goes off like a dentist in a bad mood; not only takes it to the teeth, but drivin' it down in the gums, rattling your skull with how such materialism is not a sign of black cool, but honestly, self hatred medicated by brand name clothing.
Most of hip hop will have you believe people in the 'hood are born Sunday night and are in some kind of criminal drama by Monday at noon. With "Spaceship", West adds passion and depth to the tedious, monotonous grind of young people working at bland gigs at The Gap while waiting for a come up. The most powerful song is "Jesus Walks." West lets his hang strong by summoning a force that scares most contemporary rappers, God (Jesus in this instance). West is the only one to throw down reverently about such a sacred topic and drop the f-bomb in it like it was meant to be there. The most stunning part is West's lamenting that radio stations actually gave him beef about the song simply because of his talking about God. Can you remember a time when talking about most of the garbage you hear on the radio now was kept you off the air?
In "Never Let Me Down", Jay Z actually lets West down with a tired, self-centered rap about his self-proclaimed king of rap status and how high his records chart. No way in hell can that stand shoulder to shoulder with West's recounting of his mother's participation in the Civil Rights Movement, West promising to marry his betrothed and surviving a near fatal car accident. This brings home the odd marriage between someone of substance like West, and the predictable Johnson-stroking of everyone surrounding Jay Z and Rocafella.
Tired of West's deepness? Fear not. Instead of coming off over the top as a self-righteous nerd, Kanye retains his sense of humor and bares his contradictions. Recess from the deep-thinking is in session: "Get 'em High" is West wading through a weed-induced haze, swearing to be the big baller (...) that will bone your girl, diss your demo and demand you dance to this exciting news. The most interesting part of this is the fact that Talib Kweli is featured here in pure wing man mode, setting West up at one point to impress a girl right out her draws. Hey, intellectuals gotta get laid too, right?
"The New Workout Plan" is along the same line of silliness, bringing mega beats per minute. It features testimonies of chickenheads blessed with the new Kanye West workout body now able to score that drug dealer or ball player that used to pass them and their jelly rolls by. "Breathe in, Breathe Out" dabbles in and out of commentary. Here, West apologizes to Mos Def and Talib Kweli for his forthcoming burst into typical rap subject matter. His self-consciousness almost makes this one notable.
"Slow Jamz", featuring Jamie Foxx, is something for the ladies tired of trying to kill themselves keeping up with hyper-tempo hip hop ('specially in them pointed boots). Foxx comes with the crooning he first showcased in his "Crazy Like a Fox" show. Ready for the World, New Edition, Luther Vandross... they all get love, strolling through the chorus like the ticker tape messages on the CNN channel. Rapper and fellow Chicagoan Twista's cameo is the true birth of his career.
The Interlude of the Caucasian-sounding college graduate is important because, indirectly, he states that a college degree isn't a deliverance into the promise land as many Civil Rights era elders may lead us to believe. In fact, as the interlude infers (almost ala Carter G. Woodson's "Mis-Education of the Negro"), the training is useless if the graduates aren't trained to use what they learn to further themselves and their communities. Honestly, even at HBCU's, many of us are trained to think as part of a priviledged black herd merely waiting to be sold off to the nearest corporation - with no further interest in from whence we came. "Family Business" pries the day planner out of our hands and connects us back to our roots, the ugly and affirming aspects of it while "Through the Wire" mumbles the message to those of us still assuming ourselves invincible that every breath we take is a gift.
Ain't that something, after the legacy Tupac has left us, it is obvious that we don't seem to need somebody perfect, close at Public Enemy may have been to it. These days, we just need somebody to be honest.(...)
Description of College Dropout
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