The College Dropout 2004 Album

Kanye West

I remember hearing 'Jesus Walks' on a music video show one weekend and I was immediate hooked. I also recall spending some time on the net afterwards looking for it to listen to it again. While Kanye didn't/doesn't have the best voice or rapping talent, the church/choir influenced production is brilliant which I've always loved and I ended up purchasing the album. Once past the annoying intro and other skits throughout the album, (my advice to anyone who hasn't heard this album would be to delete the skits out of your playlist), you are mostly left with a mix of thirteen great tracks. The skits criticize college, which is fine, but I don't think they are that engaging for repeated listens. The couple of exceptions, and the tracks I'm not infatuated with are, 'The New Workout Plan' which drags on, and the massive hit 'Slow Jamz' which I never got the great deal with. Another Twista hit, 'DJ Play a Love Song' is a better song. Apart from those, everything is pretty-pretty good. It's one of those albums I've been torn between a 4 and a 4.5 out of 5, and have maybe leaned toward the four at times as Kanye ain't a great rapper, but given the amount of brilliant tracks, which most albums would be happy to contain one of them, it gets a 4.5/5. And they DCFS, some of 'em dyslexic / They favourite 50 Cent song '12 Questions' :) Best Tracks: We Don't Care, Jesus Walks, Never Let Me Down, Two Words, Through the Wire, Family Business