At what point, or what song pushed Kanye to that megastar level?

[Rominati]

The Graduation to 808 run is what made homie a icon.


808's changed homies career and look forever. Thats when he grew out his hair and started stunting with Amber Rose everywhere. Thats when he became a TMZ superstar

 

[daemonova]

flashing lights is his biggest song, no church in the wild his biggest feature, we'll see how mercy does it has longer legs that I thought it would, but it might just be a hood classic

 

[zoo]

flashing lights is his biggest song, no church in the wild his biggest feature, we'll see how mercy does it has longer legs that I thought it would, but it might just be a hood classic

Flashing Lights was really bigger than Gold Digger or Stronger? I'm surprised if this is true

 

[Majestic Pape]

"George Bush doesn't care about Black people" sent him to megastar status.

 

[flea]

Always thought it was Jesus Walks

 

[Harry B]

First album.
He then kept on growing outside of music, but as far as music goes it was his first album.

 

[nieman]

Jesus Walks. That song got him critical acclaim and play EVERYWHERE. Through the Wire was the track that put him on the map but Jesus Walks catapulted him from a dot on the map, to name and border drawn. Everything else pretty much solidified it. His string of singles from the first album kept him from fading into "just another rapper" and his antics turned into "What Will Kanye Do/Say?"

 

[Danie84]

The Ray Charles song

 

[muzikfrk75]

Gold Digger.

EASILY.

 

[phonthought3000]

Cut to Chris Tucker:

People always seem to overlook that part in that whole scene.....I found that part to be the most hilarious.

 

[shazam]

You can't really pinpoint it to one thing - Kanye's career was one perfectly executed move after another from 2003-2010.

College Dropout was a huge success for what it was - it bucked the trend started by 50 Cent and did well on its own merits, even if it's pretty rookie by his standards today. LR had his first megahit, but it also succeeded in bringing in a much wider critical audience - you're looking at AOR and indie fans when you've got Adam Levine and Jon Brion (why he didn't stick with him for longer I'll never know). Graduation is still one of the best festival albums I've ever heard. The fact that he could make an album like 808s and not receive a critical mauling demonstrates how well Def Jam/Rocafella pulled off Kanye's career, and MBDTF/WTT just solidified all of it.

The thing that you need to note is that each album appealed to a particular fanbase - the reason Kanye is a megastar now is because he put in that work building up a fanbase over years. To be honest, I liked College Dropout but I wasn't sold on Kanye until LR, which remains my favourite. Some of my friends who love going to festivals love Graduation, but I don't think they've ever heard the first two albums. But I can guarantee that they've all heard the stuff he did since then.

 

[jadillac]

Flashing Lights was really bigger than Gold Digger or Stronger? I'm surprised if this is true

Chartwise I dont think Flashing Lights did well, but to me, it seems like the song was everywhere.

I thihnk it was the last single off that album tho, so maybe that's why it didnt chart very highly.

But sales wise, his biggest two singles are "Heartless" and "Gold Digger"

 

[stealthbomber]

gold digger

 

[Mr Uncle Leroy]

taylor swift incident

 

[Rapmastermind]

Jesus Walks made him known. Gold Digger made him a Super Star. As for Hip Hop Heads, we will always call "College Dropout" his best, that was when he was most hungry, before the fame, hype. That was KanYe in his purest form. Listen to songs like "Spaceship", that was a guy that fought to live out his dream. I don't know where that KanYe is anymore even though I still got love for him.