How was it when The College Dropout came out?

[CAVEMAN]

I was about to drop out of college myself, and remember hyping the Advance like crazy, burning CDs of that with a few of his mixtape tracks and other shyt he was involved in stuffed at the end for anybody that would listen (the 'Get By' Remix he was on, Beans & Jay tracks and Alica's "You Dont Know My Name" etc all stuffed at the end)

When the actual Retail album came out, I was a lil disappointed to be real, all the excessive skits was annoying, the edited songs in the middle of an explicit album, I preferred a lot of the Advance versions of the songs, the talking for 14 minutes at the end was alright one time but I was mad that beat wasnt used for a real song, the mixing and mastering werent great or something, think I waited til the remastered version dropped a lil later before I actually bought the CD (with the white background instead of brown), and even then just bumped my burned CD version with less skits and the uncensored versions and a shorter 'Last Call'

but between the Advance & the Retail & the various versions I burned myself we played the hell out of that album


Didnt think he was an amazing rapper by any means, but I laughed at some of his lines, and appreciated his bridging the conscious and the mainstream, being more of a regular person type rapper in a way that might could actually blow up for real and change the game of what lanes were acceptable, and I fully recognized in real time that he was bout to shift the culture in some way

 

[JustCKing]

Not really.

Just blaze beats were more popular.

During that era, they weren't. Kanye had huge songs for other artists who weren't on The Roc. And even on The Roc, one of Jay's biggest singles During that era was "'03 Bonnie & Clyde".

 

[Kyle C. Barker]

As others have said. It was a breath of fresh air.

Kanye at the time was relatable, personable, talented, and passionate. You believed in his story. You WANTED to root for him.


The only knock on him during the early days was his bars could be subpar from time to time. This was when nikkas still somewhat cared about the quality of your bars and Kanye coming out the gate calling himself the BEST EVER was kind of side eyed when Jay-Z & Nas were still at the forefront and you had Mos Def, Talib Kweli, and even people from his own crew like Consequence rapping circles around him.

This is why I could never get into Kanye.

Especially being that I was listening to Nas, the roots, common, doom, and mos def at the time he got popular.

His raps were too simple for me and I also felt a type of way with how he cozied up to common, talib kweli, and other conscious emcees at the time to further push his regular degular joe vibe which I never bought into.

 

[hex]

I thought he was ok.

I never seen him as the 2nd coming of hip-hop or whatever people are talking about. Yeah he shifted the focus away from "street rap" but personality/rap-wise he came off like a light weight Native Tongues member and beats-wise he was biting Wu heavy in the beginning.

So I wasn't exactly blown away by what he was doing. But I liked a few songs.

Fred.

 

[Chris Cool]

Not gonna lie, the fake conscious shyt worked on me. Wasn't until years later when I heard somebody say, "if anybody else spit Kanye's raps, they'd be a regular ass rapper". Hit the .

 

[Ziggiy]

This is why I could never get into Kanye.

Especially being that I was listening to Nas, the roots, common, doom, and mos def at the time he got popular.

His raps were too simple for me and I also felt a type of way with how he cozied up to common, talib kweli, and other conscious emcees at the time to further push his regular degular joe vibe which I never bought into.

Well I will say it was a mutually beneficial things as Common got two whole albums (one of them a classic) Talib got a hit single, and Mos got several dope songs out of the deal….

 

[head shots101]

Nothing really
2003-2004 was still the G-Unit/Dipset/Roc A Fella days

nikkas wasn’t listening to Kanye

Got to disagree with this

 

[Kyle C. Barker]

Well I will say it was a mutually beneficial things as Common got two whole albums (one of them a classic) Talib got a hit single, and Mos got several dope songs out of the deal….

I was in my late teens into that black conscious rap ish, being irrational was part of the deal.



But I remembered feeling some type of way hearing how he was "a breath of fresh air" and made it cool to not be a thug when I had a whole cd tower of black star, de la soul, and Erykah Badu on display.

 

[Ziggiy]

I was in my late teens into that black conscious rap ish, being irrational was part of the deal.



But I remembered feeling some type of way hearing how he was "a breath of fresh air" and made it cool to not be a thug when I had a whole cd tower of black star, de la soul, and Erykah Badu on display.

I was KIND of the same way. I liked CD and recognized that Kanye had made some dope shyt but I wasn’t a super fan or bumped the album all that consistently personally. I was strictly Nas, Jay, Mos, Common, Wu-Tang, etc.


But there was no denying Kanye West was about to be THAT dude. I remember watching him win his first Grammy and giving his speech and I just KNEW this guy was going to be a superstar.


Then Late Registration dropped. That was IT. I listened to that album in fukking amazement. That album was just banger after banger after muthafukking banger. The co-production with Jon Brion was FLAWLESS and every guest feature was placed perfectly. He had Lupe Fiasco right before Lupe blew up. He was the FIRST Roc-A-Fella artist to have the God Nas on an album just five years after the battle. Consequence and Cam’ron murked Gone, and the most pleasant surprise was Kanye himself had immensely improved the bars. His breath control, flow, and lyrics had improved times ten. Listen to his rapping on Diamonds From Sierra Leon (both the remix and OG) his last verse on Gone, his first verse on Drive Slow. These of course weren’t Nas or Hov levels but these were real impressive BARS he was spitting.


College Dropout was like the rookie who was drafted low first round who came out of NOWHERE to win Rookie Of The Year. A true surprise and breath of fresh air.


Late Registration was like that rookie coming into his sophomore season and averaging twice the PPG, RPG, and APG on his way to leading his team to a championship. It was a career making album. The impact was incredible. Kanye could do NO wrong that year. Gold Digger was a smash. He had the freshest videos. The coolest fashion. He was outspoken about his greatness and unabashedly BACKED IT UP.


People (rightfully) shyt on 04-06 for the overhyping of crunk/snap music but Kanye helped almost single handedly usher in an alternative sound. That nikka helped DILATED PEOPLE and SLUM VILLAGE get MTV video rotation. He gave Common a classic and a 4.5/5 follow up. He helped Lupe on his ascension. nikkas remembered who Consequence was. There was really really excellent music that cane out that had Kanye’s fingerprints all over it.

 

[Polofresh4]

I was in my late teens into that black conscious rap ish, being irrational was part of the deal.



But I remembered feeling some type of way hearing how he was "a breath of fresh air" and made it cool to not be a thug when I had a whole cd tower of black star, de la soul, and Erykah Badu on display.

See and this is what the Kanye difference was....he was obviously close to that the black conscious rap...it was in all his music...

But he was with the ROC, who depending on where you lived and your age (I was 16 in 2003), were the coolest dudes in music. All the hot gear, with the cool crews, spitting on the best beats, trying to be harder than each other. Then came Kanye, who was nothing like them, but still got that Roc chain. He was intriguing and an underdog but with the Roc backing, he had an easier time to get to the mainstream.

 

[JP_614]

Growing up I remember the mixtapes thinking that was the album or at least some songs on freshman adjustment and I was hyped. Winter time came and he dropped the album and me and another dude had that shyt at school and we gassed and knew he had next.

 

[Waterproof]

Y'all need to stop lying y'all wasn't bumping Common the time College Dropout dropped because after Like Water he dropped Electic Circus and by the way y'all nikkas talk about Yeezus y'all did not fukk with Common left field experimental album Electic Circus, y'all left him for dead and the only people I know that love that album are the hardcore Okayplayer Heads.

So y'all need to stop frontin, It was Kanye who brought Common back on Get'Em High, it was Kanye who put the battery in his back again when he came with to me Hip Hop Quotable of the year and produced his 2nd Classic album BE, Kanye resurrected Common from the dead and made him who he is today, he gave Common a 2nd life

Y'all stop frontin

 

[Rozay Oro]

Take it how you wanna take it.

I don’t understand how you got to such conclusions

 

[Ziggiy]

See and this is what the Kanye difference was....he was obviously close to that the black conscious rap...it was in all his music...

But he was with the ROC, who depending on where you lived and your age (I was 16 in 2003), were the coolest dudes in music. All the hot gear, with the cool crews, spitting on the best beats, trying to be harder than each other. Then came Kanye, who was nothing like them, but still got that Roc chain. He was intriguing and an underdog but with the Roc backing, he had an easier time to get to the mainstream.

Kanye was the last great ROC artist and it was nowhere in the design for him to be that.


I remember after College Dropout’s success they asked Hov in an interview if Kanye would be the ROC’s new torch bearer and Hov said something to the effect that because if his background Ye wasn’t built for that because ROC was a “street” label at heart. He DEFINITELY had to eat those words.




Just remembering the times back then make me even madder at what Ye has become today.

 

[Ziggiy]

Y'all need to stop lying y'all wasn't bumping Common the time College Dropout dropped because after Like Water he dropped Electic Circus and by the way y'all nikkas talk about Yeezus y'all did not fukk with Common left field experimental album Electic Circus, y'all left him for dead and the only people I know that love that album are the hardcore Okayplayer Heads.

So y'all need to stop frontin, It was Kanye who brought Common back on Get'Em High, it was Kanye who put the battery in his back again when he came with to me Hip Hop Quotable of the year and produced his 2nd Classic album BE, Kanye resurrected Common from the dead and made him who he is today, he gave Common a 2nd life

Y'all stop frontin

This is true even Common admits it but.


BUT

It took an MC of Common’s caliber to do those beats justice. Common is and has always been an elite MC he just needed that Kanye Stimulus at the time.


I’ll never forget the first time I heard Be. I walked to DTLR where my sister worked and copped it. Took the plastic off, put the CD in my Sony Walkman with 30 second anti-skip technology and from those first bars…


“I wanna be as free as the spirits of those who left/ I’m talking Malcolm, Coltrane, my man Yusef/ from death to conception/new breath and resurrection/ for mom’s new steps in her direction”


I put my head to sky, smiled, and I kid you muthafukking NOT I thanked God for Hip Hop