March 08, 2004 :: The College Dropout

Kanye West has been anointed the new, hot, "conscious" rap artist by the record industry media. After suffering through the hype both from them and from enough of my friends who bought it the week it came out, I decided it was worth getting a bootleg copy and giving it a listen. The bottom line: It is more creative than most other recent offerings, but Kanye has problems, and some of them are significant.

The album title, "The College Dropout", is a reference to Kanye's own personal history of difficulty with higher education. He uses his own life narrative of his failure as a college student to structure the album, making many references to school, education, "smartness", and success. The overriding theme is that he has been able to overcome all of the obstacles that life has tossed his way, including dropping out from school and the new-famous auto accident and reconstructive surgery on his jaw.

posted by Rainmayun at 12:37 PM -