Kanye West was best known as the incredible beat-maker behind hits like Jay-Z's Izzo, and Ludacris' Stand Up, but with his debut album The College Dropout, he has placed himself directly in the spotlight. The reason for all the positive press the album has been receiving? Well, for starters, people are getting fed up with the materialism that has infested the hip-hop world, and Kanye gives us a much different approach. In fact, on the absolutely classic All Falls Down, Kanye shrewdly raps about the reasons that hip-hop is so product driven. All one needs to do is look at the second verse to see Kanye’s opinion; “I promise, I’m so self-conscious.” And this is the beginning of what can be found throughout the album that gives us an intimate look at what it really means to grow up in the hood, and the inner-conflicts that it afflicts its residents with. A rude awakening for people who wanted to believe that it was like DMX told us it was. Later on in the same song, Kanye attacks white America for forcing their values on blacks; “they made us hate ourselves and love their wealth.” The first eight tracks on the album all contribute to a great opening, and there are simply too many brilliant observations made in the first half of the album to mention. But there is more to the album than achieving a certain level of consciousness about what it means to be black in America.

After these first eight tracks, there is a small package of songs obsessed with girls and sex, which really detract from the album. While parts of the songs are certainly tongue-in-cheek, the cleverness of these tracks is as shallow as a wading pool compared to the openers. The album does get back on track with the great Breathe In Breathe Out, where West is accompanied by Ludacris. This song is an open assault on hip-hop, which puts Ludacris a little bit out of place seeing as he seems to embody everything that West is trying to devalue, but he only provides the chorus anyway. It is during these kinds of songs that West is clearly at his best, and the most impressive thing about West is his breezy humor; “Always said if I rapped I’d say something significant / but now I’m rappin’ bout money, hoes, and rims again.”

The College Dropout is an often-brilliant album, but it loses momentum several times. There are numerous skits where West takes every opportunity to turn take shots at the institution of college, for which he clearly reserves some deep hatred. But guided by the profound All Falls Down, the album shines with West’s intelligence, and his ability to look inward and admit to his own inadequacies, which seems like a less than remarkable thing, but is refreshing in contrast to the uber-macho facades put on by most of today’s rappers.

by Nathan Atnikov, Music-Critic.ca