The College Dropout

We Don't Care

Kanye’s 2004 debut album starts off with a very memorable intro voiced by the infamous comedian, Bernie Mac, who is asking Kanye for a song to make the kids happy at graduation. Kanye West’s voice opens the track with pessimistic lines but says them with such cheerfulness that at first listen would seem like a mainstream dance track that would play on the radio. Kanye tells the kids to sing the chorus with him, “We wasn’t supposed to make it past 25, Jokes on you we still alive”.  The kids definitely add an eerie but much needed quality in the song. Kanye says just to get the same respect, opportunity, and money as the upper class they have to “sell crack, rap and get a job”. He tells how he looked up to the drug dealers when he was little because they had everything he ever wanted, watches, girls, and money. Kanye blames the schools closing the after-school programs for the young kids getting into trouble. A big topic Kanye emphasizes in the album is school, hence the album title. He laughs at the teachers who wanted to put him in a “slow class” and says the employees at DCFS are dyslexic.

All Falls Down

This track opens with one the most beautiful voices I have EVER heard, Syleena Johnson’s. This track is pretty odd for a Kanye song, he isn’t overbearingly confident and he isn't talking about all the shoes and watches he wants. Kanye is not only humble, but he also has a low self esteem on this track, he brings back the consistent subject matter of school. He tells a short story of a girl not knowing what she wants her major to be, even though she is three years into college. In fact, the girl doesn’t even want to be in college, but she also doesn’t want to disappoint her parents. Kanye also brings some brilliant bars like, “Couldn’t afford a car, so she named her daughter Alexis” referencing the popular car brand Lexus. Ye tells why he and so many other men are materialistic by explaining that without the gold watches we feel insecure. Ye shows us why he is insecure. It isn’t because he was bullied, or born poor, it’s because of the systematic racism he and his peers/ancestors have faced day to day and even if Ye made it in the music industry, a white man, his record-label’s owner, also gets payed off of Kanye’s success. It is a crazy subject to think about and sheds new light on the treatment of rappers at record labels. But in the final verse, Kanye shows us that he is still truly a slave, he still wants all the watches and money.

Jesus Walks

This song is what makes Kanye Kanye. Everyone, even his idol Jay Z told him not to release the song, that Kanye would lose money and respect. Kanye didn’t listen and dropped the song anyways, it is still one of the best and most loved songs he has ever created. Jesus walks takes a different approach to religion. A much needed approach because the rap community, especially in 2004, had heard about Jesus before and honestly didn’t care. Because when they heard about Jesus, rich families were getting “saved”, white families were getting “saved”. The inner-cities did not feel saved at all. They didn’t even feel like they could be saved. So Kanye took this knowledge and made Jesus Walks. Jesus walks open with a beautiful choir screaming “Jesus Walks With Me!’ In the first verse Kanye is expressing the inner-city struggles in the South-Side of Chicago, treatment from cops, and turning away from God. The chorus is one of the most emotional I've heard in a Rap song. Kanye brings up the hustlers, killers, and the murderous drug dealers in the second verse. The choir behind Kanye’s voice is singing “Jesus Walks With Them” showing that no matter what you did and who you are you can be “saved” with Jesus. Kanye makes the most important point in this song about NOT trying to make people Christians. I feel like that is the biggest downfall of Christianity, but Ye is just trying to express his need for Jesus in his life. Jesus Walks is arguably the most important rap song in the early 2000’s.

Get Em' High

Get Em High is my favorite track off this album. Kanye isn’t worried about any subject matter in particular. Although he does touch on school and racism, Kanye is more focused on his rhyme scheme and flow. Which is what makes this track my favorites, Kanye changes his flow like he changes his mind nowadays. The boy is saying two words in a bar one second, then speaks a whole short story in another. Kanye focuses on women in the second verse and makes a very very creative way to introduce one of the featured artists, Talib Kweli. Talib goes crazy on the flow just like Kanye but plays off of the topics Kanye introduced in the previous verse making a very cohesive and beautiful track. Kweli is also making very funny punchlines making your listen very colorful and pleasurable. Up until this point on the song, everything has been perfect but Common, a Chicago born rapper, comes in on the final verse of the song. Common is undoubtedly one of the greatest rappers of all time. Unfortunately though, his verse doesn’t hold up to any of his previous work and definitely doesn't hold up to Talib’s and Kanye’s masterpiece they just made. Therefore creating a lack luster verse full of corny bars. Common’s verse is equivalent to very bad stand-up comedy. Every time I listen to the song I just skip his verse because he doesn't even bring interesting topics to the song. Even with the terrible Common verse it is still my favorite song on the album. I strongly recommend listening to this song even if you don’t like “rap” just listen to how Kanye and Talib say their verses.

The New Workout Plan

Kanye addresses one of the worst things about rap, it’s misogynistic side. Kanye addresses this topic by ironically telling girls how to workout. Which seems like a very stupid idea but Kanye institutes little skits throughout the song showing a comedic side of a very messed up part of the culture. Unfortunately many women feel the need to look perfect because many rap songs explain that men only like women to be a certain way. So Kanye plays with the idea of making a song telling women how to act and shows the “positive” outcomes of being perfect. The “positive” outcome is shopping on Rodeo Drive, throwing away their bus pass, and leaving Ray Ray. Kanye slyly shows that those things may be good in the short-term, but you aren’t being your true self. The skits Ye introduced are some of the funniest things I have ever heard. I feel like that is a very big reason why this album is so great because before this album almost nobody did skits in their albums, and if they did they were terrible. Kanye has amazing skits all throughout the album just making you laugh it definitely created a unique experience when I was 6 and first listened to the album. After Ella May’s skit the song breaks into an alluring new beat with women in the background thanking Kanye for his workout plan allowing them to quit their job at the mall. A beautiful vocoder is introduced and sings throughout the rest of the song while Kanye is telling women to “eat that salad, no dessert”. The song ends with the vocoder sounding like a voice played through a piano; it is very distinctive and eccentric. This music is my favorite type of music because at face value it seems like Women that are happy because they get money off of looking good but if you go deeper into the song it is a whole other story.

School Spirit and Skits

School Spirit obviously reinstates the subject matter of school but focuses on the kids who graduated, and their life after graduation. School Spirit is set up in a peculiar way because it begins with a skit, School Spirit (Skit 1), which again is mainly for comedy purposes but also poses real world problems like picking up a drug habit at school. The skit makes fun of school by saying since you went to school, you don't have to borrow money from your mom to buy drugs, you can buy them yourself. The man in the skit explains that even though he graduated college, he was still working the same job, and even when he made it out of the job, he was working for someone who didn’t even go to college. The man in the skit says that even though he worked so hard in school he still didn't get any recognition. School Spirit, the actual track, starts off with Kanye’s infamous high-pitched vocal samples. School Spirit is the only track that is clean on the album, therefore making it able to play on more radios, and even at school which is pretty clever. Kanye talks about dropping out and how the Valedictorian in his class is a waiter at Cheesecake. Even though School Spirit is barely three minutes it still is a highlight on the album because of the lively and bouncy beat. School Spirit Skit 2 brings up the issue of continually going back to school to get your Associates, Bachelors, Masters, and Doctrine. By the time you're finished with school you will be 52, but the guy in the skit doesn't care how old he is or how much debt he has, he just wants his degrees to keep him “warm” when he’s dead.

Through The Wire

In 2002, Kanye West was involved in a car crash that broke his jaw. This event, Kanye says, sparked his love for Jesus. In “Through The Wire” Kanye isn’t even worried about himself. He is worried about his mom learning her son is on life support. He is worried about his girlfriend worrying he looks like Emmet Till. Which is a very dark bar in my opinion. Kanye references the Ghost of Christmas Past and how Kanye’s life flashed before his eyes. Kanye feels like he can overcome anything now which definitely boosted his ego. Looking at this song without context it honestly seems like a B-side Kanye record but when you learn Kanye Omari West recorded the entire song with his jaw wired shut! I don’t even know how that is even possible. Kanye is the type of person that when you tell him no that just makes him want to do something even more. In some situations, like this track for example, this trait can be good. But in some of Kanye’s very questionable actions, this trait can kill his image.

Final Thoughts