0144. Kanye West
The College Dropout
So... this has been heralded as conscious rap, but this debut by producer-turned-rapper Kanye "Fishsticks" West lacks a huge chunk of that consciousness. Especially if you define consciousness as being aware of reality.
In Kanye's personal reality a college degree isn't the thing to go for. This due to the obvious dichotomy of getting a degree vs. being a good person. Of course there's also the pure unadulterated fact that people who go to college refuse to work and can't get laid (something that Kanye's apparently been doing his whole life to get to where he is today).
Unfortunately it's symptomatic of Kanye's lyrical prowess: take a theme and let the stupid run wild all over it.
Spaceship surprises tho', it's not that the dumb lyrics are gone (even the guest artists GLC and Cons makes their contributions), but somehow the whole vibe of the track puts a forgiving blanket over it - hiding both lyric and the fact that Kanye can't sing but refuses not to.
