Starting in the late 90’s Kanye was on the streets making beats trying to get a foot in the game. His first real chance at success was when he produced the track “Izzo” for Jay-Z. The song instantly took off being performed at the BET awards as well as making the top 10 in four different billboard categories. His resume only got stronger after this with hits like “03 Bonnie & Clyde” by Jay-Z and Beyonce, peaking at fourth place on the Billboard hot 100, and “Stand Up” by Ludacris, which hit number one on three different Billboard charts including the hot 100. It goes without saying Ye had already made an impact as a producer, it seemed obvious a man like him would take a swing at his own songs.

His first studio album “The College Dropout” was an instant success. Winning Best Rap Album and being nominated for Album of the Year by the Grammys in 2005 and winning the Teen Choice Award for the best album in 2004, and later winning tenth place on the Top 100 Albums of the 00’s by Rolling Stone. Clearly this was not only a fan favorite but also a critical success.

Kanye’s incredible use of vocal samples as exemplified in the track “Through The Wire” which samples “Through The Fire” by Chaka Khan is evidence of Kanye's ability to use an already great piece of art and mix and use it in a new way making his songs sound nostalgic yet fresh and young. He also emphasized socially conscious rapping in his songs with lyrics such as “Cause they made us hate ourself and love they wealth/That's why shorty's hollerin', ‘Where the ballers at?’/Drug dealer buy Jordan, crackhead buy crack/And the white man get paid off of all of that” (All Falls Down), Kanye has many socially aware bars all throughout the album talking about racial issues, capitalism, policing and religion among many others.

Kanye also has an inert ability to write funny lyrics to keep the songs fun and entertaining yet said lyrics mix nicely with the deeper more complex views voiced in the same tracks. “She got a light-skinned friend look like Michael Jackson Got a dark-skinned friend look like Michael Jackson” is just one of the many examples of the comedic tone shown in many of Mr West’s lyrics

All in all I think this is one of the best hip hop albums of all time not only because of how it sounds sonically but also because of Ye’s technical abilities and his critical success.