Two weeks ago, it was the seventh anniversary of Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. To commemorate the date I listened through the entire album and as I finished I asked a question that will most likely never be settled “What is Kanye’s best album?” The answer to this question is a difficult one, in part because music highly subjective and Kanye has two albums that hotly contest the spot for the best Kanye album: College Dropout and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Establishing an objective answer to this question is difficult, however, it is still possible.
When examining these two pieces of work, one must have some guidelines to judge each by. Cultural impact is the first consideration, which album has changed culture and music the most? Next, which album has a more consistent theme and holistically a more complete work? Lastly, which album is musically “better” in terms of instrumental composition, lyrics, and production?
The College Dropout is perhaps Kanye’s most “relatable” album. That being, he cracks jokes, makes points relevant to the youth, and deeply connected to the genre of hip hop. It is filled from bottom to top with incredible songs: “All Falls Down,” “Spaceship,” “Jesus Walks,” “Get Em High,” “The New Workout Plan” “Breathe in Breathe Out” and “Through the Wire” making up some highlights of an already incredible album. The production on this album encapsulated and pushed forward hip hop as a genre and truly demonstrated how incredible of a producer Kanye really is.
As a work in totality, one must respect how Kanye keeps a consistent theme and cleverly included skits to push the album further; most skits at the time in hop-hop left much to be desired, however, Kanye did an incredible job including them. Every song seems to have a purpose and there are very few pieces that you would consider “loosies” something that can’t be said about most albums.
The cultural impact of The College Dropout can’t be understated. It bridged the gap between spirituality and hip hop with “Jesus Walks” and effectively demonstrated a new path in hip hop — showing that one doesn’t need to be gangster or preach materialism to do well in hip hop. As a student myself, I really do resonate with this album and find it to be Kanye’s most “enjoyable” album.
Looking at the composition, production, and lyrics of this album show Kanye at the top of his game. Nothing was going to stop Kanye on this album, the song “Through the Wire” was even recorded with Kanye rapping through “wires” in his mouth because he was recovering from a car accident. The lyrics came across as relatable and funny on songs like “The New Workout Plan.” In addition, the production of the album is incredible with Kanye expertly sampling a wide variety of “classic” soul and hip hop works along with creating his own spectacular beats.
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is considered by many to be Kanye’s magnum opus. This album was Kanye’s decisive return to rap after the experimentation of 808’s and Heartbreak, MBDTF is marked by Kanye’s boisterous contemplations on fame. He attempted to reach back into hip hop with names like NO I.D. and Mike Dean on production, while also attempting to push the genre forward with orchestral compositions, and collaborating with names like Bon Iver, Elton John, and John Legend.
In total, MBDTF represents Kanye’s most complete album. Starting with Dark Fantasy, what I would consider to be one of the best album intros in the decade, the album sets a tone and a standard of quality for the rest of the album. Along with making the album, Kanye made an incredible 30 min long movie about the album which includes every song. Similarly to College Dropout, this album has almost no “loosies.” One can listen to the 13 track album and fall in love with 11 of them. Thematically, MBDTF holds true to its main concept of Kanye reflecting on fame.
MBDTF reignited Kanye’s struggling rap career and firmly placed him as a contender in any debate considering the top 5 hip hop artists of all time. It’s cultural impact was incredible. It charted for 32 weeks, received a metacritic score of 94/100, and is the second highest rated hip hop album ever on http://www.acclaimedmusic.net/, a site which aggregates critics ratings.
It took five albums but finally, in MBDTF, Kanye finally lived up to his full potential as a rapper, producer, and songwriter. Almost every song represents a new combination or unique sound that somehow ties together perfectly. Highlights of the album include “Gorgeous” Kanye’s rap-rock experimentation, “Power” Kanye’s braggadocious rap-centric song, “Devil In a New Dress” Kanye’s R&B heavy ballad, and “Runaway” his soulful recognition of his own faults.
Comparing The College Dropout and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is incredibly hard and if two albums could be in the #1 spot, I would put them both there. Although I consider The College Dropout to be Kanye’s most enjoyable album, the #1 spot must be given to MBDTF. When looking at the albums The College Dropout is a true hip hop album, however, MBDTF is art. Both albums were well received and, as whole works, both very polished and complete. Musically, MBDTF beats The College Dropout due to how diverse, full, and unique the it is.
