Not gonna lie, my first reaction was like damn this is me even though I just got into high school. This is coming from a super dipset fan but I never felt like I related to em. Felt refreshing and I found it very cool that he made all of the beats.
How was it when The College Dropout came out?
- Thread starter Rozay Oro
- Start date
refreshing, and being in college myself at the time resonated
Like others have stated, College Dropout came out during G Unit mania and Dip Set was having their run. What hasn't been mentioned though, is that College Dropout also came out during the peak of the Crunk wave and the early emergence of Trap.
I was in middle school but Ye shyt was bumped everywhere.
I remember me and my homie were in awe of one line.
"It seems we living in the american dream dream
The people highest up got the lowest self esteem "
shyt was so real and we were in love with rap in 8th grade and just beginning to understand and look for deeper lyrical content.
@Rozay Oro
I remember me and my homie were in awe of one line.
"It seems we living in the american dream dream
The people highest up got the lowest self esteem "
shyt was so real and we were in love with rap in 8th grade and just beginning to understand and look for deeper lyrical content.
@Rozay Oro
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Thr types of people who were influenced by Kanye weren't rocking super baggy clothes to begin with.
The same demographic that tried to downplay early Kanye, were the same ones begging for a Kanye beat.
DamienWayne
Superstar
It was a slow burn , Il never forget going to buy it in the mall , i was with my boys and I had to hide it so they didn't see what I was copping. 
Something else came out that same day And I tried to hide it behind the other CD. They seen it anyway and was like wtf is this teddy bear album u buying ?
Something else came out that same day And I tried to hide it behind the other CD. They seen it anyway and was like wtf is this teddy bear album u buying ?
As others have said. It was a breath of fresh air.
Kanye at the time was relatable, personable, talented, and passionate. You believed in his story. You WANTED to root for him.
The only knock on him during the early days was his bars could be subpar from time to time. This was when nikkas still somewhat cared about the quality of your bars and Kanye coming out the gate calling himself the BEST EVER was kind of side eyed when Jay-Z & Nas were still at the forefront and you had Mos Def, Talib Kweli, and even people from his own crew like Consequence rapping circles around him.
Kanye at the time was relatable, personable, talented, and passionate. You believed in his story. You WANTED to root for him.
The only knock on him during the early days was his bars could be subpar from time to time. This was when nikkas still somewhat cared about the quality of your bars and Kanye coming out the gate calling himself the BEST EVER was kind of side eyed when Jay-Z & Nas were still at the forefront and you had Mos Def, Talib Kweli, and even people from his own crew like Consequence rapping circles around him.
Tribal Outkast
Veteran
Yep. We were going to stores buying rap at 12 and younger lol. I bought Low End Theory at 12.and i was 12
one of the first CDs i ever bought with my own money
This. I was a senior in high school and i recall it being a cool, maybe more tongue-in-cheek alternative to the conscious rap of mos, talib, etc. Maybe not as lyrically sharp but oozing charisma. And since it was still all about G-Unit, Diplomats, Lil John, Yig Yang Twins, crunk music etc, Kanye felt like a more mainstream alternative to an alternative.
Late Registration was the game changer tho; granted i was in college at the time so the timing really made it resonate for us brehs/brehettes at university doubly so. I recall Late Registration and the Common album (Be) were gettin constant play.
TheOptimisticCynikal
All Star
As someone living outside of America, Kanye was that guy. Especially to white kids. He seemed relatable and his subject matter was easily consumable to them.
But most importantly, the music was top tier.
"Then Kanye dropped, it was polos and backpacks"
But most importantly, the music was top tier.
"Then Kanye dropped, it was polos and backpacks"
Yea I remember it being very different from what everyone else was doing at the time. He dropped this one leading up to the album with snippets and those Get Well Soon mixtapes
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He even had an instrumental album where he had brief interludes before the instros came on talking about what he was doing and how he made the beats.
And then the advanced dropped and floated around for a while. Some songs got changed (All Falls Down, Jesus Walks) and other got left off (The Good The Bad The Ugly). It was weird b/c the advance was around for so long that when his official album dropped and those additions were made, it kind of boosted his cache even more b/c of the hits on it. Kanye was a star by then and he was making the rounds. A lot of albums started to become sample heavy (Scarface-The Fix, and the Dipset mixtapes especially Vol. 4).
He even had an instrumental album where he had brief interludes before the instros came on talking about what he was doing and how he made the beats.
And then the advanced dropped and floated around for a while. Some songs got changed (All Falls Down, Jesus Walks) and other got left off (The Good The Bad The Ugly). It was weird b/c the advance was around for so long that when his official album dropped and those additions were made, it kind of boosted his cache even more b/c of the hits on it. Kanye was a star by then and he was making the rounds. A lot of albums started to become sample heavy (Scarface-The Fix, and the Dipset mixtapes especially Vol. 4).