Voice Retrospects : I miss the old Kanye

Kanye West has never been one to shy away from the limelight and especially not now with Netflix’s ‘Jeen-Yuhs’. We look back at his best tracks before he became the problematic figure he is today because, let’s face it, we all miss the old Kanye.

Voice Retrospects : I miss the old Kanye

‘Jeen-Yuhs’ has once again got the world talking about one of the most polarising figures in hip-hop; ‘The Louis Vuitton Don’, ‘Yeezus’ - Mr Kanye West.

‘Jeen-Yuhs’ brought back waves of nostalgia, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who has waxed lyrical about the documentary with their friends and looked back on the discography and best moments of ‘Ye. So, inspired by those conversations - here are my favourite songs from each of his albums.

P.S for the sake of brevity, I have excluded collaborative albums and stuck exclusively to solo projects. Unfortunately, it means no Watch The Throne W/ Jay Z (2011) or Kids See Ghosts W/ Kid Cudi (2018). Given that this is a Voice Retrospect, we will also only be looking at the ‘old Kanye’ and finish with Yeezus (2013).

The College Dropout (2004)

‘Jeen-Yuhs’ chronicles Kanye West’s transition from just a producer to rapper-producer. Thank Yeezus he was able to break through as a rapper because if he did not, we would not have The College Dropout.

The College Dropout did not just give us an all-time classic album but also a story that encapsulates ‘Ye. ‘Through The Wire’, which became the artist’s debut single, was infamously recorded after a car crash. A crash that left his jaw wired shut and forced him to record the song as such.

‘Through The Wire’ absolutely deserves an honourable mention, but the album’s standout track for me is ‘All Falls Down (Feat. Syleena Johnson). The song interpolates Lauren Hill’s ‘Mystery Of Iniquity’, creating a song that tackles the same socio-economic issues as the original with the melody of a ballad.  

I dare you to listen to the song and not have the lush croonings of Johnson stuck in your head all day. Not only is it my favourite song on the album, but considering just how well it seems to have aged, maybe one of my favourite tracks period by Kanye. 


Late Registration (2005)

The ‘Louis Vuitton Don’ continued his hot-streak with yet another venerable classic in Late Registration. Kanye had gone two-for-two with this one and delivered yet another hip-hop classic with this album, proving that he was not just a one-hit-wonder.

Late Registration gave us one of his most renowned songs ever with ‘Gold Digger’ (feat. Jamie Foxx). 

However, my personal favourite song is instead ‘Diamonds From Sierra Leone - Remix’ (feat. Jay Z). The track not only tackles the serious issue of diamond mining with straight bars but foreshadows one of the best hip-hop collaborations of all time - Kanye West and Jay Z. 


Graduation (2007)

Graduation continued the collegiate theme and would sonically define the next decade of hip-hop music; auto-tune, electronic beats and even crossed over into the arts/culture world with its Takashi Murikami designed album cover. 

Going with the obvious choice, the best song on the album has to be ‘Stronger’. The electronic and auto-tuned anthem will undoubtedly go down as one of the artist’s most famous tracks. Sampling Daft Punk’s ‘Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger’, Kanye reportedly mixed the song obsessively and took seventy-five mixes to get it just right.  


808s & Heartbreak (2008)

808s and Heartbreak was created amidst a break-up with his fiancée and the passing of his mother, Donda. Behind the experimental auto-tune and robotic production that kicked into overdrive what he started on Graduation (2007), there’s something visceral behind classics like ‘Heartless’.

You can see the influence this album has had on today’s music, with some of the biggest artists in the world, like Drake. You can listen to the album today, and it would not necessarily feel out of place in today’s zeitgeist - 808s & Heartbreak as an album was truly ahead of its time.

An album as seminal as this has no shortage of songs I could choose from and nominate as a favourite; ‘Heartless’ and ‘Welcome To Heartbreak (Feat. Kid Cudi) are the two which immediately come to mind. As far as my favourite, though? Easy, ‘Love Lockdown’. 


My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010)

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (MBDTF) is, in my humble opinion, the magnum opus of Kanye West. MBDTF is not just my favourite album by him but one of the favourite hip-hop albums ever. 

MBDTF had dropped after the infamous incident at the VMAs (2009) between Kanye and Taylor Swift. ‘Ye dropped a feature-length video for Runaway, which is more like a short film than it is a music video. So, it is safe to say the album is backed by cultural moments just as seismic as the music itself.

In no particular order, the best tracks on MBDTF; ‘Dark Fantasy’, ‘All Of The Lights’, ‘Monster’, ‘So Appalled’, ‘Devil In A New Dress’ and ‘Blame Game’. Yes, I am well aware I basically picked the entire album. 


Yeezus (2013)

Yeezus may well be the multihyphenate’s most polarising project and ushered in a new era for Kanye. ‘Ye was not kidding when he rapped “Yeezy season approachin”. 

Now full disclosure, I (like many others) did not necessarily like the album the first time I listened to it. Over time, however, it would be an understatement to say it grew on me, and now,  it is one of my favourite albums. 

Maybe it was because it was such a departure from his previous work and his zenith of MBDTW. Yeezus traded in the soul and chorus of his previous projects for jarring electro and acid house sounds, and once you get used to that is all the better for it. 

There’s a lot to choose from here, but the song that I feel encapsulates Yeezus is ‘On Sight’. It is the perfect intro to the album as it slaps you in the face with hard-hitting production and equally hard lyrics. 


There you have it, my favourite tracks from each of the ‘old-school’ albums - College Dropout to MBDTF. Granted, I am one of the fans who prefer his older sound but that is not to take away from the era of The Life On Pablo (2016) onwards.

Fans kid they ‘miss the old Kanye’ but one of the reasons he is so influential is he is constantly evolving. Albums like Yeezus (2013) grew on me which may very well be the case with his recent projects as well, needless to say, I am incredibly excited for Donda 2.

Header Image Credit: Pieter-Jannick Dijkstra

Author

Dheeraj Chutani

Dheeraj Chutani Kickstart

Dheeraj is a recent postgraduate having graduated with a BA and MA in Politics from The University Of Leicester. He is interested in all things politics and current affairs but when he is not catching up with all the latest headlines, he enjoys reading, jogging, weight-lifting and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ).

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