10 Perfect Albums That Defined The 2000s
2. Graduation - Kanye West
Ah, yes...taking it back to the days when Kanye was not looked at as the juggernaut superstar that he is today. After being one hell of a producer for most of the decade, Ye had already solidified his place in hip hop on The College Dropout and Late Registration, each of which saw a different change of pace that took the genre past the crunk explosion. If Ye was going to go for broke though, he was going to make an album experience.
Though Graduation does have some of the traditional tropes of the bling era behind it, it still stands as one of the greatest albums that Ye released during his peak. Bringing it back to the Dropout bear for the cover art, this feels like a victory lap for Kanye, as if he's calling his shot of being one of the greatest rappers in the game right now, whether it be with the call outs to Chi-town on Homecoming or odes to the lavish lifestyle on something like Flashing Lights.
And he basically did call it too, with this album going toe to toe with 50 Cent's Curtis on release day and blasting it out of the water. Hip hop may have sounded phenomenal in the clubs, but that wasn't Ye's goal at this point. He'd done that style before...now he had his eye on bringing his songs into the stadiums.