4. The College Dropout
The College Dropout is one of the most astonishingly assured and fully-formed debut albums of the past 20 years. Of that there can be no doubt. Sure, it is far from perfect - and if anyone was ever looking for the point at which Kanye's immeasurable ego first became inflamed, here it is - but there are moments on this album that artists several albums into their careers would be truly proud to have produced. Firstly, there are the singles. And WHAT singles. Through The Wire, with its incessantly catchy sample of Chaka Khan's Though The Fire, is brilliant in its execution and rendered even more fascinating by the knowledge that Kanye rapped the entire song with his mouth wired shut. Jesus Walks provides an early example of Kanye's preoccupation with spirituality and his own god complex and is still an ever-present in his live shows. Second, the production on practically every track is outstanding. Of course, Kanye was known as a super-producer in the Timbaland/Neptunes mould prior to beginning his solo career - but that still didn't prepare anyone for some of the ingenious sequencing of soul samples on this album. Just listen to Slow Jamz and Two Words - even over a decade of rip-offs and hat-tips from lesser producers later, they still sound fresh. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WezusURMbY&list=PLc70fg9UHuOwdc55E44EmZf7ygfRT_N9p&index=2 Again, the album isn't perfect. There are some phoned-in guest slots (Twista, Jay-Z), the various skits haven't aged particularly well, and the 12-minute Last Call is... Well... About 12 minutes too long. But this is Kanye at his freshest and youngest, and it remains a seriously impressive debut that broke apart the stale conventions of hip-hop production at the time.