The College Dropout

Release type:What's this?
studio album
First released:
Jul 2003

Overview Edit

The College Dropout is the debut album of American hip hop artist Kanye West, released February 10, 2004 on Roc-A-Fella Records. It was recorded over a period of four years, beginning in 1999. Prior to the album's release, West had worked on rapper Jay-Z's The Blueprint (2001), which showcased his melodic and soulful style of hip hop production. Produced entirely by West, The College Dropout features musical contributions from Jay-Z, John Legend, Ervin "EP" Pope, Miri Ben-Ari, Syleena Johnson, and Ken Lewis. Discarding the then-dominant gangster persona in hip hop, West's lyrics on the album concern themes of family, religion, self-consciousness, materialism, and personal struggles.

The album debuted at number two on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart, selling 441,000 copies in its first week. It was a massive commercial success and produced five singles that achieved chart success. Upon its release, The College Dropout received general acclaim from most music critics and earned West several accolades, including a Grammy Award for Best Rap Album at the 47th Grammy Awards. It serves as West's best-selling album in the United States, with domestic sales of over 3.5 million copies and worldwide sales of over four million copies. Rolling Stone named it the tenth-best album of the 2000s decade.

The Overview appearing in this section is attributed to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_College_Dropout. Portions of this Overview may be available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, version 3.0 or any later version, available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/. Additional terms may apply. See Wikipedia Terms of Use for details.

This particular version Edit

Record label:
Catalog number:
B0002030-02
Release dates:
  • Feb 10 2004 in Canada
  • Feb 10 2004 in United States

Genres

Hip-Hop, Rap, Indie, Pop, Traditional Pop. Vote on Genres

What do Amazon.com customers think?

4 stars "Tragedy to Triumph" (4.5 Stars)
.

(Gasp!)

An artist with actual talent and substance... from Rocafella Records?!!

Yes, I find it hard to accept too, but after listening to Kanye West's long over-due debut album, "The College Dropout", my doubtful assumptions have been put to a halt... at least in this situation. Kanye West, producer turned rapper, is perhaps one of the "better" new artists out right now. Why? It's because he's different. As a matter of fact, "innovative" would be a better word to describe the fresh sounding ma…
Written by Andrew Jacob
3 stars Kayne West- College Dropout
Kayne West's debut album "College Dropout" (2004) is good but not deserving of all the hype it has received. Kayne West production skills have been excellent, so I was interested in seeing how his MC skills are. The problem I find when listening to him, is he is not a gifted MC, his lyrics are for the most part average, and the way he curls his words can at times be annoying. The high number of skits and filler don't help either. That said there are some highlights to this album, for me they are…
Written by Done

Track listing Edit

  • CD

    format:
    number:
    title:
    number name artist hh:mm:ss
    1
    Intro
    0:19
    2
    We Don't Care
    3:59
    3
    Graduation Day
    1:22
    4
    All Falls Down (feat. Syleena Johnson)
    3:43
    5
    I'll Fly Away
    1:09
    6
    Spaceship (feat. GLC and Consequence)
    5:24
    7
    Jesus Walks
    3:13
    8
    Never Let Me Down (feat. Jay-Z and J. Ivy)
    5:24
    9
    Get Em High (feat. Talib Kweli and Common)
    4:49
    10
    Workout Plan
    0:46
    11
    The New Workout Plan
    5:22
    12
    Slow Jamz (feat. Twista and Jamie Foxx)
    5:16
    13
    Breathe In Breathe Out (feat. Ludacris)
    4:06
    14
    School Spirit (Skit 1)
    1:18
    15
    School Spirit
    3:02
    16
    School Spirit (Skit 2)
    0:43
    17
    Lil Jimmy (Skit)
    0:53
    18
    Two Words (feat. Mos Def, Freeway and The Harlem Boys Choir)
    4:26
    19
    Through the Wire
    3:41
    20
    Family Business
    4:38
    21
    Last Call
    12:40

Other versions Edit

The College Dropout 15 tracks format: 1 x digital
catalog number: B0002030-02
release dates: Jul 2003 in [Worldwide]
view details
The College Dropout 21 tracks format: 1 x CD
record label: Roc-A-Fella Records
catalog number: B0002030-02
release dates: Feb 10 2004
view details
The College Dropout 18 tracks format: 1 x CD
catalog number: B0002030-02
release dates: Feb 10 2004
view details
The College Dropout 21 tracks format: 1 x unknown format
catalog number: B0002030-02
release dates: Feb 10 2004
view details
The College Dropout 21 tracks format: 1 x unknown format
record label: Roc-A-Fella Records
catalog number: B0002030-02
release dates: Feb 10 2004
view details
The College Dropout 21 tracks Digital Album
format: 1 x digital
release dates: Feb 10 2004
view details
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