Ambition is the key word for College Dropout. Kanye is saying if you work hard enough, you can achieve your dreams, like Kanye’s dream of working with Jay Z one day. Like Kanye’s dream of being respected as more than just a producer, but a rapper. It wasn’t easy. But maybe it was because of his near-death experience in a car accident, that he had this newfound perspective on life. College Dropout was Kanye’s 2nd chance. He was on borrowed time after he saw how fleeting life could be. College Dropout was his healing process, his rehabilitation album. As he says in Through The Wire.
“I’m a champion, so I turned tragedy to triumph, Make music that's fire, spit my soul through the wire”
Maybe at the end of the day, all Kanye wanted to do with College Dropout was establish himself as a rapper, but the album ended up expanding the musical and emotional language of hip-hop. Claiming to be the first 'n**** with a benz and a backpack', he challenged all the rules and boldly danced across boundaries others were too afraid to even acknowledge. A young man who told an underdog story of reaching independence. Achieving his creative aspirations, and speaking for the common man was what hip hop needed. But at the same time, you got a brazingly confident man who loved fashion, loved spending money, and loved women.
A few years after its release, Kanye’s cousin, Devo Springsteen reflected on the album’s impact in an interview “There’s pre and post-'College Dropout.' Hip-Hop is often equated to rap music and there are a few kind of tribes within that demographic. You’re a gangster, a baller, a backpacker or you’re a seller. If you’re going to rap, which of the lanes are you coming from? I think with Kanye, his approach brought in different types of influences away from these categories. I can be from the suburbs, Midwest, I can wear Polo shirts and I am still Hip-Hop. As long as you’re honest about yourself, you’re Hip-Hop.”
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