“Ten years ago today, we finally released what had been my life’s work up to that point: The College Dropout.” – Kanye West
First and foremost, we should all thank Kanye West for creating such an instrumental album we continue to enjoy 10 years later.
2004 seems like yesterday, well, maybe not yesterday, more like a “few” years ago (definitely not 10). For me, I was a junior in high school stalking college websites via AOL dial-up and stressing over the practice SATs, when a rising ambitious rapper/producer by the name of Kanya aka, Kanye To The, dropped an album that would ceremoniously become the soundtrack for the remainder of my high school career.
The College Dropout was an honest project; it was witty, blistering with consciousness, critical of society’s contradictions, rebellious, and fearless, but its most prominent quality was the record’s commonality.
One’s ability to relate to the pressure of society’s seemingly endless “to-do” list on achieving prosperity is an issue we’ve all been disgruntled with from time-to-time, which in turn made The College Dropout the “how-to” guide to surviving society’s ebb and flow of fluctuating definitions of “success.”
In honor of The College Dropout’s 10-year anniversary, I decided to take a look back at the 17 important people Kanye mentioned in the outro of “Last Call.” From former Def Jam A&R Jessica Rivera to Gee Roberson, all of these individuals played an important role in the progression of Ye’s career.
I am extremely grateful to each and every person along that road who helped, lent an ear, lent their voice,
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) February 10, 2014
These are those people….
