Figure Late Registration would receive majority of votes and thought this would spread it out a little more. Decided on Watch the Throne over 808's in this poll.

Poll question: Favorite Kanye album excluding LR

Poll result (42 votes) College Dropout (5 votes) Vote Graduation (11 votes) Vote My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (22 votes) Vote Yeezus (4 votes) Vote Watch the Throne (0 votes) Vote Life of Pablo (0 votes) Vote

Always felt like that was his peak and prime, the one time he nailed the delicate balance of his ego and his modesty, the latter of which of course he ditched altogether shortly thereafter.

I also liked the brevity, which I think made Graduation his most cohesive effort to date.

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I still feel like it's significantly overrated. I think I like the story of how the album was created ("Rap Camp") way more than I like the actual finished product.

It marks the first time, to that point, that a Kanye album felt disjointed and didn't have a central vibe or theme tying the whole project together. It was a collection of songs rather than a cohesive unit, IMO. And that includes 808s, which I loathe. But 808s at least had a cohesive vibe to it, which was kind of a trademark of those early Kanye albums.

And we all know what's transpired since then, that being that his projects have been almost bipolar in nature (whether you love them or hate them, it's true) so I guess this album kind of marks the start of that trend in how Kanye albums sound. So maybe that's why I'm more sour on that project than a lot of others seem to be.

>It marks the first time, to that point, that a Kanye album
>felt disjointed and didn't have a central vibe or theme tying
>the whole project together. It was a collection of songs
>rather than a cohesive unit, IMO.

I can't imagine how someone could listen to that record and come to that conclusion. Damn.

~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

Maybe I'm overstating the case by calling it "just a collection of songs." That has more of a negative connotation than I'm trying to convey here.

But all I'm saying is:

College Dropout - soul/chipmunk samples
Late Registration - orchestral beats/Jon Brion
Graduation - stadium sound/synths/808s
808s - ...808s/autotune

MBDTF didn't have that central production theme in my opinion. So Appalled, Runaway, Monster ... those are three of the most different sounding songs musically I can think of contained in one album.

That's not to say it's a bad album necessarily. Just saying that was the first time I ever listened to a Kanye album front to back and felt like I was listening to a collection of really good songs rather than a cohesive unit/album.

how his output post MBDTF has been brick after brick

I like Watch the Throne but didn't care for Yeezus or Life of Pablo at all, latter slightly better. A lot of people do love Yeezus tho, but its nearly unlistenable to me.

This is probably my ranking, the bottom 3 all albums I never go back to tho:

1. Late Registration
2. MBDTF
3. Graduation
4. College Dropout
5. Watch the Throne
6. Life of Pablo
7. Yeezus
8. 808s and Heartbreak

are better.

but i know the words to every yeezy album.

I always liked how it was the end of the school theme, and it was more of a life soundtrack based on when it dropped. still can't get into 808's or Yeezus, MBDTF is dope, CD can sound dated sometimes, but Graduation holds up for me.

Then MBDTF, Watch the Throne, Life of Pablo, 808's, then Yeezus.

I don't think there is a clear ranking among Kanye fans.

One set says his old stuff is corny and his post Yeezus years are where it's at.

There are those who think he's made nothing buy garbage post LR.

Others think 808s is God's gift to the earth.

Ye probably has the most polarizing catalog

I'm on Graduation now and enjoying it more, not sure if its due to the voting or not. lol I was going to skip 808s but damn, maybe I will give it one more spin. Im just not a fan of his singing autotune so doubt will like it any more, guess can appreciate the production maybe..

1. LR
2. MBDTF
3. Graduation
4. CD
5. 808's
6. Yeezus
7. TLOP
8. WTT

I slept on MBDTF, it was the first Kanye album i didn't buy when it dropped. don't think i heard it entirely up until a few years ago. After several revisits i can firmly put it at #2.

I really like 808's, i can understand the hate against it and normally i hate the auto-tune sound but it might because i like Kanye and i feel he made it work. I think the video of him performing Pinocchio live with the pharcyde bit before it is what got me to listen to this album with a different mindset.

TLOP in the couple listens i've given it sounds like a confused mess. there's some highs on there tho, and some low lows lyrically some even on the same track.

WTT was good from what i remember, gave it two listens and never went back, the singles were bangers tho.

And Yeezus was one of the worst albums I've ever heard.

I don't even want to listen to his first 3 any more. All of his albums have aged terribly to me.

Not sure why they age the way they do.

The College Dropout
MBDTF
Graduation
Late Registration
Watch The Throne
Yeezus
808s & Heartbreak
The Life of Pablo

but I get why one might think this board would skew LR.


1. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy: 9.72
2. Late Registration: 8.93
3. The College Dropout: 8.65
4. Watch the Throne: 8.31
(5. Be: 8.00)
6. The Life of Pablo: 7.96
7. Graduation: 7.95
8. Yeezus: 7.79
(9. Cruel Summer: 6.73)
(10. Finding Forever: 5.68)
(11. 808s & Heartbreaks: 3.88)

I might like 808s more now that I'm older, less tied to an anti-autotune agenda than often finding artistic virtue in it and have built attachments to a couple songs outside of the album like "Robocop". I have very, very dark memories of "Amazing", "Pinnochio Story" and "Say You WIll" though.

As for the rest, my lightning round thoughts are Kanye became less of a rap performer post-MBDTF but he creates very unique records and he's consistently hilarious and more interesting than 99% of rappers in the game. I definitely listened to TLoP more than any other record released last year alongside ANTI, Malibu and Lead Poison. I still think he's a great artist, but you have to wade through some clumsiness on basically a song to song basis at this point which is a bit of a bummer considering how fire MBDTF/WTT was.

~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz