Unpopular Music Opinion: Kanye West’s Best Work Was After Graduation

 Kanye West is a very interesting artist and person. Certain things that he does or says can be seen as controversial, however, his music speaks for itself. In my opinion he is one of the most influential artists of all time and certainly one of the biggest artists of this generation. His catalogue up to this point includes 12 fantastic albums. Over the years, his style and the theme of the albums is constantly changing. You get the more classic hip hop with his earlier work, some more experimental projects like Yeezus and The Life Of Pablo, all the way to a gospel record that surprised a lot of people. It is a big topic of debate to question which of his albums is the best. Today, I want to share my personal unpopular music opinion that Kanye’s best work came after the Graduation trilogy.

Discography Overview

As previously mentioned, Kanye West has 12 projects to talk about. The argument that his best work came after Graduation is tainted by the fact that it only counts his first 3 albums versus the 9 that came after. For argument’s sake, I will not consider his collaborative albums with other artists; this includes Watch The Throne, Kanye West Presents Good Music Cruel Summer, and KIDS SEE GHOSTS. In my opinion this is a very fair way to judge this heavily debated topic. 

Argument

Everyone has their favorite Kanye album for various personal reasons, in order to keep this as objective as possible, I will not be including any nostalgia factors or other personal feelings towards the albums. The first logical thing to point out is that the Graduation trilogy came out at the very beginning of West’s career; 2004 with The College Dropout up to 2007 with Graduation. It does happen, but it is rare for artist’s best projects to be their very first. This is because of how valuable experience can be for an artist, given time to perfect their craft, artists continuously improve and try to one-up their last project. In Kanye’s case, his first albums were very good, and so were all the ones who came after, which is why this is an interesting argument. Stylistically there is certainly a difference when it comes to Kanye West through the ages, but when comparing the two you certainly notice some improvements. There are particularly differences with the lyrics or writing, and with the production. West has always had great writing and production abilities, being able to make you cry or want to take 10 shots depending on how he crafts his song. I believe that as soon as 808s & Heartbreaks dropped the year after Graduation, it really gave his audiences a better appreciation for his skills. This appreciation only grew with every project after that one.

The last point I want to make is that Kanye West took more risks after Graduation. In his first 3 albums, West stayed very true to himself, he made very catchy hip hop anthems that are very easily listenable, and anyone can enjoy. I would argue that this was a conservative approach for him, now that we have a better understanding of what his true range of music is, you almost wish he took more risks with those earlier projects. This doesn’t mean that they were bad projects but by comparing them to his other work, it comes off a bit underwhelming. After Graduation, he went for a more poppy and grand style with the next two albums. 808s & Heartbreaks revolutionized the use of the 808, and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy might be one of the greatest albums ever made. After those projects, he went down a much more experimental route with Yeezus and The Life Of Pablo. At first, these albums got very mixed reviews because it wasn’t what audiences came to expect with Kanye West. However, both of these projects aged very well and are now critically acclaimed works. This is a great example of how West took risks with his music and how well it paid off for him. I believe this is a big talking point when it comes to comparing his discography before and after Graduation, Kanye set himself apart from the others and essentially gave himself an identity that will surely solidify him as one of the greatest artists of all time.

Final Thoughts

At the end of the day, I’ll listen to Yeezus just as much as I listen to Late Registration, Kanye West has one of the most solid discographies of all time. However, when it comes down to the importance, the impact, and the overall quality of his work, his projects of 2008 and above take the cake for me. It is my personal opinion that without his work post-Graduation, Kanye West would simply be a good artist, but because of how influential and groundbreaking his work was after Graduation, he will forever go down as a GREAT artist.

Let me know what you think, do you agree? Disagree? I want to hear your thoughts! Click on the link below to go to my Instagram and leave a comment on my post.

References

Snobhop. Kanye West bear in the style of every one of his albums. 2019. https://www.snobhop.com/all-8-kanye-west-projects-ranked/ 

FilmMagic. Kanye West performs in Las Vegas. 2014. https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/hip-hop/7525633/yeezus-tour-narrative-kanye-west-creative-director-elon-rutberg

The B-Side. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy album artwork. 2019. https://berkeleybside.com/in-retrospect-kanye-wests-my-beautiful-dark-twisted-fantasys-impact-on-hip-hop/