With an endless stream of narcissistic comments coming from Kanye these days, it’s easy to forget that he used to be a starving artist that hustled for the opportunity to be heard. He was a relatively unknown producer in the late 90’s , producing mostly filler tracks for Jermaine Dupri, Mase, Foxy Brown, and Beanie Sigel. He caught his big break in 2000 when one of his tracks was used for Jay-Z’s song “This Can’t Be Life” from the The Dynasty album. That’s when he perfected his signature production style – soul samples with pitched-up vocals.
The connection with Jay-Z would be the turning point in his career, leading to multiple tracks on The Blueprint, including the hit single “Izzo”. This catapulted Kanye into the uper echelon of hip hop producers, meaning demand was high and money was stacked even higher. But Kanye still wasn’t taken seriously as an MC. No label wanted to take a risk on Carlton the rapper, but a determined Kanye would spit a verse whenever he could find an audience, and eventually was signed as an artist to Jay-Z’s Roc-A-Fella Records.
The rest is history, well kind of. The pre-2005 Kanye is very different than the one we know today. Learn how after the jump…
Then:
He’d put his focus into crafting the perfect beat for other artists, such as:
Then:
He dressed like me
Now:
He’s focused on becoming a fashion icon
Then:
He’d sing on tracks that came from the heart
Now:
He sings like a robot without a heart, using Auto-Tune to easily cover up lazy vocals
Then:
He didn’t have to be the primary focus
Now:
Uhh, the spotlight is always on him
Then:
He was like a kid in a candy store when around celebrities
Now:
He is THE celebrity
Then:
His music was amazing
He’ll never top College Dropout, his first album. I’m sure there’s thousands of you out there that disagree, but none of his other albums have the replay value that it does. These two lesser-known tracks from College Dropout will always be in my Top 50:
Now:
His music is good
Kanye is still one of the most talented artists out there, but his ego, side projects, and girlfriends seem to have sidetracked the once stonecold focus that was capable of perfection. We can only hope that he’ll regain the musical spark that used to keep him building beats and writing songs for days at a time. Please come back to us, Kanye. The world wants your best music a lot more than your shoes or energy drinks.
Tags: kanye west
30 Responses
[...] ♣ Kanye Before His Ego Took Over [Yep Yep Gibbs] [...]
There is a lot of arbitrary opinon and hate in this post. you sound bitter dude.
Buried for this line:
“but a determined Kanye would spit a verse whenever he could find an audience”
Do you like Fishsticks?
You don’t know what arbitrary means, huh?
All too true sadly. His ego got the better of him, but he is just one story in a long list of people who blew up and had it ruin them. Hell if you look at it hip hop as a whole blew up and it was ruined by it. There was a good 15 years where things were amazing and the innovation was considered progression. Now you have like two dudes who are just trying to hold on / revive hip hop, lets not even begin to talk about progress it. Maybe I’m just too damn old, and thats sad coming from a 26 year old…
@cbjerrisgaard
he a gay fish man
You are so dead on. I have felt the exact same way for a long time, and the songs you chose to represent old Kanye are exactly what I loved about him years ago. Thanks for such a solid accurate post.
Anyone who thinks this post is bitter in anyway is delusional. It strikes me much more so as nostalgic and hopeful that Kanye remembers what truly made him a stand out artist and something special.
He suck now, and he surely sucked then without any style.
it’s true kanye will never top college dropout, simply because he just doesn’t care that much about the music anymore. however, I’m looking at the effect of John legend, Mr Hudson and Estelle on his music, and whenever they do songs together he feels threatened and brings his a-game. i hope he steps back from releasing his own albums and just helps others out. if he hides for a bit, we might even miss his egocentric self.
100% True. I liked him more back when he used to dress like Carlton but made amazing music with good lyrics. Nowadays… “American Boy… lalala… I like what’s in his pants… lalala”
I’m not even shitting you, thats like the actual lyrics.
What a whiny waste of time this post is – he’s a freaking pop artist – the guy is making money. just like you go to work everyday at your computer desk, he’s simply trying to make some freaking money – wtf is wrong with that? His “job” is to entertain – like him or not, he’s better at his job than you’ll ever be.
ive never been a kanye fan.
johjo- welcome to the internet. we’re glad youre here. theres the door. lock it on your way out. thanks
Spaceship is one of the best beats in history. That track will never be left off of the ipod.
@sts2695
[...] Max IHTSBIH interview – Screen Junkies Kanye Before His Ego Took Over – YepYep LOL or not to LOL [PIC] – Totally [...]
Hey Mama was a song made recently. Its not “pre-2005″.
His new songs are good, they’re subpar. He uses autotune far too often and digitized voices and overly trendy mashups or remixes. He’s addicted to sampling and keeps using circa 70-80s music, and has more then 2 songs where he samples Daft Punk songs.
Correction: His music was good.
he a douchebag
[...] Kanye Before his Ego Took Over [...]
[...] vs. Odette: Who Ya Got? * Jennifer Aniston Says She’s Lonely; Can You Help Her? * Kanye Before His Ego Took Over * Girls Throwing Bombs Playing Wii [...]
[...] Kanye Before His Ego Took Over [...]
You can do a then and now for almost artist that came up on some money.
[...] Kanye Before His Ego Took Over (Yep Yep) [...]
[...] Kanye Before His Ego Took Over (Yep Yep) [...]
[...] Kanye Before His Ego Took Over [...]
I wouldn’t say he fell totally off but I haven’t liked much of his stuff from 808’s-onward. College Dropout, Late Registration and Graduation (which everyone hates all of a sudden) are still good albums. I agree that CD is his best work though.
Kanye sucks through and through…. he has always sounded like a half-retarded child to me.
His flow is complete garbage.
I’m so sick of this “(insert artist name here) was much better back in the day” shit. So Kanye doesn’t craft good beats anymore? What about “Maker Her Say”, “Jockin Jay-Z”, and “Let The Beat Build” just to name a few. Unlike a lot of artist Kanye made the decision not to continue making the same album over and over again he doesn’t want any of them to sound the same and that is why he is such a success. Kanye’s music has always come from his heart before and after the autotune. And BTW “Heartless” as a single is way bigger then any singles off of College Dropout so I guess the public likes the new Kanye better. Whoever wrote this article is a fucking cunt, go kill yourself.
LMAO Late Registration is a better album than College Dropout. It had better and less corny which even allowed Kanye to stand toe-to-toe with Nas on We Major, lyrics, far better production (he stopped relying on soul samples so much and used things rarely heard on hip hop such as string sections), a darker vibe with songs such as Drive Slow, greater maturity from Kanye with less wack songs such as New Workout Plan.
I love how people try to change history and pretend that College Dropout is his best album but as a big Kanye fan since 2003 I can tell you that when Late Registration came in 2005 it blew most of us away and was considered to be an improvement on College Dropout.
Also, the author of the article has forgot to mention that Kanye has actually made a return of sorts to his College Dropout style with recent songs such as Kinda Like A Big Deal, Magic Man, We Fight We Love Remix, Run This Town and Flight School. Now considering the fact that Kanye is a better lyricist than he was back in 2003 I’m sure that style will sound better if he uses it on his next album…
RSS feed for comments on this post · TrackBack URI
Leave a reply