Exactly 10 years ago this week (Feb. 10th to be exact) Kanye West released his first album, “The College Dropout.” The album was very well received, blew certain people’s expectations out of the water, and the rest became history.I know what you may be thinking, “Okay that’s cool and good for him, but what does that have to do with you?” Not much, but more than you may know.
Growing up, I was never really “allowed” to listen to rap music, the only exception being if the artist was a Christian rapper (think T-Bone, Gospel Gangstaz, etc.) and the more I try to recall of that time period, it’s funny that it was really just rap that I wasn’t allowed to listen to. Pop music mostly got a pass, and so did certain types of rock, but the line was clearly drawn in the sand about what type of rap was allowed at home. In fact, I even remember getting a lecture from my dad after he caught me watching 50 cent’s “Wanksta” video. I used to borrow his Walkman (yeah… remember those?) just so I could secretly stay up and listen to 99 Jamz (a Hip Hop radio station) at night after everyone had gone to sleep.
Everything changed once Dropout dropped.
My parents’ main argument about rap, which I couldn’t disagree with, was that a lot of it was very negative or glorified negative imagery. Gun talk, threats of murder, treating women like objects, calling them b**ches, and so on and so on. “How can you listen to something that does nothing to uplift your spirit?” was a question that I was constantly asked and could offer no rebuttal. Then I heard Jesus Walks.
It technically wasn’t (still isn’t) a Christian record, but it did touch on a lot of Christian values and raise a lot of questions about the lack of God and Jesus in Hip-Hop (“They say you can rap about anything except for Jesus/ That means guns, sex,lies, video tape/ But if I talk about God my record won’t get played Huh??) and it ended up being a perfect conversation starter with my parents about why I should be allowed to listen to his album. It didn’t hurt that singles like “All Falls Down” (a song about being superficial and vain) and “Through The Wire” were both absent of anything that could be deemed “negative content.”
Fast forwarding this story, I was allowed to buy his album as long as it was the edited version… Allowance was spent, and The College Dropout was the first Hip-Hop album that I ever bought. It also probably has the biggest collection of songs that I know word for word. (Fun Fact: I’m terrible at memorizing song lyrics)
I was 14 at the time, and listening to that album unknowingly shaped and changed the way I looked at a lot of things in life. Keep in mind that I wasn’t allowed to listen to rap, only when I could sneak it in here and there, so I had never really heard a “secular” (non-Christian) artist rap or address things that I had only previously heard be addressed by Christian artists. It showed me that life really had this balance, it wasn’t about trying to act holier than thou, because at the end of we’re all human and not everything we do or say is with the purest of intentions, but we can still strive to do better.
Even over the years, some of those songs would play a role in my life. “Spaceship” has pretty much applied to every job I’ve ever had. “Through The Wire” rang home when I had to get corrective surgery on my jaw and could barely speak or chew for an entire summer while it healed. (Boost for breakfast/ Ensure for dessert/ Somebody ordered pancakes I just sipped the sizzurp/ That right there could drive a sane man bizzerk)
Just by going off of the “All Falls Down video” in which the viewer plays the point-of-view “boyfriend” to Stacey Dash, who just so happens to be (another fun fact) my biggest celebrity crush of all time, there was no way I was not going to remember it forever. (Aisha Tyler is also in the Slow Jamz video…but that’s another story) Assuming I never get to meet Stacey Dash, who else would’ve allowed my 14 yr old self to live vicariously through that camera lens and pretend that it was me that Stacey Dash was crying over before she left through the gate??
That seems ridiculous but all of those things both silly and serious laid that foundation of influence from this album.
This blog post may end up being a one of one but I’m glad that ten years ago I got a chance to listen to a collection of someone’s dreams and ambitions which would then help me set the blueprint for my own dreams and ambitions.
-The College Graduate
