#15. Donda 2
Donda 2 is tough to listen to for a number of reasons. Not the least of which being that the only way you could initially hear the album upon it's release was to purchase one of Kanye's exclusive $200 streaming devices that the record was trapped within like some kind of lost relic you downloaded from Limewire in 2003 and is now forever housed in the purgatory of your ancient MP3 player alongside Bright Eyes bootlegs and Jerky Boyz prank phone calls. But even seperated from it's bizarre rollout, the actual content on Donda 2 paints the disturbing portrait of a man in the midst of a total mental and emotional collapse, breaking down over the split with ex-wife Kim Kardashian. Hearing him repeat "Do I look happy to you?!" followed by a sound clip of his ex-wife praising him publicly is too uncomfortable for words. It's really for the best that this never got a proper release because it's also the sloppiest production work of his career, with so many unfinished ideas that make the majority of the songs sound like middling interludes that never progress in any way.
#14. Vultures 2
After the momentary career course correction found on Vultures 1, Yeezy and Dollar $ign dropped this proposed sequel just six months after it's predecessor which in and of it's self was pretty shocking. I mean how often does Kanye actually follow through on something he says he's going to do, especially when it comes to releasing new music? But not much found on Vultures 2 really feels like it even qualifies as music, more so incoherent scribbles on a napkin from a desperate artist in creative freefall. Kanye records used to feel like cinematic journeys from an auteur director composing timeless epics, but Vultures 2 can barely register as anything more than a series of undeveloped ideas seemingly lifted out of Ye's notes app. "Slide" is a pretty solid single but the rest of the album ranges from forgettable to horrendous - especially the ultra creepy track "HUSBAND", giving off major JD Vance vibes. Just listen to "Fried" for a perfect encapsulation of Kanye West's status in 2024.
#13. Jesus is King
Unsurprisingly, Kanye's manufactured pivot to "spiritual" music lacks all of the uninhibited bravado that makes his work so fascinating and replaces it with dull, try hard, feel good nonsense. Which is to say - this record is beyond corny. Chicken Soup for the Cancelled Soul. I tried to go in with an open mind but after the first three tracks, the album is without a doubt the worst solo material he's (officially) released in his career. Even worse than bad, this record is absolute toothless - something you can't really pin on any other Yeezy project. Even when he's bad, he's still got his unmistakable flavor in there but this is totally flavorless. "Selah" and "Follow God" had a couple of moments where they actually got their hooks into me but from the Chick-fil-a chorus on "Closed on Sunday" to the unbearably repetitive verses on "Water" - this is as bland as it gets. Production, lyrics, delivery - just totally flat and unmemorable.
#12. Donda
After 2 months of delays and 3 live listening events, Kanye finally delivered the album he promised fans for over a year which makes this one of the most over-hyped records of his career. At 27 tracks and 108 minutes long, Donda feels like a sloppy sketchbook of unfinished material rushed to the public without more than a handful of tracks that even resemble full songs. It's like he accidentally e-mailed his record label an entire draft folder without fine-tuning the final product. The album kicks off promising enough with the stand-out track, "Jail", but then we hit 14 straight fillers. It isn't until the second half of the record that the introspective MC really unveils anything personal about himself in his trademark candid fashion before quickly retreating for the rest of the release with alternate takes of "Jail", "Ok ok", "Junya" and "Jesus Lord" to close out the underwhelming "passion" project that lacks any vision whatsoever from the former visionary.
#11. Kids See Ghosts
I know many consider this to be one of Kanye's last great works but to me, this long gestating collaboration with Kid Cudi just doesn't have the production quality of any of Ye's other work. It's incredibly redundant and just never brings you in on any emotional or technical level. The borderline hedonistic approach to production Ye is famous for is smoothed over into a ready-made exercise in formality, seemingly auto-tuning his personality into something more presentable. As if he's acquiesced to try and fit in with a crowd that he's not quite comfortable enough to be himself with. Just quietly nodding his head and smiling at everyone at the party until he can go home and take off his normie costume and relax. These 7 tracks are over before you know it, never leaving any lasting impression and ultimately turns Kanye into the one thing he's rarely ever been in his musical career - a wallflower. Running out the clock in the passenger seat while Cudi steers the KSG ship into irrelevance.
#10. ye
Right out of the gate with "I Thought About Killing You", this record feels like a therapy journal set to music. It's the dawn of a more introspective era of Kanye, one more focused on his own wellness than his drive for success. Which is a great thing for Kanye's own mental health, as he seemed stretched way too thin on The Life of Pablo rollout / Yeezy fashion line launch. But I'd be lying if I said this doesn't sound like one of his least dynamic collections of work. "Ghost Town" is a welcomed throwback to that old Kanye feel good sound that his fans had been clamoring for prior to this release and may actually be the best single he dropped in the 2010's. Which is definitely saying something. But the rest of the record is so unremarkable that there isn't much else here worth revisiting.
#9. 808s & Heartbreaks
After the massive critical and financial success of Graduation, 808s and Heartbreaks definitely feels like a bit of a victory lap for West. It's got some momentarily great material sprinkled in throughout but overall it just doesn't feel like he's putting the same creative energy into this one that he gave his previous 3 records. He's still way out in front of his contemporaries, he's just let his foot up off of the gas and coasting around to wave at this fans with this album. However, It did break ground for hip hop infusing synth embellishments and emotionally dense lyrical content into mainstream rap for the era it was released; but among Kanye's personal catalog, it doesn't have nearly the same staying power as his other efforts. Even the singles, "Amazing" and "Love Lockdown" feel pretty minor stacked against the rest of his catalog.
#8. Vultures 1
For the first time since Yeezus, Kanye West has composed a fully developed album in Vultures 1. The production is absolutely stellar, sounding like it's picking right up from where he left off with The Life of Pablo and maybe most importantly of all, Ye seems to finally be enjoying himself again. With incredibly loose and fun moments like the "Back That Ass Up" beat switch on "Do It" or turning the ridiculous sound clip from Dogma ( "Beautiful, big titty, butt naked women just don't fall out of the sky, y'know" ) into an absolute fucking banger of a track - Ye is definitely feeling himself again on this one. We also get some classic chipmunk soul tracks like "Burn" and "Problematic" that resemble early Kanye cuts and even a Yeezy trap song in "FUK SUMN". But it's obvious Kanye doesn't have much to say here lyrically, hence the collaboration with Ty Dollar $ign as he outsources most of the verses to him. It's not quite back on the level of greatness Kanye achieved at his peak but this was definitely a good sign that there's more creative fuel in Mr. West's tank.
#7. Watch the Throne
Speaking of victory laps, Watch the Throne is maybe the penultimate example of such. But unlike 808s and Heartbreaks, Watch the Throne feels like a much more concentrated effort and the combined talents of Jay-Z and Kanye help to bring the absolute best out of one another. Admittedly the album does sound a bit more like a collection of singles than a cohesive record but with standout tracks like "No Church in the Wild", "Lift Off", and "Who Gon Stop Me" you can hardly fault it for that. The only downside is when the singles don't exactly hit, like their first single released - "Otis". But the hits far outweigh the misses, especially given the fact that the album features one of the best hip hop songs of the 2010's and arguably career bests for either K or J with "N*ggas in Paris". That shit gets the people going. Absolute banger.
#6. The Life of Pablo
This may be one of the most frustrating records ever released. There are some absolutely incredible moments on The Life of Pablo, from the epic introduction on "Ultralight Beam" to the phenomenal arrangements on "Feedback", "FML" or "Fade" - this record has all the makings of another potential masterpiece. It's just clearly the result of a rushed release. Instead of curating the tracklist into a cohesive collection, we get what sounds like a mix cd of everything Kanye tried out in the studio during these sessions set on shuffle. Songs like "30 Hours", "No More Parties in LA" or "Facts" really have no place on the final release. West's focus was clearly pulled into too many directions with starting a family, launching a clothing line, and that weird video game thing where you fly his mom to heaven. What ever happened to that anyways? Who got paid to develop what has to be the most insane vanity project of all time?
#5. Graduation
With Graduation, Kanye established himself as the unquestionable king of his craft. Taking down 50 Cent in the process, with a head to head sales competition upon it's release, was just icing on the cake. Graduation would have thrived regardless of any comparisons to 50's "Curtis" and has far outlived any of the other contemporary hip hop albums of the post-Eminem / pre-Kendrick era of mainstream hip hop. Aside from the massive radio hits like "Stronger", "Good Life", and "Flashing Lights"; West stays true to the well rounded sound that brought him into the lime light with an assortment of emotional deep cuts like "Everything I Am" and "Can't Tell Me Nothing" that give his work such a soulful foundation underneath the braggadocios exterior. The record is absolutely loaded from to start to finish, signifying an artist's certification as the new contemporary standard that all newcomers will be measured against, ascending Kanye into the stratosphere of all time greats.
#4. The College Dropout
Maybe one of the strongest debuts in hip hop history, The College Dropout is oozing with personality and confidence in every single song. Dropout was incredibly innovative in it's unique level of relate-ability and humor expressed within a genre that was up to it's eyeballs in superficiality and self serious tough guy rhetoric. Kanye put together an outstanding cover letter showcasing the wide array of abilities that he can tap into so well - from the laughs on "The New Workout Plan", the desperate sense of hopelessness in "We Don't Care" and "All Falls Down", plus the absolute bangers in "Breathe In Breathe Out" and "Jesus Walks". And to top it all off, the record is punctuated by the spectacular encapsulation of Kanye's dedication in "Through the Wire", where Kanye gets to tell the story of his come up through the legendary anecdote of spending so many hours at the studio that he fell asleep at the wheel and had to finish his final track with his jaw wired shut. The perfect finale for this soulful introduction to one of music's most dynamic voices.
#3. Yeezus
This is Kanye in full-on rock star mode and it's absolutely intoxicating to take in. Rather than coasting on the success of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Yeezy pushes the boundaries of his production even further into borderline experimental/industrial territory. The opening track "On Sight" sets the tone perfectly for the innovation at hand and yet somehow still retains an ability to hook you in with it's endearing pop sensibilities. It's wholly remarkable to see an artist of this magnitude, fully unhibited and pushing boundaries this successfully while maintaining mainstream accessibility in a way that no artist has been able to accomplish on this level since maybe Prince. The creative ascension is utterly remarkable. And while the second half of the record loses a little of the manic energy that makes the first 6 tracks so sensational, the finale with "Send It Up" and "Bound 2" wraps things up perfectly. It's incredible to behold an artist like this get such a massive blank canvas to experiment with and walk away with such groundbreaking results.
#2. Late Registration
After the breakout success of his debut, Kanye's follow up only worked to further stoke the hype surrounding his young career. "Gold Digger" put Ye on the map with his cynical sense of humor and throwback soul aesthetic which made his work stand out in a crowded field of auto-tuned pop-rap copycats. Late Registration has so much of West's personality and insight wrapped up in it that you can feel the authenticity expressed in every word throughout every song. Each bar feels genuine. And because of that foundation built upon sincerity and an earnest desire for success, Kanye amassed a loyal audience almost instantaneously. And the fact that Late Registration was basically the bigger budget, polished up version of his debut - enhancing everything that made his prior record great while trimming the few sections of fat - made this a nearly flawless marriage of his endearing personality and meticulous craftsmanship formulating the recipe that would make him a superstar.
#1. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Hellbent on rewriting the narrative surrounding his career after his VMA outburst, Kanye returned after a two year hiatus with one of the best hip hop albums ever created. The production retains the soulful exuberance of his earlier work without relying as much directly on pre-existing samples but instead crafting his own blend of neo-soul layered vocal harmonies, stripped down pianos, spastic electronic percussion, and the crunchiest bass lines you've ever fucking heard. The features are absolutely pitch perfect - from the star making performance from Nicki Minaj to the genre bending work of Bon Iver to an onslaught of incredible bars from hip hop royalty in Jay-Z, Rick Ross and Pusha T. Rap seemed to be caught in a dark and hollow place in the wake of the Lil John's crunk rap movement and T-Pain's overly auto-tuned everything but My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy almost single-handily revived hip hop's credibility in the mainstream with these spectacular 13 tracks. It brought legitimacy back to a genre that was stuck in a cycle of bad gimmicks and phony personas, while also cementing Kanye's place as one of the most crucial and innovative talents in all of music.
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