What’s The Best Kanye West Era?


Determining Kanye’s best era work.

Kanye West is an undeniably enduring artist. His continued relevance, while undoubtedly partially fueled by controversy, is remarkable in its longevity as compared to most pop artists. While the general crowing usually amounts to “I like the old Kanye,” (a criticism West has poked fun at himself on later records) in reference, more ten than not, to his critically lauded and culturally ubiquitous debut The College Dropout and its follow up Late Registration, as West’s career developed he became more experimental and arguably more influential. Rather than ranking his albums from best to worst, as is the general practice music blogs internet-wide, we’re here to answer a question less specific but perhaps more qualifiable; What is the best Kanye era?

What's The Best Kanye West Era?

Kanye West performing in 2003 in New York City – Mark Mainz/Getty s

For the consideration “best,” rather than a subjective take on this writer’s favorite era, we will take into consideration a number factors. These factors are: critical acclaim, influence, social relevance, and the era’s importance relative to West’s career as a whole.

The eras will be defined as such-

-2004-2006,The College Dropout through Late Registration

-2007-2009,Graduation through 808’s and Heartbreak

-2010-2014,My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy through Yeezus

-2015-current day,The Life Pablo through Ye

The College Dropout and Late Registration, released in successive years, purified the production work Kanye had been doing for artists like Jay-Z before releasing his debut. They featured sped up soul samples, gospel elements, string sections and a keen-if controversial (and correct)-eye turned toward social and racial injustice. George Bush does not care about black people. These records ushered in an onslaught copycats and hangers-on mimicking Kanye’s backpack-toting, polo-wearing style. They were critical successes, though this would prove to be a consistent theme throughout West’s career.

Graduation and 808s and Heartbreak were West’s (mostly successful) attempts to reconfigure the pop landscape as a whole. Where Graduation is all exuberant pop production under raps both boastful and hopeful, 808s is a mournful album bordering on electronic music, a nearly rap free exploration Kanye’s introspection and sorrow following the death his mother and the dissolution his engagement to Alexis Phifer. Despite producing a massive first single in “Love Lockdown,” it was Kanye’s first record to receive mixed reviews. It has gone on to become a beloved piece work, and a signal what was about to come in the musical landscape.

What's The Best Kanye West Era?

Kanye West and then-girlfriend Alexis attend the Jeremy Scott Spring 2007 Fashion show – Mat Szwajkos/Getty s

After a weeks long stint releasing one-f collaborative singles that Kanye termed GOOD Fridays (after his label GOOD Music), Kanye released what many consider his masterwork. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is a massive, paradigm-exploding piece pop maximalism and prog-rap. On it Kanye sounds tortured and reflective, maintaining his signature braggadocio while paradoxically poking holes in it at every turn. It was his most critically successful album, earning the coveted and elusive rating 10 from Pitchfork, and perfect marks almost across the board. He followed that album with Watch the Throne, a collaborative album with long time mentor Jay-Z. It was well-liked critically, and several the songs, not least all “N****s in Paris,” became cultural touchstones for years to come. Following Watch the Throne, he released an album songs featuring all the GOOD Music artists he’d signed. It was mostly ignored, with the exception the smash summer jam “Mercy.” To bookend this era, Kanye released the jarring, violent Yeezus. It confounded listeners but was beloved by critics. It produced a devoted following amongst Kanye fans, garnered very little radio success, and changed rap music for the foreseeable future.

Kanye took some time f after Yeezus, releasing a few singles like the brash “All Day” and the sweet, Paul Mccartney featuring “Only One,” an ode to both his mother and his newly born daughter. His long promised follow up to Yeezus seemed like it would never come. Then, with little fanfare, Kanye dropped lead single “Real Friends.” It enticed die hards and West classicists alike, as it sounded like a new take on old Kanye. A slightly belabored rollout his next album The Life Pablo followed, an album West termed a “living album” due to his insistence on constantly tweaking the songs on their digital and streaming platforms, the only mediums through which it was released. It played as a quality but scattershot tour through West’s oeuvre. Its most lasting song, opener “Ultralight Beams,” is notable mostly for the verse contributed by Chance the Rapper, though the song was an undeniably important moment Christ-like repentance for Kanye. For the time being. “Saint Pablo,” the tour that followed TLOP, was unceremoniously cut short as Kanye suffered a mental breakdown that slowly played out on(floating)stage. He proselytized about the greatness Donald Trump, threatened violence against the estranged Jay-Z, and generally fell apart. Shortly after the tour, he was hospitalized and diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

What's The Best Kanye West Era?

Donald Trump and Kanye West in the lobby  the Trump Tower, 2016 – Drew Angerer/Getty s

After a nearly two year fallow period, Kanye reappeared on Twitter invigorated and ready to spout nonsense. He big-upped the idiotic pseudo-intellectual and twitter provocateur Candace Owens, a noted black conservative who dabbled in dangerous topics racism denial and respectability politics. He continued his love affair with Trump. He went on TMZ and declared that slavery was a choice. He then dialed it back and admitted that much it was due to bipolar episodes. He released the short and confessional Ye shortly thereafter. It is a touching and problematic exploration Kanye’s experience  with the disease, and is his least well-reviewed album to date. It produced no singles– though it wasn’t designed to do so– and was followed by the similarly low-key Kids See Ghosts, a collaboration with longtime cohort Kid Cudi. Both albums were accepted by Kanye devotees, though the general public seemed not to take much notice.

Considering the qualifying factors previously established and the subsequent analysis, it is clear (to this writer) that the best Kanye West era is the 2009-2014 era. It produced Kanye’s most compelling work, the peak his notoriety, and his critical apex. The beautiful and expansive MBDTF pulses with revolutionary ideas and explodes into brilliant supernovae never explored in music-let alone rap music-before. It is somehow both experimental and accessible, Kanye remaking the form before our eyes. He infuriated the public for years prior to its release (hello Taylor Swift), then holed up in Hawaii with a team collaborators including Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon and longtime producer Mike Dean, and came back with a more than sufficient fering; an all out classic that served as a look to the future and a map Kanye’s soul.

Watch the Throne was massive, world beating and, most importantly, fun as hell. The subsequent tour was a huge success, a bacchanalian celebration Kanye and Jay’s not yet soured relationship, as well as their  successes, both solo and as creative partners. It’s still one Kanye’s most celebratory listens.

What's The Best Kanye West Era?

Kanye West and Jay-Z throw up the Roc at GQ Magazine’s 50th Year Celebration party, 2007 – Photo by Rob Loud/Getty s

Yeezus is, arguably, Kanye’s most important album. After years success and public approval, he zigged. He assembled a flawlessly dark and confrontational album with production that sounded like deranged lumberjacks ripping apart steel drums with a rusty chainsaw while dirty synths soundtrack their destruction alongside songs like “Hold My Liquor,” which sound so mired in primordial sludge that Kanye seems to rap from the thick it, covered in ooze and gasping for air. It is thrilling, self destructive, endlessly inventive and crushingly unique. At the end this evocation personal hell, Kanye closes the album with “Bound 2,” a soulful and sunny track that serves as a winking assurance to the audience. “Don’t worry,” he seems to say, “I can still pull this shit f too.”

The 2009-2014 era produced three memorable albums, one collaborative clunker, endless critical praise and furious public speculation. Most notably, it operates as a microcosm Kanye’s psyche and career as a whole. It is bookended by his two extremes, the two poles he would later come to embrace and, admirably, seek help to control. MBDTF changed the world, but Yeezus changed Yeezy forever.