In College Dropout Kanye is an artist stumbling towards genius. There are real slivers of brilliance in that album. Then he lost his grip on reality and embraced the plastic celebrity lifestyle. His music quite quickly disintegrated in quality. To be a great rapper you have to be able to retain a connection to the realities of the streets where rap music came from. The music of rappers who lose this connection quickly turns into a load of commercialised rubbish. Kanye West is the embodiment of this lesson.
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