Nori is going on 8 months old, but she isn't the 1st hip hop star "birthed" by Mr. West. Undoubtedly, the entire New School of Drake, J Cole & Kendrick Lamar has & continues to be heavily influenced by the groundbreaking College Dropout.
I STILL remember exactly where I was & my reaction when I heard the Intro and "We Don't Care". I was like "Oh shit! Somebody's speaking for us". Having been born and bred in Chicago, attended a magnet school, and always admonished by my mother to speak "proper English", I immediately connected with everything on the album! Did I mention that that magnet school was in a 4-way gang territory? These childhood oxymorons forced you into being a double agent of sorts. You knew why you had to excel in school - your FUTURE. But you also knew why it was important to be accepted by the neighborhood street pharmacists, gang members, etc. And as crazy as it may sound to those who lived in a foreign land called suburbia or wealthy urban dwellers whose parents shielded them from city life - it was often the street pharmacists & gang members who ENCOURAGED & SUPPORTED our academic endeavors. Of course we loved hip hop. We lived it. Whether you were Team Biggie or Team Pac, it was just as much a part of you as your blood type. You knew Thuggish Ruggish Bone backwards & forward. You won all of the poetry & essay contests at your school. Hell, you even wrote some dope ass rhymes in a secret notebook. There was just one problem in your marriage to the gangsta rap that dominated the late 90's and into the 2000's ... You had no voice! When you recited 50 Cent & Jadakiss, you really were talking about your cousin Ray Ray holding the glock. You never held a glock!
If a conversation even started in that direction, you tried to act like you didn't hear it or made up an excuse to leave (you had those SATs to study for after all).
Then you get to college, only to realize you weren't learning anything. But now it's too late because you're at the end of your sophomore year. Whatcha gonna do - QUIT?! And have your parents KILL you? Of course not. You finish with decent grades & cop yourself a decent job to boot. Only to realize you hate your job. A healthy portion of your take home pay goes to Sallie Mae & NOTHING you "learned" in college pertains to your job that securely makes you part of the proud (lower) middle class. Then comes Kanye with his motherf**king College Dropout! Aww man, what a breath of fresh air. Liberation soul clap!!
SOMEONE gets it. More importantly gets ME (coincidentally, my Uncle, Brian Miller has the only co-producer credit on the album). I can sing this whole album in the shower & feel good cuz the songs are actually about (M)y (E)xperience. That's the genius of College Dropout. And as a result, kids are MUCH smarter these days. They already know if college ain't worth it & are creating their own identities, putting their LIVES ahead of careers, & staying home a bit longer to pay off debt and SAVE money. Congratulations ...looks like we graduated from that Ghetto University after all!
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