The College Dropout was less a breath of fresh air than a splash of ice-cold water: a fuck-you to the educational system and a demonstration that hip-hop could be a vehicle for nuanced self-examination and musical subtlety.  

 Late Registration is even better than Drop Out, an uncompromisingly eccentric, arrogant, jubilant hammer-hurler of an album, produced in collaboration with pop mastermind Jon Brion. It comes off as a conversation with vintage soul. 

 The shock value of West's first two albums had mostly worn off by Graduation, a totally solid record that suffers only by failing to deliver another revolution. It's his slickest, proudest album to date. 

 Though it's West's weakest record, you have to give him credit for the guts it took to release 808s & Heartbreak, a synth-pop album on which he mostly sings rather than rapping. Of course, those vocals came with the aid of Auto-Tune's robotic pitch-adjustment, the ultimate late-200...