Kanye West

flyswatter

Is it just me or has Kanye gotten gradually worse as a rapper?

I was listening to the first two albums and he had a good flow on songs like Golddigger and Diamonds are Forever to name just a few.

But now look at this: One of the worst raps I've ever heard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QfoBHH8_Pk

And I just think he's never been as good since. He's still a very gifted musician though generally.

MoyVilla9

The video you posted is hardly a representation of Kanye "now". That was in 2007, and in all fairness Message In A Bottle is an odd song to rap on.

pragmatic1

Kanye was never that good of a rappper. His subject matter is boring as ****, We get it, you're rich and **** loads of women. He isnt even the best producer/rapper. That would be either Havoc or Dj Quik.

bigpoppa

and whilst not totally on topic here, I bloody loved the last album and played / play it waaaaaay too much

Underground

In terms of rapping i think he put in a pretty good performance on MBDTF.
I'd go as far as saying that he's gradually improved as a rapper over the years.

Mickolution

I love Kanye, but wouldn't class him as a great rapper. A lot of his songs are made by the production and guests. That being said, he's not terrible, though his lyrics are often "so bad they're good". MBDTF is one of the best albums I've heard in years, but again, that's down to the production and scale of it for me.

mufcboy1999

90 per cent of big rappers out there are always compared to their debut work and kanye is no exception.

they raise the bar so high its near impossible to top it or infact get anywhere near it, victims of there own success really.

fans are pricks we complain a rapper sounds the same as soon as he switches it up we want the old one back they just cant win.

the only thing i ever had a problem with kanye was when he brought out that rubbish autotune album that was a bad move for hip hop he helped make it what it is today both positively and negatively.

he is a good rapper but he's a commercial slut like all of the so called elite (commercial) rappers.

speedboatchase

I've never thought he was an amazing rapper but he's imo the best male artist of the last ten years. Not afraid to buck convention or change his sound and every album sounds different - hell, every single even

weemcd

The Police have absolutely no stage connection, no chemistry.
This is a ridiculous video to use as an example of how Kanye is not a great rapper. how about we take a song he actually made and recorded himself recently, and not a live video recorded in 2007? Yeah, I'm talking crazy...

flyswatter

weemcd wrote: »

The Police have absolutely no stage connection, no chemistry.
This is a ridiculous video to use as an example of how Kanye is not a great rapper. how about we take a song he actually made and recorded himself recently, and not a live video recorded in 2007? Yeah, I'm talking crazy...

No, I completely disagree. I think The Police are made up of some of the most extremely talented musicians ever. And they usually always improvise stuff to make it fresh, they keep the same groove.

Copelands drumming would be impossible to replicate like on record every time cos it's so diverse. John Mayer is also an amazing musician, singer, and guitar player.

Kanye can do a lot better, he's clearly off his head on drink/drugs.

A rapper like Black Thought, Q Tip, Common, Chuck D (I could go on) would bring that track to life and I doubt too many would be complaining.

MoyVilla9

So the measurement of if a rapper is good or not is if they can perform with The Police? Listen to Kanye's new album, it's brilliant

flyswatter

MoyVilla9 wrote: »

So the measurement of if a rapper is good or not is if they can perform with The Police? Listen to Kanye's new album, it's brilliant

I know that it's very good but I'm just saying he get's really lazy at times.

A less lazy Kanye or another good rapper could make that performance so much better and memorable for all the right reasons instead of the wrong ones.

Shapey Fiend

Wasn't all the stuff on the 1st album ghostwritten? Rhymefest wrote Jesus Walks anyway.

I love Kanyes production but I've always thought he was a kind of crappy rapper. I'd say he's actually improved recently. Or I find his current style less irritating than his old stuff anyway.

flyswatter

I think he can be a decent rapper.

Yeah, I get your point. Has he written many songs on his own, just on his own? There seems to be at least 5 different writers on the songs on the new album.

Edgehead

pragmatic1 wrote: »

His subject matter is boring as ****, We get it, you're rich and **** loads of women..

You're ignorant of the mans work if you actually believe that to be a fact tbh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVpt_NIomNU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_x3pJkckRQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDXWUS0z6Qc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VOVStL0NW0

Easily the greatest artist of his generation, nobody can match him in terms of showmanship, musical integrity and album quality.

bigwormbundoran

Edgehead wrote: »

Easily the greatest artist of his generation, nobody can match him in terms of showmanship, musical integrity and album quality.

Is that you Kanye?

weemcd

flyswatter wrote: »

Kanye can do a lot better, he's clearly off his head on drink/drugs.

So, by your own admission, that video is a poor example to try and illustrate your point?

mufcboy1999

Easily the greatest artist of his generation, nobody can match him in terms of showmanship, musical integrity and album quality.

im sure jay-z and eminem etc would argue that, they achieved far more in rap and then you'd have to take artists from other music genres into consideration too like oasis,metallica etc etc the list is endless.

and kanye wouldnt even fit into the top 20 bracket, just because he is arrogant and out spoken doesn't make him up there with the best, he is no where near the greatest of his generation.

Edgehead

mufcboy1999 wrote: »

im sure jay-z and eminem etc would argue that, they achieved far more in rap and then you'd have to take artists from other music genres into consideration too like oasis,metallica etc etc the list is endless.

and kanye wouldnt even fit into the top 20 bracket, just because he is arrogant and out spoken doesn't make him up there with the best, he is no where near the greatest of his generation.

Eminem is a crap performer and his latest efforts have been nothing to write home about. And ofcourse he belongs in the debate and ofcourse he had 3 great albums but IMO Kanye overall >>> Eminem

Jay-Z is obviously one of the biggest stars on the planet and obviously has every right to stake a claim as the best. He still arguably only has 2 classic albums, and Kanye West had a hand in one of them.

Its just an opinion and not something I'd ever claim to be fact, or expect others to categorically agree with.

mufcboy1999

Edgehead wrote: »

Eminem is a crap performer and his latest efforts have been nothing to write home about. And ofcourse he belongs in the debate and ofcourse he had 3 great albums but IMO Kanye overall >>> Eminem

Jay-Z is obviously one of the biggest stars on the planet and obviously has every right to stake a claim as the best. He still arguably only has 2 classic albums, and Kanye West had a hand in one of them.

Its just an opinion and not something I'd ever claim to be fact, or expect others to categorically agree with.

as you said its an opinion and that at the end of the day is what its down too, i dont agree with you in saying kanye is easily the greatest artist of his generation and probably vice versa with you towards my argument.

in my opinion kanye west isn't in the same league as a lot of rappers, jay z and eminem were off the top of my head i could go into a pretty long list of rappers that id put ahead of kanye based on a lot of reasons including music and album quality.

The shear amount of quality music eminem has released through his career aswell as being arguably the biggest hip hop star ever and the best selling rapper in hip hop i think its safe to say eminem >>>>> kanye by a long long run.

im not going into which albums are classic and what not but jay z has longevity and consistency in hip hop, he has 11 number 1 albums selling roughly 50 million altogether, his impact on todays young hip hop is second to none and is really a living legend in hip hop.

kanye has only been on scene really since 04, and he truly has one terrible album in 808's and heartbreaks in where he turned his back on rap and went completely pop and convinced himself he could sing with auto tune are you telling me as a hip hop fan you enjoyed that rubbish? maybe you did but for me that had a huge impact negatively on hip hop and just helped make it more the way it is today.

infact billboard released an article on the most successful artists from 2000 - 2009 in late 09 and both jay z and eminem aswell as 50 cent and nelly were all ahead of him so arguably they are bigger than kanye west or at least sold more records.

im a fan of kanye both as a rapper and as a producer but he has a lot of grown up to do if he is to be considered as one of the best of his generation as an artist.

Edgehead

mufcboy1999 wrote: »

as you said its an opinion and that at the end of the day is what its down too, i dont agree with you in saying kanye is easily the greatest artist of his generation and probably vice versa with you towards my argument.

in my opinion kanye west isn't in the same league as a lot of rappers, jay z and eminem were off the top of my head i could go into a pretty long list of rappers that id put ahead of kanye based on a lot of reasons including music and album quality.

The shear amount of quality music eminem has released through his career aswell as being arguably the biggest hip hop star ever and the best selling rapper in hip hop i think its safe to say eminem >>>>> kanye by a long long run.

im not going into which albums are classic and what not but jay z has longevity and consistency in hip hop, he has 11 number 1 albums selling roughly 50 million altogether, his impact on todays young hip hop is second to none and is really a living legend in hip hop.

kanye has only been on scene really since 04, and he truly has one terrible album in 808's and heartbreaks in where he turned his back on rap and went completely pop and convinced himself he could sing with auto tune are you telling me as a hip hop fan you enjoyed that rubbish? maybe you did but for me that had a huge impact negatively on hip hop and just helped make it more the way it is today.

infact billboard released an article on the most successful artists from 2000 - 2009 in late 09 and both jay z and eminem aswell as 50 cent and nelly were all ahead of him so arguably they are bigger than kanye west or at least sold more records.

im a fan of kanye both as a rapper and as a producer but he has a lot of grown up to do if he is to be considered as one of the best of his generation as an artist.

I love Jay and Em. But in my opinion 2 of Eminems last 3 albums have been average at best, with Relapse being slightly above average.

Jay's 11 number 1's are a dubious barometer to use when judging album quality. I think you'll agree with me when I say Number 1 albums are usually a result of successful singles, as opposed to quality albums. I'm not taking it away from him and its a fantastic achievement and one that I'm proud to bring up in the face of any Hip Hop detractor. But. again in my opinion, his only two really quality albums are RD and B1.

On the topic of 808's, I loved it. Its a great album. Anybody who goes into as 'a hip hop fan' is obviously going to be disappointed. He never said it was a hip hop album, because it isn't. Its a pop album with Hip Hop elements, such as the drums and some verses. There's no way you can say it had a negative effect on the current Hip Hop trends because firstly T-Pain was autotuning long before this record and secondly this record sounds nothing like anything that's out now. Show me another Amazing or another Heartless.

CD and LR are classics, Graduation is outstanding in parts and classic in others, 808's is fantastic, and MBDTF is epic..a masterpiece.

Keyser Söze

Edgehead

Keyser Söze wrote: »

Fine input my man

mufcboy1999

I love Jay and Em. But in my opinion 2 of Eminems last 3 albums have been average at best, with Relapse being slightly above average.

Id agree there to an extent, but i would put recovery ahead of relapse i think it was more balanced and had a better sound to it as a whole, but ye i cant defend eminem there, encore and relapse were nothing to write home about but in my opinion Recovery is up there with mbdtf as one of the best albums in 2010 but i wouldn't class either as classic, classic's a word thrown around too much in hip hop.

but I think eminem was really the first rapper to really bridge the gap between hip hop (an american culture) and not just to white suburbia in america but the rest of the world to be honest and was a huge huge fact in hip hop becoming as big as it is now, I think eminem became the first true worldwide hip hop mega star, im not taking anything away from legends like dr dre,2pac,biggie,NWA etc but eminem attracted fans they never could and it effected hip hop postively as it lead to albums sales for them too as the new fans gained more knowledge of hip hop and who's who's in the industry.

I gaurntee you eminem introduced 80 per cent of rap fans in this country to hip hop ye they'l probably deny it but its the truth, maybe it was the fact eminem was white i dont know, but for his sheer impact on hip hop i think kanye is no where near him.

Jay's 11 number 1's are a dubious barometer to use when judging album quality. I think you'll agree with me when I say Number 1 albums are usually a result of successful singles, as opposed to quality albums. I'm not taking it away from him and its a fantastic achievement and one that I'm proud to bring up in the face of any Hip Hop detractor. But. again in my opinion, his only two really quality albums are RD and B1.

I dont know about there's also a lot of artists who have had successful singles but there albums fail to match there single's success, i think it can work both ways with that to be honest bud.

id agree on the jay z album front they are most defiantly his best work in RD and the blueprint but there's always been a bit of gold on any jay z project in saying that im not going to pretend i liked bp3 because i didnt, i felt it was pop (ish) and really didnt do jay z's legacy any good. I taught he showed he is ageing in hip hop and in his ability to rap to be honest but still its his catalog of music and longevity in hip hop that truly puts him on another level to kanye.

On the topic of 808's, I loved it. Its a great album. Anybody who goes into as 'a hip hop fan' is obviously going to be disappointed. He never said it was a hip hop album, because it isn't. Its a pop album with Hip Hop elements, such as the drums and some verses. There's no way you can say it had a negative effect on the current Hip Hop trends because firstly T-Pain was autotuning long before this record and secondly this record sounds nothing like anything that's out now. Show me another Amazing or another Heartless.

kanye west is a rapper first and foremost and 808's was released under a hip hop label in def jam thats all i need to know but its not all kanye's fault the big exec's running def jam clearly dont care about hip hop anymore its as clear as daylight, i know other record labels do the same but its sad too see def jam considering its history. Back to the point i think to be honest the commercial appeal became to appealing to kanye in making music like this (autotune etc).

im talking hip hop here T pain is not a rapper his genre is R'n'B rappers get him on there hooks. It defiantly had a negative impact on commercial hip hop a lot of rappers felt like they had to have that autotune hook or pop element to there singles in order to get radio play to sell records, as you said it 808's was a pop album by a rapper which is a joke by kanye doing this he had a major role in blending pop etc into hip hop, im not saying he was the first to do this on singles but to release a whole pop album as a rapper he was the first and was a bit of a laughing stock in hip hop around that time amongst other rappers.

I think you are giving kanye more credit than he deserves here as an artist, i understand your a big fan of his but try taking a look at his work from a neutral point of view, in my opinion he has one classic album in College dropout and 2 very good albums in Lr and mbdtf, an average album in graduation and one dud in 808's.

MoyVilla9

mufcboy1999 wrote: »

Id agree there to an extent, but i would put recovery ahead of relapse i think it was more balanced and had a better sound to it as a whole, but ye i cant defend eminem there, encore and relapse were nothing to write home about but in my opinion Recovery is up there with mbdtf as one of the best albums in 2010 but i wouldn't class either as classic, classic's a word thrown around too much in hip hop.

but I think eminem was really the first rapper to really bridge the gap between hip hop (an american culture) and not just to white suburbia in america but the rest of the world to be honest and was a huge huge fact in hip hop becoming as big as it is now, I think eminem became the first true worldwide hip hop mega star, im not taking anything away from legends like dr dre,2pac,biggie,NWA etc but eminem attracted fans they never could and it effected hip hop postively as it lead to albums sales for them too as the new fans gained more knowledge of hip hop and who's who's in the industry.

I gaurntee you eminem introduced 80 per cent of rap fans in this country to hip hop ye they'l probably deny it but its the truth, maybe it was the fact eminem was white i dont know, but for his sheer impact on hip hop i think kanye is no where near him.

But what is it we are talking about here? Is it the talent of an artist or the impact they have made? The impact made by an artist does not always go hand in hand with talent. Eminem has both but you seem to be saying that Eminem is a better artist because he has had a stronger impact on hip hop. Wrong reasoning in my opinion. Eazy-E had a massive impact on Hip Hop but would you consider him more talented that Kanye? No, well in my opinion anyway. It wreaks my head when I see Eazy included in "Top 10" lists merely because of the background work he did with NWA and Ruthless. Fair enough, he did great stuff - give the boy a biscuit - but he was an average rapper at best. I know I've gone way off on a tangent here but my main point is that impact should not be a measure of the talent of an artist.

Makaveli

mufcboy1999 wrote: »

I think you are giving kanye more credit than he deserves here as an artist, i understand your a big fan of his but try taking a look at his work from a neutral point of view, in my opinion he has one classic album in College dropout and 2 very good albums in Lr and mbdtf, an average album in graduation and one dud in 808's.

On the contrary I think you're giving him less than he deserves and your opinion of him will always be tainted because you dislike 808s so much.

I didn't like 808s at all when it was released because I was looking for something that wasn't there. When I approached it again without listening to it as a rap album I was able to appreciate it. Granted I think it falls away towards the end but the first half of the album is pretty damn good.

Back to the initial question of whether he's getting worse? I'd say no. He has never been the strongest rapper, but he makes up for that with great production, clever collaborations and although often seen as a bad thing, his ego/charisma. I think I like MBDTF the best of all his albums and his four rap albums have all been good albums.

mufcboy1999

But what is it we are talking about here? Is it the talent of an artist or the impact they have made? The impact made by an artist does not always go hand in hand with talent. Eminem has both but you seem to be saying that Eminem is a better artist because he has had a stronger impact on hip hop. Wrong reasoning in my opinion. Eazy-E had a massive impact on Hip Hop but would you consider him more talented that Kanye? No, well in my opinion anyway. It wreaks my head when I see Eazy included in "Top 10" lists merely because of the background work he did with NWA and Ruthless. Fair enough, he did great stuff - give the boy a biscuit - but he was an average rapper at best. I know I've gone way off on a tangent here but my main point is that impact should not be a measure of the talent of an artist.

the topic we are arguing here is kanye west is the greatest artist of his generation . My arguement is that he is no where near it so both talent and impact as an artist aswell as other things all come into play here.

On the contrary I think you're giving him less than he deserves and your opinion of him will always be tainted because you dislike 808s so much.

I didn't like 808s at all when it was released because I was looking for something that wasn't there. When I approached it again without listening to it as a rap album I was able to appreciate it. Granted I think it falls away towards the end but the first half of the album is pretty damn good.

Back to the initial question of whether he's getting worse? I'd say no. He has never been the strongest rapper, but he makes up for that with great production, clever collaborations and although often seen as a bad thing, his ego/charisma. I think I like MBDTF the best of all his albums and his four rap albums have all been good albums.

as i said above 808's was released by a rapper under a hip hop label in def jam, ofcourse im going to approach this album as a hip hop fan. I belive that rappers shouldn't turn there back on hip hop like kanye did with 808's. Kanye saw that there was a lucrative and commercial market in doing music like 808's and thats exactly why he done it, he is an attention seeking artist who thinks he is a lot better than he actually is aswell as convincing a good proportion of his fans that he is untouchable.

I mean i compared eminem and jay z because number one they were of the top of my head and number 2 they both are miles ahead as actual rappers (mc's) aswell as having a bigger impact on the hip hop community and in my opinion making better music hence the reason they will always be ahead of him in regards to kanye being the artist of his generation.

This is why i said i think edgehead is giving him far more credit than he deserves, he might be a top notch producer but at the end of the day he is a very average rapper who is hugely outspoken and ignorant and to say he is the easily the artist of his generation is one the most exaggerated things iv ever heard on these hip hop threads.

but look its all down to opinion as we said before, im just saying my piece both as a kanye fan and as someone who is looking at this realistically and thinking there is no way he is the artist of his generation when there's real true legends in different music genres past and present who actually really reached out and inspired people in there music in a way kanye will never be able too.

Makaveli

Well I never agreed with the opinion that he's the artist of his generation. I do think he's probably the biggest name in rap music right now though (biggest of course does not imply best).

Edgehead

mufcboy1999 wrote: »

kanye west is a rapper first and foremost and 808's was released under a hip hop label in def jam thats all i need to know but its not all kanye's fault the big exec's running def jam clearly dont care about hip hop anymore its as clear as daylight, i know other record labels do the same but its sad too see def jam considering its history. Back to the point i think to be honest the commercial appeal became to appealing to kanye in making music like this (autotune etc).

Def Jams roster at the time included Rihanna and Ne-Yo.

im talking hip hop here T pain is not a rapper his genre is R'n'B rappers get him on there hooks. It defiantly had a negative impact on commercial hip hop a lot of rappers felt like they had to have that autotune hook or pop element to there singles in order to get radio play to sell records, as you said it 808's was a pop album by a rapper which is a joke by kanye doing this he had a major role in blending pop etc into hip hop, im not saying he was the first to do this on singles but to release a whole pop album as a rapper he was the first and was a bit of a laughing stock in hip hop around that time amongst other rappers.

The main problem with modern Hip Hop is the fans, music isn't allowed grow. If you step outside the box, as West did with 808's, then its instantly labelled bad. Too many artists have their first albums sounding exactly like their fifth albums, look at 50 Cent. He stagnated as an artist and as a result is irrelevant now.

And of course its okay to skeptical of a Soulja Boy or a Flo-Rida, because they are utter radio play ****e. 808's doesn't fall into that category though. It is a pop album, but a credible one. He used heavy autotune for the effect it brought and not to 'sell records', if he wanted to sell records he could easily produce 20 club bangers and put that out as an album.

'A laughing stock amongst other rappers'.... like who? 50 Cent?

I think you are giving kanye more credit than he deserves here as an artist, i understand your a big fan of his but try taking a look at his work from a neutral point of view, in my opinion he has one classic album in College dropout and 2 very good albums in Lr and mbdtf, an average album in graduation and one dud in 808's.

I am a big fan but I'd never try claim somebody was more then he is just because I like them.

I think depending on your definition of classic he has 2 in 'CD' and 'LR', an 8/10 in 808's, a 9/10 in 'Graduation' and a top notch masterpiece in MBDTF. His contribution to records like 'Be', The Black Album, The Blueprint, The Fix etc. should also come into play in these discussions.

mufcboy1999

Def Jams roster at the time included Rihanna and Ne-Yo.

thats why i said i dont entirely blame it all on kanye, we all know some of the people running these record industry's have a huge part in killing mainstream hip hop.

Just look at the hassle lupe had in releasing his last album just recently, altantic records wanted him to approach the album in a certain way and lupe stood up to them he wanted to keep it real and keep it hip hop this is what i mean by it not being all Kayne's fault.

The main problem with modern Hip Hop is the fans, music isn't allowed grow. If you step outside the box, as West did with 808's, then its instantly labelled bad. Too many artists have their first albums sounding exactly like their fifth albums, look at 50 Cent. He stagnated as an artist and as a result is irrelevant now.

And of course its okay to skeptical of a Soulja Boy or a Flo-Rida, because they are utter radio play ****e. 808's doesn't fall into that category though. It is a pop album, but a credible one. He used heavy autotune for the effect it brought and not to 'sell records', if he wanted to sell records he could easily produce 20 club bangers and put that out as an album.

'A laughing stock amongst other rappers'.... like who? 50 Cent?

Of-course its allowed to grow but most fans want it to grow in a positive way where lryics and beats aswell as the hip hop community play a part not label exec's calling the shots, not pop and techno being blended in thats not hip hop we have our own genre and we should stay unique and true to it, kanye didnt help this, to have one of hip hop's more successful rappers going pop was a mockery and a slap in the face to hip hop you can deny it all you want.

iv no problem in kanye progressing as a artist, why not have people saying he's progressed as an artist but he kept it hip hop and stayed true to the music he is known for. why does a rapper have to go pop to progress as an artist? if hip hop fans really think that well then there's no hope for hip hop and we are just as bad as the record label exec's and the so-called rappers making this rubbish.

A laughing stock amongst real mc's, real rappers, who kanye made it a hell of a lot harder for them to get exposure because there not singing or dancing in there songs thats what i mean by kanye having a hand to play in killing commercial hip hop, i mean look at his singles for mbdtf its packed with features so reliant on other artists thats what raps become, having features use to be special and not as common but now a days most rappers rape the feature front because they know the more pop acts they got on there better the chance of it being successful rather just making good music of there own back.

id agree with the 50 cent part but its a bit different he is a gangsta rapper in a totally different lane to kanye west, i mean look at the pathetic attempt dr dre is making to adjust to music now and its not working for him, bar the 2 or 3 pop singles from 50 to get radio play all his albums are true to gangsta rap, but the majority of gangsta rappers are all stagnated, i mean they will always rap about the samethings the ghetto,guns,cars,women,drugs etc they all do it dr dre,50,game,ice cube etc its just that people like that hardcore aggressive element to there music thats why they keep going back even though we all know well since they became millionaires they live a far different lifestyle.

if he wanted to sell records he could easily produce 20 club bangers and put that out as an album.

that is not true at all. Name me one classic hip hop album by a rapper with all club bangers on it?

I think depending on your definition of classic he has 2 in 'CD' and 'LR', an 8/10 in 808's, a 9/10 in 'Graduation' and a top notch masterpiece in MBDTF. His contribution to records like 'Be', The Black Album, The Blueprint, The Fix etc. should also come into play in these discussions.

thats the thing its all down to preference, you might like one album more than me and vice versa. Im not going to argue whats classic and what isnt because you are clearly a bigger fan than me of his so we will have to agree to disagree on it.

but at the end of the day in my opinion he is no where near the artist of his generation not even in his own genre in hip hop iv put 2 artists in eminem and jay z who are miles ahead of kanye on several fronts, iv told you why i think so in this post and previous posts so there's no point in going around in circles bud, i respect your opinion and i just wanted to get mine across.

so im going to leave it at this, good talking or arguing to you bud

ConfusedGuy92

If Kanye West kept up with his efforts in College Dropout, he easily could have been one of the greatest of all time. Family Business is a great song, Through The Wire, Drug Dealing etc. He even did good just a year or two ago with Homecoming. But in general he tries not to rap anymore. He aims to make music for another genre, the same one which everyone is aiming at these days, which includes bad singing autotuned to hell. He is no longer trying to be the rapper he once was, and even when he does, in general it just isn't that good. He was not awful in Classic and was even better than KRS One and he did ok in Run This Town by far surpassing Jay Z, but he really isn't the rapper he once was as he lets money take priority.