Credit: Alamy

After years of producing, Kanye West introduced himself to the world as an artist in 2004 with his debut album, The College Dropout. Ye shifted from a production career into a fully fledged artist, recording the album over four years starting in 1999.

The Chicago rapper signed to Roc-A-Fella in 2002 after proving himself with beats for the likes of Jay-Z, Beanie Sigel and Cam’ron. The title of the album simply came from him dropping out of the American Academy of Art and Chicago State University.

“I’m a college dropout. That’s the album title,” he told Complex. “I’ve thought about calling my shit ‘I’m Good,’ because that’s a ‘cool’ title. But for me to try and put on the facade of being the coolest motherfucker ever, it’s not going to come across like that. I’m not saying I’m the coolest motherfucker ever, I’m just saying I’m just a fucking smart-arse. I got to put it in raps.”

The first single, ‘Through the Wire‘, was recorded after the rapper experienced a near-fatal car crash when he fell asleep behind the wheel. Kanye was taken to the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and had his jaw wired to his face during reconstructive surgery. He started rapping the lyrics to the song three days after the accident and recorded the track just two weeks later with his jaw wired shut.

“The only thing this accident is saying is, ‘I am about to hand you the world, just know at any given time I can take it away from you,'” he said to Yahoo Music at the time. “To nearly lose your life, to nearly lose your mouth, your voice, your whole face, as a rapper, and I had to be on TV! My face looks crazy to me now, but I have to just thank God for the situation that I am in. ‘Through The Wire’ is the worst thing that could’ve possibly happened to me, and now it’s obviously the best thing. Look how it exploded!”

The College Dropout debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 chart with 441,000 copies in its first week. The album was nominated for Album of the Year and Best Rap Album at the Grammy Awards in 2005, winning in the latter category. Since its release, The College Dropout has been certified platinum four times by the Recording Industry Association of America.

Built around skits, now a lost art in the album format, the project featured a number of notable guests like Jay-Z, Mos Def, Jamie Foxx, Common, Ludacris, Talib Kweli, Freeway, GLC and Consequence. The album had a combination of hits such as ‘All Falls Down’ and ‘Jesus Walks’, as well as songs like ‘Family Business’, a more intimate record about the intricacies of family dynamics.

Although Kanye is confident in his abilities, he is self-aware enough to know that he doesn’t have an interesting backstory like selling drugs. “I ain’t trying to front. I’m aware of shit,” he said. “Am I supposed to get here and say, ‘Yo man, I sold drugs and I did this?’ Because I never did none of that. Is that automatically going to lower my record sales like crazy because I said I never sold crack? I apologise. I just went and got a job. Whatever.”

He continued, ”What the fuck I look like rapping? How did I end up on Roc-A-Fella? I never had a good voice. I never really had a good rapper story. I wasn’t ever that much of a pimp where I just had mad girls. I never was shooting at n*ggas, so what was it? It was just focus. I decided I want to do this.”

The College Dropout served as the blueprint for Kanye’s career, going on to release more classic albums such as Late Registration, Graduation, 808s & Heartbreak, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and Yeezus. If it wasn’t for the success of his debut, we might not have had the opportunity to experience one of the best runs in hip-hop.