Thoughts On The Tenth Birthday Of Kanye West S The College Dropout

• The cover of The College Dropout

Monday was the ten-year anniversary of Kanye West’s debut album, The College Dropout, and I want to take a second to throw in my two cents about why Kanye is important to me.

We were on the heels of the Nelly, Ja Rule, P. Diddy, Ludacris years.

“Spaceship,” “All Falls Down,” “Never Let Me Down,” “Jesus Walks,” “Family Business.” Those were anthems of mine that I kept in the back pocket of my heart as I walked the line between black people finding me too white or proper and white people clamoring for me to be their “black friend.”