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The influence of Graduation by Kanye West is so overlooked. Here is a story about when this album dropped and it’s overall influence in hip-hop today.
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On September 11, 2007, Kanye released “Graduation” alongside 50 Cent with “Curtis”. 50 told the media he would quit his solo career as a rapper if Kanye outsold him the first week after release. As we all know, Kanye sold 957,000 copies while 50 only sold 619,00 copies first week
Many people were surprised as to how Kanye West, a fairly new rapper at the time, outsold, arguably the most popular rapper in the 2000’s. The popular wave of hip-hop at the time was ganster rap, which was primarily based around drugs, guns, violence, gangs, etc.
Kanye completely switched up the norm as his album was a polar opposite to 50 Cent’s “Curtis”. As a result, people were more impressed with his release, which in turn got him more sales. After this, what I would call a historic moment in hip-hop,
Many other artists started to follow in the steps of Kanye. More people started to follow the trend of more pop type rap. Also, Ye helped repopularize soul sampling, which he did on his other two albums.
Only a year later, Kanye released his album “808s & Heartbreak” which is arguably one of the most influential projects in hip-hop history. This album basically solidified the new wave of rap that he started with “Graduation”
Overall, Kanye West took a major risk with this release and by competing with 50 Cent, which paid off in more ways then one. Here’s to Kanye’s best album and a true masterpiece.
Thank you all for reading. Let me know if I missed anything! Retweets are appreciated
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