There was a time when I felt like Kanye West's #1 fan, following his rise as a producer, getting the Get Well Soon mixtape and rooting for his underdog rap ambitions, cheering on the success of The College Dropout and going to one of the relatively intimate college campus shows in support of that album, and talking to Consequence at the merch table. 

That all feels like a million years ago now. I thought about posting this playlist earlier this year, around the time Kanye wasn't making many public statements but had joined Black Lives Matter protests and put millions of dollars into a fund for victims' families. That was the only time in the last few years that I really found myself hoping he'd turned a corner and would stop being such a constant embarrassment. Then he ran for president as a third party Republican, and after that shitshow I don't think he's ever gonna be anything less than a weird spectacle for the rest of his life. But the campaign is over, so I feel somewhat comfortable listening to and praising his catalog right now, until the next disaster. 

1. Spaceship (featuring GLC and Consequence)

2. We Don't Care

3. Family Business

4. Gone (featuring Consequence and Cam'ron)

5. Roses

6. Crack Music (featuring The Game, Keyshia Cole and Charlie Wilson)

7. The Glory

8. Champion

9. Everything I Am (featuring DJ Premier)

10. Street Lights

11. Coldest Winter

12. Devil In A New Dress (featuring Rick Ross)

13. Blame Game (featuring John Legend and Chris Rock)

14. Lost In The World (featuring Bon Iver)

15. Send It Up (featuring King Louie)

16. On Sight

17. Feedback

18. Ultralight Beam (featuring Chance The Rapper, Kelly Price, The-Dream and Kirk Franklin)

19. No Mistakes (featuring Kid Cudi, Charlie Wilson and Caroline Shaw)

20. Everything We Need (featuring Ty Dolla Sign and Ant Clemons)

Tracks 1, 2 and 3 from The College Dropout (2004)

Tracks 4, 5 and 6 from Late Registration (2005)
Tracks 7, 8 and 9 from Graduation (2007)
Tracks 10 and 11 from 808s & Heartbreak (2008)
Tracks 12, 13 and 14 from My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010)
Tracks 15 and 16 from Yeezus (2013)
Tracks 17 and 18 from The Life Of Pablo (2016)
Track 19 from Ye (2018)
Track 20 from Jesus Is King (2019)

This week I angered lots of people on Twitter by suggesting that Kanye West doesn't have the single greatest discography in the whole huge incredibly rich genre of hip hop, which I didn't think was really a very harsh judgment, personally. And listen, I love some of these albums, but even my favorites have shortcomings. Two of my favorite Kanye albums have several minutes of skits -- and not good De La Soul-level skits, really stupid unfunny ones with zero replay value. It's the presence of things like those skits, and some overplayed singles I never really need to hear again, that made it fun to go back and pick out favorite songs and put them in a row here. 

A lot of what I enjoy about these songs is the way Kanye pulls together disparate elements and makes them feel like the natural, inevitable fabric of his own albums. Some of the greatest verses Cam'ron, Rick Ross, and Chance The Rapper ever recorded. Killer backup vocals from Charlie Wilson and Tony Williams and Ty Dolla Sign. Co-production from Jon Brion and Daft Punk. Samples of rare Bill Withers, a favorite Tears For Fears deep cut, Iranian singer Googoosh, Steely Dan, Aphex Twin, and countless others. Obviously, some of these songs are pretty famous and some of them got videos or were performed on TV, but still, I tried to get to the songs that really defined the albums for me that weren't big chart hits. 

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