At the time of the early 2000s, hip hop music was going through a change in mainstream artists. Southern rappers and Southern rap was becoming more and more prominent. Cities such as Atlanta, New Orleans, Memphis, Miami, and Houston were in the center of the new revolution, which started around the late 1990s. Southern rap centered around the topic of the “Dirty South”, containing lyrics talking about the racist and oppressive South with lines referencing slavery and other historical events that occurred in the South. This was what mainstream hip hop was becoming, but it wouldn’t stay that way for long.
September 11th 2007. The day Kanye West ended the firm grasp that Gangsta and Southern rap had over mainstream. Staying with his education-theme,
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And he is consistent with the quality of his songs. Starting with track one, “Good Morning”, West combines a somewhat slow and uplifting beat to match lyrics talking about his ascension into stardom. But that trend doesn’t stay for long as the next track “Champion” contains more of a jazz and reggae influence. On this track he speaks a lot on how he used to have little to no money and then how he now has much more. When he raps "I shop so much I can speak Italian" on "Champion", it 's he 's showing that since he has enough money to shop all around the world. The feel of the album transitions to a more electronic vibe on “Stronger”. Where West samples French electronic music duo Daft Punk’s “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger”. Overall the songs all mesh well together to create a project that never lacks originality and never becomes bland and stale. Overall where the album truly stands out is in Kanye West 's production work, and his ability to bring many different elements together is new and refreshing from the stage of gangsta that hip hop was in before. While it may not be his best album ever especially with his later albums such as “808s and Heartbreak” (2008), “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” (2010), and “Yeezus” (2013). It by far paved the way for more hip hop artists to expand their horizons into less traditional genres and experiment with new