This album was the essential soundtrack for the fall of my senior high school year. The production and gospel arrangements are generally inoffensive. It's like an adjacent attempt at making The Life of Pablo again. This time, it's more focused but lacks the same grit.

Ye's approach to trying to understand his disability is hauntingly tragic. A self-fulfilling prophecy that leads to the inevitable destruction of a beloved artist.

Under a microscope, Life of Pablo is effortlessly brilliant, dishing out some the best of hip-hop songs of the 2010s. But Kanye seems to have lost his ability to make an album come together, barely keeping The Life of Pablo from being great in its packaging and presentation.

Usually I'm a sucker for a deconstruction of the egoic mind, but Kanye's ability to execute his story feels lacking. Still, Yeezus' production is an essential stepping stone for the eventual blossoming of experimental hip-hop.

Kanye and Jay-Z tightly intertwine their talents to demand you watch the throne. I find this record fascinatingly infectious and one of Kanye's best conceptual records in his discography. The provocatively named hit track about Ye and Jay being in Paris embodies the album's consistent idea about the violence and aggression that still occurs against African Americans, even for those who seemingly survive oppression by becoming like kings in the economy and culture of America.

Kanye's apparent beautiful, dark, and twisted fantasy gets a little too lost in its excessive adjectives to really understand what it's trying to say, leaving it to be one of Kanye's flimsiest attempts at a concept record. Despite this, it carries a few of the most iconic hip-hop songs in recent history. Dark Fantasy and POWER are instant classics, but tracks like Runaway and Blame Game are too full of themselves to be positive contributions to the record's overall pacing.

Props to Kanye for taking such a sonic risk at the height of his cultural buzz. This record is essential for the evolution of pop music, but the growing pains are a bit too much to bear.

People say, "He made Graduation!" for a reason. It's classic, it's iconic, but it's clear Kanye's original sound is starting to slip from novelty.

Kanye gets a little closer to perfection on the second part of the College Trilogy. It may not be as oddball with its wit, but the presentation is more focused with a consistent theme, easily making it my favorite of the trilogy.

Kanye West's debut is as hilariously charismatic as it is iconic. Hip-hop in the 21st century wouldn't be the same without this record.

"Eternity is the vastness that's within the small point." - Phil Elverum

Nick Drake is a still, small whisper in your ear, reminding you that God is infinite and that humanity can understand that idea in the simplest ways. Pink Moon pulls you in and allows you to sink deeper and deeper without traveling any distance.

"Because I said the worth of a thing is best proved by the work of it. And in this, my show. If you just tuned in. In this, my show, I have tried as much as possible to bring quality."

An effortless homerun for MIKE. He might just be the self-proclaimed Artist of the Century as he parades another high quality abstract hip-hop experience.

Burning Desire isn't about making fully fleshed-out hip-hop bops, it's about worldbuilding. MIKE comes through with his most excellent work yet, crafting an undeniably enchanting world of retro-African horror that pays homage to his ancestral roots. Burning Desire uses the symbol of a spirit-possessed mask for MIKE to divulge in his feelings of desire, passion, and even hatred about his existence and purpose. This isn't just about the music, it's about the experience.

MIKE steps outside his comfort zone to make some impressive and infectious raps with the assistance of Tony Seltzer.

MIKE contemplates what it might be like to be the greatest rapper alive while fully blossoming into the esoteric style that makes his music worth writing home about.

The origin of MIKE is more important than the sum of the sounds on this album. MIKE emphasizes the pain of his mother's death, which seems to inspire purpose in everything he does.

It's another kurtains EP, so I can't really complain.

There's some great tracks here, but as a complete record, it's not impressive enough to bat your eyes to.

This album feels so good, it's the best I've heard in its field.

Utopia is Travis Scott's most fascinating world, but simultaneously his most inconsistent.