Best Kanye West Albums

The Top Ten
1 My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

Timeless compilation of art. This is when rap experimented with alternate sounds, including rock, and it went perfectly. The inspirational album that moved hip hop miles ahead, even remaining amazing till this day. Kanye could've just made this album and become an all-time legend. It is the pinnacle of hip hop albums. Forget Tupac and Biggie. Lyricism has never been this entertaining. My favourite album. Kanye is the illest sound engineer, just because of MBDTF.

This is Kanye's best album. Furthermore, I think it is the best hip hop album of all time. He goes so in-depth on his life struggles so much so that you feel like you are inside the mind of Kanye West in 2010. Also, some of Kanye's best songs are on this album, such as: Gorgeous, Power, All of the Lights, Monster, Devil in a New Dress, Runaway, Hell of a Life, Blame Game, Lost in the World.

2 College Dropout

Imagine being anything other than a bling rapper in 2004. That's what Kanye was, and he was a breath of fresh air.

The perfect crossover between the conscious backpack rappers and the bling rappers. You could flex and be self-conscious, Ye proclaimed.

This is one of my favorite albums. It's pretty underrated because of MBDTF, Graduation, or 808s and Heartbreak but because his discography is so great, I can't even be mad. My favorite songs are The New Workout Plan and All Falls Down. True masterpiece.

His first project. I remember getting it back in 2004, back when I was like "dude, this guy is gonna blow up," and everyone was saying "who the hell is Kanye West?"

My top 5:
Through The Wire
Never Let Me Down
Jesus Walks
All Falls Down
Two Words

3 Graduation

This is actually the first Kanye album I listened to, and I immediately was hooked because of Kanye's use of samples and melodies. This is also my favorite album from him.

"Now that that don't kill me
Can only make me stronger
I need you to hurry up now
'Cause I can't wait much longer"

Best Kanye album far and away.
I miss the old Kanye.

Personally, my favorite album, from Good Morning to Stronger and Can't Tell Me Nothing and coming to a close with Barry Bonds and Homecoming. It's great!

4 Late Registration

While so many other hip hop artists stayed formulaic, Kanye was busy bringing orchestral and baroque instrumentation to his music.

Watch the Late Orchestration live album filmed at Abbey Road Studios to get the experience of hip hop with a live string section. It was different and refreshing in 2005.

I grew up with Graduation. I loved it, and it was my favorite album. Until I heard this one, and I fell in love with every single song. This is one of those albums that you can listen to all the way through without skipping any tracks.

5 808s & Heartbreak

This is one of Kanye's most important progressive influential albums, but I don't think his singing was good enough to support a whole album of it.

My Top 5:
1. Welcome to Heartbreak
2. Street Lights
3. Coldest Winter
4. Heartless
5. Amazing

Robocop and Paranoid are also catchy.

An emotional masterpiece. Those final four songs are extremely deep emotionally and incredibly impactful on millions of people. Also extremely influential on so many modern rap artists. This might be his best, not for the grandiosity or lyricism, but for the emotion and vulnerability. MBDTF doesn't even compare.

6 The Life of Pablo

It seemed so messy when it first came out, but as of right now, with Jesus is King and Ye being his most recent projects, we can probably say TLOP is his last true masterpiece before dropping two of the first mediocre albums of his life.

Pretty messy, experimental, schizoid, raw project. Replayed it a lot.

My top 5:
FML
Father Stretch My Hands
Wolves
Real Friends
Highlights

Props to Ultralight Beam, Waves, Fade, and No More Parties in LA. Lots of good songs on this one.

This album is very underrated in my opinion. It was actually a pretty good album. It does have its flaws, but there are good things about it too. I think it's a 7/10. My favorite tracks are Ultralight Beam, Wolves, Real Friends, FML, and No More Parties in LA.

7 Yeezus

1. Blood on the Leaves
2. Guilt Trip
3. Black Skinhead
4. New Slaves
5. I'm In It
6. I Am A God
7. Hold My Liquor
8. Send It Up
9. On Sight

Don't even bother listening to Bound 2. Other than that, brilliant album, tight call between all the tracks. Amazing experimental vibe, superb production value, memorable lyrics.

The first half of this album is groundbreaking genius. It falls off in the second half but Yeezus stays his boldest and most experimental work, bringing in industrial hip hop influences (he probably listened to Death Grips at the time). MBDTF may be his best work, but this one is second to me.

8 Watch the Throne

Agreed! Definitely underrated. Jay-Z and Kanye made one of the best rap duo albums of all time!

Hey guys, vote for it. It should be number 1.

The song about the people in Paris is the best rap song of all time.

9 Kids See Ghosts

When it comes to the best Kanye album, even though this is a collab with Cudi, it comes down to this and MBDTF. Both are great, and they're tied in my opinion. But this one is just too underrated, with its psychedelic bliss and themes of not just overcoming one's inner demons, but, especially in Kanye's part, embracing them as part of who you are.

10 Ye

Yeezus and Ye are my choices. I chose Ye since I wanted to give it a boost on this page.

Raw and personal. His most underrated.

The Contenders
11 Donda

Give it some time. Eventually, this will surpass Ye and Jesus is King in the rankings as it should. A return to the 'grand spectacle'-like feeling Kanye's releases often feel like, which we haven't gotten since Life of Pablo.

12 Cruel Summer

It actually is a decent album. I had to listen to it a second time to appreciate it. Only two tracks that I can never get used to are Don't Like and To the World.

At least the tracks that Kanye appears on are fantastic. That's six of them: New God Flow, Cold, Don't Like, Mercy, Clique, and To the World.

Good album, surely not bad, but just not up there with the others.

13 Jesus is King
14 SWISH
15 Waves
16 Get Well Soon
17 Vultures 1
18 Yandhi
19 Donda: With Child
20 Donda 2
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