The Best Kanye West Albums Ranked: The Vinyl Collectors List (2023)
Kanye West has taken on more hats than any other rapper on the planet since breaking out on the hip-hop scene with Slow Jamz about 20 years ago. But he didn’t always have an easy path to success. He battled for signings until landing deals with Roc A Fella Records and Def Jam Recordings. No hip-hop record collection, nor vinyl collection, would be complete without at least one Kanye record, despite the fact that in 2022 he made it even harder by releasing Donda 2 only on Stem Player. Many people are still eagerly awaiting fresh releases, though. So this is the ideal opportunity to relax, drop a needle, and reacquaint ourselves with his extensive vinyl back catalogue and ensuring your collection is rounded out with an album by Ye.
Kanye West is unquestionably one of the most highly regarded Hip-hop musicians of all time, having sold more than 160 million records and winning 24 Grammy Awards. In addition, American rapper is well-known for his controversies, pop persona, clothing line (most notably the Yeezy sneakers), and a variety of other things.
There is no middle ground when it comes to Kanye West; you either love him or you hate him. Most people would find it difficult to minimise West’s accomplishments as a musician, despite the fact that he consistently damages his reputation.
Eleven studio albums, two compilation albums, four mixtapes, and one video album are among the discography of this American rapper and record producer. One could argue that the mysterious producer-turned-rapper is among the most significant modern artists working today, and his body of work speaks for itself. West began his professional life as a producer in the music industry.. As news of his futuristic approach to beatmaking spread, he quickly moved up the hip-hop food chain. West was able to become one of the most sought-after producers in the world thanks to this approach. Even though he had great success in the office, West’s ultimate goal was to become a rapper. Despite people’s reservations about his ability to make the transition, West did it with apparent ease.
Kanye is an artist who has repeatedly shown that you can never write off a great innovator, even though his most recent releases have been a little off the mark, critically and commercially, as this list refers to. Fans adored and appreciated his authenticity after 2004’s College Dropout. West consistently creates albums that are ooze with artistic honesty and are always challenging. Both ardent supporters and fervent detractors have praised his creative and frequently boundary-pushing manner. However, there is no doubting that West is a musical force to be feared. His discography is a crucial addition to any collection for vinyl fans. His debut album, The College Dropout, instantly became a classic thanks to its soulful production, sampled sounds, and tragic and hilarious lyrics. The highly acclaimed Late Registration, which saw West experimenting with new sounds and expanding the definition of what rap might be, came next.
2008’s 808s & Heartbreak is maybe Kanye West’s most divisive album. West abandoned traditional rapping for auto-tuned crooning on this experimental album, creating a sound that was unheard of in hip-hop. While some fans objected to the change in sound, others applauded West for taking such a risk.
Whatever your feelings on Kanye West, he is unquestionably one of the most significant and influential figures in hip hop right now and his discography is a crucial component of any collection for vinyl enthusiasts.
Counting down from 10, these are the best Kanye West albums to add to your vinyl collection.
10 Best Kanye West Albums Ranked
10. JESUS IS KING (2019)
A year after Ye’s darkness, West experienced an evident religious reawakening. Kanye’s strange move to the realm of Christian hip-hop made choosing tenth place on this list simple. Whatever you may think, the record doesn’t quite have the same impact as the rest of his work. At the Billboard Music Awards, the album won for Top Christian album and Top Gospel album, therefore it’s safe to conclude that the artist’s second (or, based on his discography, 12th) coming is soon to be released. Jesus is King has similar problems to DONDA; it doesn’t feel entirely finished. One of Kanye’s most epic and triumphant tracks, “Use This Gospel” had the potential to be both. The album has its moments in the spotlight, despite the record’s absence of percussion. The guitar line in “Water” is hypnotic and transports you, while “Follow God” is classic soul. On the album, there are few spots where West displays production brilliance, but most of the time, he misses the mark. In general, it has the least amount of replay value of any Ye album.
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9. DONDA (2021)
The album “Donda” combines the raucous contemporary blare of “Yeezus” with the joyous Gospel melancholy of “Jesus Is King.” Surprisingly, Donda features 27 tracks that last for an hour and 48 minutes, plus four “pt 2” remixes. In Donda, Kanye West considers how his relationship with God helps him to be a little more reflective. The LP’s enormous tracklisting (27 songs), lengthy playing time (just under two hours), abundance of features and team-ups, and expansive scope make it somewhat difficult to handle. Later on in the album, several songs feature second portions, and the overall sound spans from the autotune pop of 808s and Heartbreaks to the minimal, bare-bones edge of Yeezus. The album would have benefited significantly from being cut down, with the excess of guests being replaced by Kanye honed in on his relationship with his mother.
Donda is a lot, to start with. Unruly production, too many tracks, and slurred voices. However, there’s something triumphant-feeling about the album.. Songs like “Heaven and Hell,” “Praise God,” and “Jesus is Lord” skilfully blend secular and religious elements in a way that Ye hadn’t done before. One of the best hits songs is “Hurricane.” The chef’s kiss is the Lauryn Hill sample from “Believe What I Say.” DaBaby and Marilyn Manson are both featured in the song “Jail, Pt. 2,” which some people perceive as a protest against the cancel culture. Despite all the ambiguity, Kanye’s infamous joke bars hit Donda hard. But compared to his previous two albums, he raps much better on songs like “Lord I Need You” and “Off the Grid.” The songs “Believe What I Say,” “Pure Souls,” and “Hurricane” sound like genuine smashes that have received more radio play than he has in years.
Whether you like it or not, Donda will always be linked to the album’s release because its advertising activities literally shaped how the album was created. The plot is now well known to everyone: After hosting a release party in Atlanta, Kanye continued to work on the album underground in Mercedes-Benz Stadium rather than releasing it straight away. Ye and his team proceeded to make revisions to the album for weeks, paying great heed to fan comments and even asking members of a Kanye West fan Discord community about tiny changes to particular tracks. Eventually, they had three livestreamed listening parties before releasing the album. As he went through various takes of each song and switched up the sequencing, he allowed listeners in on the creative process. Donda’s legacy will be linked to its public rounds of alterations before its release, unlike The Life of Pablo, which will be remembered for the changes Kanye made after releasing it on streaming services.
So, was the experiment successful? Sort of. It serves as a sort of comeback album for Kanye. He is rapping significantly better than he did on his previous two albums, Ye and Jesus Is King, on tracks like “Lord I Need You” and “Off the Grid.” Additionally, he gets the best verses from his fellow artists, including outstanding contributions from Jay Electronica and Fivio Foreign. And the production is superb throughout, just like on every other Kanye album. Simply said, Donda has really high highs. However, the absence of editing is where the record falls short. Kanye decided not to condense the album’s tracklist after holding all of the focus group listening sessions. Instead, he provided all of his music to the public, including alternate takes of four songs. Due to this, the album contains a few skips (“24” and “Tell the Vision” among them), and at almost two hours, it occasionally loses its concentration. Yet Donda is a fantastic album that demonstrates what Kanye is still capable of, but its shortcomings prevent it from rising to the top of his discography.
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8. YE (2018)
“Ye” represented Kanye at his most erratic. Visiting the hospital. Bipolar disorder diagnosis. Exile in Wyoming. A lean yet gorgeous project was the result of those Wyoming recording sessions. Ye only has a running time of a little over 23 minutes, but West packs a lot of passion and fire into it at the start before losing the momentum and lurching into mediocrity. There are parts of the album that may have been made into a masterpiece; yet, ultimately, Ye veers too far into self-indulgent terrain. “No Mistakes” and “Yikes” are blistering efforts.
Artists who venture into this realm have produced some legendary records, but the high-risk approach doesn’t always pay off. Ye has no quality filter, and the album’s last tracks, “Ghost Town” and “Violent Crimes,” show this.
The album as a whole feels much longer than it actually is, and that is never a good thing. “Ye” remains in the bottom half of the rankings due to its length and the absence of any truly outstanding songs.
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7. 808’s & Heartbreaks (2008)
Before releasing “808s & Heartbreak”, West had a mouthwatering trifecta of records in his arsenal. With his fourth record, though, West took a chance that mainly paid out. He continued to move on and created an album that would shape hip-hop for the ensuing ten years. West’s canon is so strong, nevertheless, that it will have to settle for seventh place.
There is no denying the record’s brave aim and, of course, the fact that it began a new chapter in his career. West wanted to play with melody since he no longer wanted to solely rap; yet, 808s & Heartbreak would herald the beginning of an exciting era for Kanye rather than its apex.
The twelve songs on 808s & Heartbreak, which he describes as “therapeutic,” deal with the difficulties of loneliness, bereavement, and pain. Some of the singles on 808s are suitable for radio, but the majority of it is rather peculiar. While some people may not enjoy it, others who have listened to it several times will be awed by West’s brilliance.
The Roland TR-808 drum machine, which is heard throughout the entire album, served as the inspiration for the title. Key tracks on 808s & Heartbreak include Heartless, Say You Will, and Love Lockdown. With a mix of talking, rapping, and harmonies, West’s vocals are warm and emotive. To make his tracks, Kanye frequently combines sounds like vocal samples, percussion rhythms, and electronica.
Although 808’s stands out in Kanye’s legacy, it once again demonstrates his capacity to evolve with each new endeavour. Kanye spent months or even years incubating his first three albums, plagued by frequent delays and protracted sessions of editing and reediting tracks. 808s, on the other hand, was conceived, recorded, and released in under three weeks. The outcomes caused some controversy among both critics and listeners, but the sombre, brooding 808s & Heartbreak is still a must-have record, if only to commemorate this pivotal moment in Ye’s career.
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6. THE LIFE OF PABLO (2016)
In some ways, “The Life of Pablo” may be viewed as Yeezus’ sister album. This 2016 West album is even messier than its predecessor and manages to be both purposefully challenging to listen to and still contain a number of jewels. On the album, West pushes boundaries once more, and songs like “No More Parties in LA” are right up there with anything he’s ever produced. The record does, however, have an inevitable coherence because West takes great pleasure in making it as twisted as possible—divine one minute, gloomy as hell the next. The Life of Pablo has a casual vibe to it due to his propensity to never finish anything. He never stayed put when the album was being recorded. However, despite the fact that the entire album was not yet finished, Kanye held a listening party at Madison Square Garden in February 2016 and charged the fans $160 per ticket to attend.
Fans were perplexed by the album’s title and wondered which “Pablo” Kanye was alluding to. Picasso? Escobar? But in reality, it was Paul the Apostle. Prior to the album’s release, West compared himself to one of Jesus’ 12 disciples who rose to fame as a well-known advocate for Christianity in a series of tweets. Although it was nothing new for West to compare himself to historical figures, pointing out a similarity in the guy he referred to on Twitter as “the most powerful messenger of the first century” undoubtedly raised some eyes.
Back to the album, The Life of Pablo has 20 songs and lasts for 66 minutes. The most notable songs include Wolves (Feat. Sia, Caroline Shaw, and Frank Ocean), FML (Feat. The Weeknd), Waves (Feat. Chris Brown), Ultra Light Beam (Feat. Chance the Rapper), and No More Parties in LA (Feat. Kendrick Lamar).
I predict that this one will spark the greatest controversy. Many of the younger Kanye fans, in my observation, rank Pablo rather high on their lists. In my opinion, TLOP represents the period in Kanye’s career that the old Ye left and the new Ye emerged. I do enjoy this album. Don’t misunderstand me. To me, “Ultralight Beam,” “30 Hours,” and “Father Stretch My Hands” are all masterpieces. ON A KANYE TRACK, WE FOUND MADLIB AND KENDRICK. Why not adore it? Just bloated, that’s all. There is no need for songs like “Frank’s Track,” “Silver Surfer,” “Lowlights,” or “I Miss the Old Kanye.” The album has won many over subsequently, but as we move down the list, it is nowhere near the best Kanye West albums.
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5. YEEZUS (2013)
Prior to the release of Yeezus, West was the biggest music star on the planet, and he demonstrated with this album why he was the most infamous. He invited artists from all corners of the musical spectrum to work on Yeezus, including James Blake, Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, Travis Scott, Frank Ocean, and many others, who all contributed to the success of this genre-defying composition. On the album, West demonstrated his continued ability to be innovative and to set the standard for all other musicians. West exhibited a brand-new side and embraced a more aggressive sound than ever before, which divided opinion and was even viewed as commercial suicide by some because there was no conventional radio hit on the album. Yet Kanye West’s indulgent side drastically paid off because he was aware that the days of radio were quickly going away.
Yeezus marked the start of Kanye’s new era. The irate Kanye who aimed to shatter the industry’s glass ceiling. The Kanye who had just released ” My Beautiful, Dark, Twisted Fantasy” (a phenomenal album), wanted to create music that required effort to comprehend. ‘You can’t control me’, Kanye’s mission statement at the time was laid out in songs like “Black Skinhead” and “New Slaves.” Kanye’s best work may be “Blood on the Leaves” and “Guilt Trip” is by far the most under-appreciated song he has ever released.
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4. LATE REGISTRATION (2005)
We are now approaching the core of the list of the Best Kanye West Albums. Could “Late Registration” be the best second album in a performer’s catalogue? Quite likely. The storyline from “The College Dropout” is continued in Kanye’s follow-up album featuring 21 tracks and clocking in at just over 70 minutes. Some of West’s biggest songs are on this album, including “Gold Digger,” “Heard em Say,” and “Touch the Sky.” It’s hard to imagine the pressure on Kanye to try to surpass the success of The College Dropout, but Late Registration is a stunning work of art even though many don’t think he did.
Thanks in part to West’s collaboration with producer Job Brion, this Kanye West album is more mature than his first album The College Dropout and debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. The production is more in-depth and wonderfully arranged. Above all, the multi-platinum album included performers like Jamie Foxx, Adam Levine, Nas, The Game, Common, Jay-Z, and Nas. This album is elevated even further by tracks like the Grammy-winning “Diamonds from Sierra Leone,” the number-one, platinum-selling “Gold Digger,” the gold-selling “Heard ‘Em Say (feat. Adam Levine),” and “Touch the Sky” (feat. Lupe Fiasco). Kanye West also achieved his first Billboard Hot 100 #1 with “Gold Digger,” which he held for nine weeks.
More so than he did on his debut album, Kanye grows musically and lyrically on this record. In addition, he demonstrated maturity and the real deal. Late Registration is a masterclass from West that is dopamine-inducing and will take you on a thrilling voyage that is hard to come by as a listener.
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3. GRADUATION (2007)
“Graduation”, one of the best Kanye West albums, has 13 songs and lasts for almost 51 minutes, and will be found within the top rankings of all Kanye albums. Graduation also remains the best selling Kanye West album to date. Kanye’s artistic influence is undeniably extremely great across the entire record. The mega successful song “Stronger”, which has a heavier electronic feel, heavily samples the vocals from Daft Punk’s Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger. Both “Flashing Lights” and “Can’t Tell Me Nothing” sound fantastic together. On the other side, others claim that this album established the direction hip-hop went after gangsta rap was put an end to. More synthetic sounds are combined with soulful samples, pianos, horns, powerful basses, and a variety of backing vocals by Kanye, each of which adds something distinctive to the record.
Kanye is at his most powerful on Graduation; not yet scarred by his own deeds or the environment around him. Confident but exposed. Thrilled, but still ravenous. Arena status. Although Graduation was a great hit, its music was much more impressive. The track “Good Life” is another among a long list of hits and standards as well as massively uplifting songs like “The Glory”, and soulful classics like “Everything I Am.”
Notably, Curtis by 50 Cent and Graduation were both released simultaneously. Both albums broke sales records as a result of the competition, although West ultimately sold more copies. This victory represented Kanye’s ultimate victory against the “gangsta” rap stigma that had constrained him in the beginning of his career. The album covers created by Takashi Murakami are still recognisable today, and the lyrics often contain humorous puns. To be clear, the production of this record is what truly jumps out. The legacy of this album ages well.
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2. THE COLLEGE DROPOUT (2004)
Before we get to “The College Dropout” there’s a bit of background. Late in the 1990s, Kanye West started making a name for himself as a producer. After helping out on Jay-Z’s “The Blueprint” in 2001, he steadily ascended to the top of the beat scene. West still had trouble getting a record deal since he didn’t fit the standard mould of the era’s rappers (think DMX and 50 Cent). Before requesting to buy The College Dropout’s beats to use with other rappers, label executives would request to hear the tracks that would later make up the album’s core. After shopping his album around, West decided to sign with Roc-A-Fella in order to keep from changing labels. Despite the rocky beginnings of their collaboration, both parties later reaped the rewards by producing a four-time Platinum album and one of the most important rap records of the twenty-first century.
After Kanye’s debut solo album, The College Dropout was published with 21 tracks and a runtime of 76 minutes. One of Kanye Wests best albums, songs like “All Falls Down” and “Jesus Walks” began to play on the radio and the album went on to sell over 3.3 million copies. It received 10 nominations for the 2005 Grammy Awards, winning three (Best Rap Album, Best Rap Song, “Jesus Walks,” and Best Rap Collaboration, “Slow Jamz feat. Twista and Jamie Foxx”). Killer tracks include “Two Worlds” and “Never Let Me Down”. The project provided hip-hop a new voice in addition to outstanding accolades and album sales.
Without a question, Kanye West’s The College Dropout is a fantastic album that is at the top of any list, and is a must-have for a vinyl collection. Not many artists could debut with a record like this. Due to the wide range of directions that The College Dropout opened for musicians, it is difficult to pinpoint its singularity throughout the history of hip-hop. Even after 18 years, it continues to be a classic.
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1. MY BEAUTIFUL, DARK, TWISTED FANTASY (2010)
No matter what genre of music you prefer, “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” is widely regarded as the definitive Kanye album and the diamond in the crown of any vinyl collection and features some of Kanye West’s best songs. The record captures Kanye at his best: confident but sensitive, extravagant but grounded, and using rigors production methods that occasionally give way to moments of bare candour. The outcome? A flawlessly produced, no-skip masterpiece of an album. If you have any doubts about Kanye West’s genius, you have probably already quit reading; but, if you still have any doubts, this album will satisfy your curiosity.
It’s all too usual these days for West to speak the talk rather than walk the walk. However, he clearly delivers the goods in this instance. The album has a subtextually biblical atmosphere, as West shatters conventional boundaries on each and every one of its brilliant tracks. Undoubtedly, it is a pop album, but like all the best pop music, Kanye wasn’t actively seeking commercial success; instead, the chart had migrated to him.
It’s a swaggering effort that still serves as the barometer for his career and represents the development of West’s changing sound over the course of his first four records. This show-stopping piece of art went on to become Kanye’s magnum opus.
According to reports, the song “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” cost $3 million to produce and features actual strings, horns, and top-tier guest performers including Jay-Z, Beyonce, Alicia Keys, and Bon Iver. After the infamous VMA event, he felt like he had something to prove. He lost the public’s trust that he had gained. What did he then do? He produced one of the greatest hip-hop albums ever.
Kanye threw himself into the music wholeheartedly while holed up in a Hawaii recording studio alongside the hip-hop greats who had inspired him, like RZA, Q-Tip, Pete Rock, and his most alluring contemporaries, including Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj, and even Jay Z. His goal was to create an unquestionable work of art that would transcend all of his alleged errors and re-establish his importance to the culture. He was successful, too. His twisted story is articulated in My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, which also lines up and briefly addresses all of his critics and opponents. His is a skill that must be dealt with, a talent we must appreciate and be grateful for, as the album’s unashamedly triumphal first single “Power” makes clear. On “Gorgeous” and “Lost in the World” (and its outro), he goes deeper into his sentiments of rejection and alienation from America, musing more generally on the social milieu that expelled him before veering back to himself and his private life. Kanye’s most monstrous inclinations are humanised as he sorts out his love through songs like “Runaway” and “Blame Game,” which straddle the line between the crude and the refined, the frank and the grotesque.
In an interview with the New York Times prior to the release of the album “Yeezus,” Kanye referred to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy as “my big, backhanded apology” and “the album where I gave people what they wanted.”
We could go on and on discussing all the wonderful things about this record, but we don’t have that much time. Nothing else has a similar sound. No other item ever will. It has some of West’s best production, rapping, and presentation.
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Okay, that’s it. Add his vinyls to your cart, get spinning and play each of these albums in order now. If you’re a careful purchaser, stream Kanye West on Spotify before deciding which vinyl records to add to your collection!
Let me know what you think about this ranking or albums in general, leave a comment below!
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