15 Things You Didn't Know About Kanye West's "The College Dropout"

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In the early part of his career, Kanye was known for his soul samples. On his debut, he sampled a whole range of classic artists including Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield, Aretha Franklin, and others. This might give you the impression that Kanye was a crate digger in the vain of someone like Pete Rock. But in reality, there was really just one crate Kanye dug through.

"Kanye wasn’t a big old record collector like that," said Hip Hop. "He didn’t have lots of old records. His girl's father gave him a crate of records that a lot of [samples on the album] came from." At the time Kanye was dating Sumeke Rainey. Sumeke actually voiced the girl on the song "Get Em High" who questions if Kanye knows Kweli. Kanye also makes a reference to Sumeke's father on "Never Let Me Down" rhyming, "Nothing sad as that day my girl's father passed away/So I promised to Mr. Rainey I'm gonna marry your daughter." 

One of the iconic images of Kanye's entire career is the Dropout Bear. Kanye was adamant about not having his face or any writing on the cover of The College Dropout, so he appeared dressed as the Dropout Bear mascot. The same bear also graces the cover of Late Registration and an animated version appears on the cover of Graduation.

However, according to Plain Pat, the bear was not part of any master plan—it happened by accident. “The bear just happened to be at the school where Def Jam had booked the photo shoot for the album," said Pat. "I don’t think the bear was [premeditated]. I don’t remember us bringing a bear, I don’t remember him asking for a bear either."

If anyone has spent a lot of time watching Kanye West, it's Coodie Simmons. A Chicago native, Coodie met a young Kanye and was convinced he was going to become a star. Soon Coodie became Kanye's videographer and followed him everywhere he went. Coodie was around to document studio sessions, label meetings, even dentist appointments. And according to Coodie, Kanye never wrote lyrics—ever. 

“I’d never seen him write no [lyrics] down," said Coodie. "I used to film him rapping so he could remember the verse because he didn’t write nothing down. So a lot of times I’d film him rapping and then show it back to him."

You might not know the name Tarrey Torae, but you probably know her voice. She sang on a number of cuts from The College Dropout, including "Family Business" (that's her singing "They don't mean a thang" towards the end). But she did more than just sing on that song, she actually helped write Kanye write it.

"Kanye was like, 'I need this to be about real-life family,'" recalled Tarrey. "I’m the oldest of 48 grandkids on my mom’s side and I'm in the middle of 36 grandkids on my father’s side. So when he said, 'I need material.' I was like, 'I got plenty of material.'" Tarrey went on to tell Kanye about taking baths with her cousins, sleeping six in a bed, and her auntie who was known for her bad cooking. In fact, at the end when Kanye says "Let's get Stevie out of jail," he's actually referring to Tarrey's godbrother. 

In the early 2000s, 50 Cent revolutionized the mixtape game and took the streets by storm. Back then, anyone who came through with a hot beat (like say, the beat for Scarface's "Guess Who's Back") knew it was only a matter of time before 50 and his G-Unit cohorts would take the beat and tear it up. The result was that all anyone wanted to talk about was 50's version (case in point, this "Funk Flex Freestyle"). And he wasn't the only one either, Dipset and D-Block followed suit and started jacking for beats like everyone else. To guard against this, Kanye took an extra precaution.

"We were like, ‘Yo, we’re not putting no instrumentals out,’" said Plain Pat. "We wouldn’t give them out to nobody—not even BET. They’d be like, ‘Oh, we wanna play it on this interview,’ and I’d be like, ‘NOPE. I’ll have to ask Kanye.’ We would make exceptions here and there, but we were fucking strict on that shit." 

After having unusued instrumental versions laying around his office for months, Plain Pat finally sold the vinyl to Fat Beats for a couple of grand. 

Ask someone what their favorite song is on The College Dropout, and it's pretty unlikely they'll say "Breathe In Breathe Out." Yet despite not being the most beloved cut on the album, it actually played a major role in the album's creation. Even after Kanye managed to get signed to Roc-A-Fella, Def Jam wasn't particularly excited for his project. In fact, according to Dame Dash, Lyor Cohen refused to open a budget for Kanye's album.

To make matters worse, there was an internal fued between Def Jam and Roc-A-Fella because Roc-A-Fella artists were racking up bills at their famed Baseline Studios with little accountability for what songs they were actually making. The dispute lead to Def Jam putting a freeze on all Roc-A-Fella artist's budgets, except for Jay Z. 

However, Kanye kept racking up bills while working at Record Plant in L.A. On a trip to New York, Kanye happened to be introduced to Lyor at the Def Jam offices and he proceeded to play Lyor his album. "Lyor Cohen went crazy for ‘Breathe In, Breathe Out,’" recalled Plain Pat. "Like, ‘This is my favorite one!’ We were like, ‘Check this ‘Jesus Walks’ one out.’ And he was like, ‘Don’t fuck it up Kanye. I only like this one.’" 

The very next day, Kanye's budget—and only Kanye's budget—was opened up again and he was able to complete the album.  

Kanye's near-fatal automobile accident really put his album in motion but it also lead to the partnership between Coodie Simmons and Chike Oza, who later formed the production team Creative Control. Kanye had hired Coodie to be his full-time videographer. After Kanye had his accident and recorded "Through The Wire," they came up with the concept of using the documentary footage Coodie had shot for the video for the song.

However, Coodie didn't know how to create the graphics to bring the idea to life so he called upon Chike, a guy he'd met before who worked at MTV. Since the video was funded by Kanye himself, they found a cheap way to edit the video: Do it at Chike's office. "History was made at MTV, right beneath their noses, and they didn’t even realize it," said Chike. "I was still working there when that video was No. 1 on MTV. I told my boss at the time, like, ‘Y’all don’t realize really what y’all have sitting in here right now.’"

Anyone who's read Kanye's album credits over the past few years has seen the name Mike Dean all over the place. Dean has been named as a co-producer on songs like "Niggas In Paris," "Stronger," and "On Sight." Dean has been in the game for years. He spent the '90s producing albums for many Rap-A-Lot Records artists, including Scarface and The Geto Boys.

In fact, Scarface is part of the reason why Kanye and Mike Dean started working together. After Kanye had produced two songs for Scarface's 2001 album, The Fix, according to Plain Pat, Kanye told him, "Whoever mixed those songs, I want them to mix my albums. Find them." Eventually, Pat linked with Mike Dean and got him to mix "Two Words." Thus began Kanye and Mike Dean's working relationship.

On Graduation's "Big Brother," Kanye rapped about his relationship with Jay Z. But he also revealed a few things we didn't know about their friendship, rhyming, "Big brother got his show up at Madison Square/And I'm like 'Yeah, yeah, we gon' be there'/But not only did I not get a chance to spit it/Carline told me I could buy two tickets." As it turns out, it was Kanye's manager Hip Hop who gassed him up about performing at MSG with Jay, but Hov said he wasn't ready for all that. When Hip Hop tried to offer Kanye his tickets, Kanye declined and instead went to the studio to record "Never Let Me Down." Eventually, at the last minute, Jay added his verses to the song—likely unaware of when Kanye put it together.

In 2003 and 2004, Dave Chappelle was the King of Comedy. Chappelle's Show was one of the funniest and most talked-about shows in America. Better yet, Dave was a hip-hop head at heart. His show featured both musical and comedic performances by Mos Def, Common, and on a couple of occasions, Kanye West. It seems like Kanye was looking for Dave to return the favor when he asked Dave to play Jesus in one of the three videos shot for his single "Jesus Walks." For whatever reason, Chappelle declined.

However, according to J. Ivy, when Kanye performed at Webster Hall in NYC after the album dropped, he and Coodie convinced Chappelle to don the bear costume on stage during the show—only to reveal himself at the end of the night. Kanye has since found somebody else to play Jesus.

There's so many great songs on The College Dropout, but the Consequence and GLC assisted "Spaceships" is something special. It's essentially the blue-collar anthem of the album on which all three rappers rhyme about the everyday struggle. But it turns out, it wasn't even Kanye's song to begin with.

The song started off when GLC asked Kanye to make him a song that could get radio airplay in Chicago. Kanye obliged and GLC laid his verse. But when Plain Pat heard the song, he urged Kanye to put it on his album. That was fine with GLC: "I was like, 'Cool, you signed to Def Jam; I’m signed to nobody. Let’s go.’" According to GLC, after the album came out he had five record deal offers on the table though he eventually decided to sign with Kanye.

There's always those tiny little details in songs that only music obsessives care about. John Legend's vocal presence on "Jesus Walks" is one of those things. "That part that kind of sounds like an exotic flute? That’s me singing through Auto-Tune," said John. Who knew?

When you're as meticulous as Kanye West, every detail counts. So much so that even the titles of songs were debated at length. In fact, the original title of the album opener "We Don't Care" was "Drug Dealing." But after some debate, the title was changed. "We wanted to go with a mainstream title," said Gee Roberson. "It wasn’t like a two-second conversation either; that was a real conversation [about that title] but obviously we made the right choice."

Although The College Dropout introduced Kanye to the world at large, it also helped reintroduce Consequence. Cons first rose to fame in the late '90s when he appeared all over A Tribe Called Quest's 1996 album, Beats, Rhymes and Life. But after a few record deals went sour, Consequence took a step back from the industry. After being introduced through mutual friend 88-Keys, Cons ventured out to New Jersey to meet Kanye. The two hit it off and formed an alliance where Cons would help Kanye with his raps and Kanye would bless Cons with his beats.

Things were going well for Kanye at the time as he kept producing hit songs for just about everyone in the industry. Meanwhile, although he was working with Kanye regularly, things hadn't popped off for Consequence—who was still working a job and hustling on the side (Kanye had to talk him out of that). However, Cons was still frustrated, so he decided to have some fun. "I was so tired of taking the train that I would steal Kanye's [G5 Benz Wagon] and go to Queens," said Consequence. "I’d come back and he be, ‘I thought you was going to the grocery store!’ I’d be like, ‘I did...in Queens.’"

When most people think of the cover of The College Dropout, they think of its original brown cover. But if you go to buy the album in stores now, you'll probably find it on shelves with its white cover. Why? Well, according to Plain Pat, after the album was remastered it was re-released with its white cover. "We remastered it four times to get it right," said Pat. "And it was so much later nobody even cared. [Laughs.] We were already working on the next album and there I was still approving roughs from the first album."