“Intro” sets up “We Don’t Care” as a song for children to sing as part of a graduation event “Graduation Day” features the fallout, with the school’s dean livid that West had written such an inappropriate song.
Several of the album’s tracks are preceded by skits that directly relate to a given concept in the following song, providing extra context for the song, usually in a humorous manner. His production style separated him from the rest of the pack early on, as well, with a penchant for manipulating samples of old soul tacks for a backing beat, usually tying his own lyrics into the samples he used. More often than not, however, West is more concerned with the status of African-Americans in America, on tracks like “All Falls Down” and “Spaceship,” alongside the sarcastic indulgence of “We Don’t Care” and the overt religious dedication that makes up “Jesus Walks.” West frequently notes that his lyrics are not what people had come to expect from hip-hop at the time, and prided himself in being a powerful alternative to artists like 50 Cent and his own mentor, Jay-Z. West led the charge in this new form of hip-hop, though he did allow himself to delve into that well once or twice throughout The College Dropout.
West was, of course, not always about self-aggrandizing he earned the right, so to speak, by clawing his way to the top of the hip-hop mountain, his music signaling a shift in the genre away from the aggressive gangsta-style rap of West’s predecessors, and more towards what was initially called “alternative” hip-hop, with an increased focus on social issues and more personal lyrics. Kanye West has always been hailed as a musical genius, even as his lyrics have slowly fallen more and more in line with his public persona with recent albums (topping out with the absolute ridiculousness of Yeezus).