Next week is the 10th anniversary of The College Dropout, Kanye West's dynamic debut album. I still think it's his best record, which I argued here, but right now I want us to remember what it was like to hear its opening single, "Through the Wire," for the first time. Not knowing any better, I thought that's how his voice sounded, all garbled and mumbly. (Nope: It was the result of a near-fatal car accident, which he sings about in the song.) The playful cockiness, the ego, the clever wordplay, the killer hook: "Through the Wire" had it all, setting the stage for everything he's done since.
