Top 10 Best Kanye West Albums

Every song on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is crafted to the bone. The guests, from Jay-Z to Nicki Minaj to Bon Iver, are all at their best. Runaway alone is ten minutes long and feels like five seconds. MBDTF is the album where Kanye proved he wasn't just the best producer of his generation, but also an artist of the highest level. The absolute peak of his discography. Kanye West is an artist you can't separate from his controversies, but his music stands independently. From the soul of College Dropout to the rawness of Yeezus and the grandeur of MBDTF: his best work ranks among the most impressive hip-hop has ever produced. Start with MBDTF, then go to 808s & Heartbreak, and discover the rest at your own pace.

Chaotic, brilliant and never really finished. Kanye kept updating the album after it was released. Yet, or perhaps precisely because of that, The Life of Pablo feels like an honest document of an artist being pulled in all directions at once. Ultralight Beam, Famous and FML are highlights of his entire career. An album you can't contain, just like the maker himself.

The most polarizing album in his catalog. Yeezus is industrial, hard and deliberately inaccessible. No singles, no radio-friendly hooks, just raw sound and ego. Black Skinhead, New Slaves and Bound 2 are songs you either understand immediately or never will. Yeezus is the album where Kanye decided he didn't owe anyone anything anymore.

After the death of his mother, Kanye made an album full of auto-tune, synthesizers and sadness. It was poorly received at the time. In hindsight, it's one of the most influential albums of the 21st century: without 808s, there would be no Drake, no The Weeknd, no Post Malone. Heartless, Love Lockdown and Street Lights are both painful and beautiful. This album changed pop music.

Graduation chose stadium rock and electronic synths instead of samples and soul. Stronger, Good Life and Can't Tell Me Nothing are anthem after anthem. The album defeated 50 Cent in a direct sales battle and proved the direction of mainstream hip-hop had changed forever.

Bigger, more expensive and more ambitious than The College Dropout. Together with producer Jon Brion, Kanye made an album full of orchestral arrangements and sharp social commentary. Gold Digger, Heard 'Em Say and Gone are classics. Late Registration shows an artist who wants to push his own boundaries just after his debut.

Seven songs, twenty-four minutes. Ye is the most intimate album in his catalog, recorded in Wyoming shortly after a series of public statements that earned him enemies around the world. Ghost Town is one of the most beautiful songs he's ever made. Too short to judge, too good to ignore.

Kanye was a producer in 2004, not a rapper, and no one expected much from him behind the microphone. He proved everyone wrong. Through the Wire, Jesus Walks and All Falls Down showed he had a voice as interesting as his beats.

Two years of delays, multiple listening events and a release chaos only Kanye could conceive of. The result is a 27-song album that is at least ten songs too long. But the highlights like Jail, Hurricane and Come to Life are of the highest level. Donda is proof that even a messy Kanye album contains more substance than most artists ever create.