Last album was very overrated. And he has only become truly high profile recently, before he was only known in Rap circles, with his last two albums he has now transcended that.
I should have said after Gradutation actually, and i don't rely on Rock publications like Pitchfork and Rolling Stones to tell me anything about rap.
The last album was a work of genius in my opinion, the best album of 2010, but each to their own. From what I've seen of your posts you know your hip hop, but we all have our own tastes.
However, that secondary point is just utter nonsense. Come off it mate, everybody, and I mean everybody, non rap fans included, have known about Kanye since at least Gold Digger and that was on Late Registration and released as a single in 2005, two years before Graduation. Gold Digger was number one in the US, number one in the UK, it was massive, everybody singing it, referring to it and quoting it, downloading it (it broke a record for the most digital downloads in a week and was also the fastest selling digital download of all time back then) and buying it. It was 2005's second-longest running number one on the Billboard Hot 100 at ten weeks, nominated for Record of the Year at the 2006 Grammy Awards and won the award for Best Rap Solo Performance. Kanye became a household name off the back of that record - even though loads of music fans had been on his first album and tunes like Jesus Walks and Through The Wire before that.
