The College Dropout is the debut album by rapper and producer Kanye West, released February 10, 2004. It was nominated for Grammy Award for Album of the Year and won Best Rap Album and Best Rap Song for "Jesus Walks" in 2005. It was voted as the best album of the year by Rolling Stone magazine and in The Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics poll, was ranked #1 in Spin magazine's "40 Best Albums of the Year", and received a near-perfect 4.5 mic rating from The Source. The album has received great acclaim from critics and mainstream fans alike, for its balance of mainstream commercial appeal and its innovative subject matter. Comedian Chris Rock has attested to listening to The College Dropout while writing his material. In 2005, Pitchfork Media named it #50 in their best albums of 2000–2004.

In 2006, the album was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 best albums of all time.

The College Dropout reached #1 on Billboard's Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Chart, and reached #2 on the Billboard 200. In the UK, it peaked at #12 on the album chart and spent several months in the top 20.

The first single from the album, "Through the Wire", which features a Chaka Khan sample, peaked at #15 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart while its successor "All Falls Down", which features R&B singer Syleena Johnson, peaked at #7. The third single, "Jesus Walks", peaked at #11 while a fourth extract, "The New Workout Plan", made a minor impression on the R&B/Hip-Hop charts (see list of US Billboard chart positions below). In the UK, "Through The Wire" peaked at #9 on the singles sales chart, "All Falls Down" peaked at #10, and "Jesus Walks" peaked at #11.

"Through the Wire" was recorded by West while his mouth was wired shut after his near-fatal car accident in October 2002. The song describes his feelings at the time and the rehabilitation process following the accident ("I drink a Boost for breakfast, and Ensure for dizzert / Somebody ordered pancakes, I just sip the sizzurp"). The album went triple platinum in the United States.