One of the most ambitious hip-hop songs ever written. Kanye pitched a song about faith to every record executive. They all rejected it. He kept it. The result is a marching, cinematic call to spirituality that broke the "gangsta or club" binary.

Kanye goes at the backpacker rappers. “Givin' weasels a reason to pop shit / You little fuckboys, stop it.”

: Just two weeks after the accident, while his jaw was still literally wired shut, he recorded his breakout single. He rapped through the pain and the wires, sampling Chaka Khan’s "Through the Fire" to document his survival in real-time.