No that's exactly the point I'm trying not to make. It's too reductionist to just call MBDTF technical/perfectionist and pretend like it doesn't resonate emotionally just as much if not more than any of his other albums.

Strip back all the detailed, caring touches and if this was just a mixtape released by some no name artist with slightly worse production and no big features and it would be just as praised - but for for the sound, not the tabloid drama.

It's just that the whole concept is so well thought out that it overshadows (only a little bit, only sometimes) that core, underlying emotion.

Graduation was before the Yeezus persona. I don't think it's emotional resonance/intangibles/whatever you want to call it are better than MBDTF there's just less competing things to praise/hate about it /him. You focus purely on the music, soul and style.

MBDTF had an element of soap opera, most fans love it for the defiant response to criticism it embodies as much as what it is. It's the album that made a lot of people love Kanye not just Kanye's music.

The music stands as a great on it's own legs but it is important for so many other reasons that that emotion/music bit sometimes get underrated in the process. I didn't love it at first listen but it's grown with me. Every song has atleast 50 or 60 plays on my itunes and I rarely if ever listen to itunes, I normally have my phone/spotify/youtube for music. No other Kanye has so much staying power and repeat value. Very little music does.

You think of Graduation you think of this new sound and sincerity in hip hop. you think of MBDTF and you think of Kanye/Yeezus first, you think of defiance and passion in the face of criticism second, you think of the art third.