One of the best starts of a song that I have on this list is the one that starts Jesus Walks. The pounding march of the soldiers, and the gospel humming and Kanye delivering one of the most poignant lyric in the rap world: “We’re at war. We’re at war with terrorism, racism, but most of all, we’re at war with ourselves.” Easily one of the most important popular songs to come out of this generation is Kanye’s first single from the phenomal College Dropout album. This song has highs and lows on an epic scale that people like Diddy have tried to replicate for a long time, but Kanye nails on this one song. Also for a Kanye song, it’s very low key in the self-boasting that he’s known for. It’s a social conscious song that bands like Public Enemy before him were known for. A song that is not afraid to ask the questions of the generation. In the 80’s it was racism and predujice, this time it’s about apathy and the out of control spiriling of the world. It’s humble and full of questions, but at the same time powerful and relevant. It mixes the power and spectacle of war and rap in general, with the social commentary and singing of gospel and jazz. Also it has a hell of a beat, and intense lyrics. I also believe that Kanye, with a string of amazing songs, will never top this. It’s beyond him now, this was when he was just starting to be popular, now I think he’s too much of a celebrity and a bigger than life person to lower himself enough to record something that moves as much as Jesus Walks.