All my friends who are Ye fans say his first three are his Holy Trinity. I can't knock his taste, because he doesn't feel the same way about my favorite artists so *shrugs*
Graduation is probably his worst album....not to get into list wars.
I think this goes back to the discussion on classics.
To me there's three types of classics. Fresh sound, perfecting of a sound and/or realizing a vision.
36 chambers was classic, cause it was fresh. Those classic Wu solo albums were all different variations of that sound, realizations of their individual visions (Rae's mob sound, GFK's energetic train off the tracks style). GFK went even further than that IMO. He had his take on the sound with Ironman and then evolved that sound again into SC and Fish scale.
College Drop Out was somewhat fresh and a great vision realized, Late Registration was that sound perfected. The Chronic was the G funk sound perfected, same with Doggy style.
Albums like Jay's Black Album aren't a breath of fresh air to me but it was a tight package, like a well paced movie. Similarly, I don't think GKMC was a sound revolution or the perfection of a particular sound or era but it's the realization of an awesome vision.
The whole 'did it change the game' thing to me is shakey ground as qualification for the classic label. Can a classic change the landscape? Of course. If you change the landscape does that make your album classic? Not necessarily. Need it change the landscape in order to be classic? I don't think so.
