''Can't Tell Me Nothing: The Official Mixtape'' is a mixtape by American hip hop artist

Kanye West Ye ( ; born Kanye Omari West ; June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and fashion designer. Born in Atlanta and raised in Chicago, West gained recognition as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records in the ea ...

. It was made freely available over the internet on May 27, 2007, in anticipation of the release of his third studio album, ''

Graduation Graduation is the awarding of a diploma to a student by an educational institution. It may also refer to the ceremony that is associated with it. The date of the graduation ceremony is often called graduation day. The graduation ceremony is a ...

''.

Background

The official mixtape was hosted by Kanye West alongside his A&R, Plain Pat. Overall, it is compiled of songs made by various artists signed onto West's G.O.O.D. Music label, collaborations with other unaffiliated musicians, and preview versions of certain songs that would later appear on ''

''. The mixtape was very well received and gave off several tracks that later became successful singles.

Reception

Stylus Magazine ''Stylus Magazine'' was an American online music and film magazine, launched in 2002 and co-founded by Todd L. Burns. It featured long-form music journalism, four daily music reviews, movie reviews, podcasts, an MP3 blog, and a text blog. Addi ...

awarded ''Can't Tell Me Nothing'' an A− rating and complimented it for expressing a high quality in comparison to most promotional mixtapes, claiming, "Even with a few duds, this might be the album of the year." On its general review of the mixtape, Stylus wrote, "''Can't Tell Me Nothing'' is one mixtape that should be legendary on its own, rather than piggybacking off its 'parent' album. It's as diverse as anything I've heard this year, both as intelligent and as stoopid as it wants to be (cf. " Us Placers" vs. " Throw Some D's (Remix)"), and gloriously so." Rock critic

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...

dictated, "Get this while you can from the mixtape man no matter how much of it is destined for the real album." URB wrote, "Although the scatterbrained way Kanye chooses to present himself will continue to face scrutiny and divide opinion, any critic would be hard pressed to deny his talent. Whatever persona he adopts, whether relatively restrained or unsurprisingly in your face, the artist rarely fails to engage." ''Can't Tell Me Nothing'' won "Mixtape of the Year" at the 2007 Vibe Awards.

Track listing

References

{{Kanye West Albums produced by Kanye West Kanye West albums 2007 mixtape albums

Background

Reception

Track listing

See also

References