"proves he can flow with the best of them". Accolades HotNewHipHop placed it at number 48 on their list of West's 50 best songs. On Complex's list of his 100 best songs, the track was ranked at number 82. "Never Let Me Down" was listed by Billboard as being the second greatest Jay and Kanye collaboration in August 2011, post-release of their collaborative album Watch the Throne. Time named it the second best song of 2004. Legacy The video of West rapping "Never Let Me Down" to Pharrell from 2003 actually surfaced online within the same week as the tenth anniversary of The College Dropout and it was regarded as a classic track by this point. Ivy's appearance on it has been regarded as one of the most significant moments of his career. West's lyrics: "I get down for my grandfather/Who took my mama/Made her sit in that seat where white folks didn't want us to eat/At the tender age of six, she was arrested for the sit-ins/And with that in my blood, I was born to be different" were viewed by Spin in 2014 as showing "heavenly inspiration and scrappy determination", which was claimed for West to still be showing nine years later in his 2013 track "I Am a God". When Ben Westhoff of The Guardian published an article in April 2015 that ranked the album at number one in West's discography, the song was the end of what he called "as powerful a sequence as I've ever heard on record". Ivy blogged in celebration of The College Dropout 13th anniversary on February 10, 2017, and shared the original page with his lyrics scribbled down, alongside various notes. Personnel Information taken from The College Dropout liner notes. Songwriters: Kanye West, Shawn Carter, James Richardson, Michael Bolton, Bruce Kulick Record producer: Kanye West Recorders: Gimel "Guru" Keaton, Anthony Kilhoffer, Brent Kolanto, Jacelyn Parry, Rabeka Tunei Mix engineer: Manny Marroquin Keyboards: Ervin "EP" Pope Guitars: Glen Jefferey Certifications Cinematic version On March 22, 2005, The College Dropout Video Anthology was released, which features a bonus audio CD with a cinematic version of "Never Let Me Down" as a track on it. References External links "Never Let Me Down" lyrics at MTV 2004 songs Jay-Z songs Kanye West songs Song recordings produced by Kanye West Songs written by Bruce Kulick Songs written by Jay-Z Songs written by Kanye West Songs written