Once heavily criticized, Kanye West's 2008 album has stood the test of time and still influences music today
By: Gio Mio
I am one of the biggest Kanye West fans you'll meet. From the instant my cousin gave me his College Dropout in the summer of 2004 to burn to my iTunes library, I was hooked on his music. I forced my father to buy me Late Registration the day it came out, and then downloaded Graduation to my library once it dropped.
In the year of 2008, the "Chi-town dude with a nice flow" seemed to have changed. In a series of events that included the loss of his mother and breakup to his then-fiancee, West channeled his inner sadness and released the album 808s & Heartbreak. The album was recorded in a very short amount of time during West's depression phase, and sounded like he was losing the mojo that made him one of hip-hop's best artists.
West dropped the chipmunk-sampled instrumentals and meaningful lyrics for an 808s machine and saturated use of autotune. The message of the album seemed clear that Kanye's suffering was meant to be the listener's gain. Lyrics about how his family showed pictures of their kids while Kanye's showing off his new car gave people an inside look at what Kanye really felt. A man lost in the fame he once thirsted for who yearned to be a family man. Struggling between his astronomical ego and the true feelings in his heart hidden by lyrics from previous albums saying you can't tell him what to do.
808s & Heartbreak received some harsh criticisms when it first released. Some of the biggest flaws seemed to be how West went from three arguably classical hip-hop albums to moaning over 1980s inspired instrumentals with vocally enhanced technology. During the promotion of the album's release, Kanye still seemed fresh to this new idea he was creating in such a short span. The original version of "Love Lockdown" revealed that Kanye's voice was so bad during those takes, even the autotune couldn't pitch correct it. He was also accused of stealing the idea off of T-Pain, who back during that time, was the artist that brought the autotune officially into the mainstream.
In hip-hop's biggest gamble of the new century, Kanye West's decision to let his guard down for the world to hear makes 808s & Heartbreaks one of rap's biggest celebrations. Before this album was released, expressing your feelings in music was normally for R&B artists. Mainstream rap was more of a mixture of gangster rap, Houston chopped and screwed, and complex lyricism from knowledge rappers like Common and Blackstar. About a year after 808s & Heartbreak released, a young Toronto rapper named Aubrey Graham released a mixtape called So Far Gone. One of the standout tracks was "Say What's Real," which is the instrumental from 808s & Heartbreak's "Say You Will." Graham, AKA Drake, is the most popular rapper today, and has credited this Kanye West instrumental for bringing out his real emotions.
It's not just Drake that this Kanye West album has touched in today's mainstream rap. Rappers from Kid Cudi and Young Thug to Future credit 808s & Heartbreak for their respective sounds. Lil Wayne's appearance on the album's track "See You In My Nightmares" started his ascendence to using autotune more (although I can argue this was a bad thing). Working with Kanye also gave The Weeknd a taste of that simplistic production when he released "Can't Feel My Face" last year, which turned out to be one of the biggest hits in 2015.
This album has nearly broken the wall between both R&B and hip-hop. Most R&B artists like Chris Brown and Trey Songz debuted in the mid-2000s as soul singers. After 2008, they started to rap more and have both become two of the popular faces in modern music. Along with Drake, PartyNextDoor and Bryson Tiller are new artists with similar production and sing-song flows that bold resemblance to a 2008 version of Kanye.
808s & Heartbreak shattered the walls of the hip-hop stereotypical and turned it into a hybrid of many sounds. It made it cool for rappers to express their "soft side" and at least attempt to try and sing. It took the simple booms of an 808 bass and stretched its boundaries more than it was used before. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is considered West's "magnum opus," but 808s & Heartbreak has shown the strongest lasting power.
I am one of the biggest Kanye West fans you'll meet. From the instant my cousin gave me his College Dropout in the summer of 2004 to burn to my iTunes library, I was hooked on his music. I forced my father to buy me Late Registration the day it came out, and then downloaded Graduation to my library once it dropped.
In the year of 2008, the "Chi-town dude with a nice flow" seemed to have changed. In a series of events that included the loss of his mother and breakup to his then-fiancee, West channeled his inner sadness and released the album 808s & Heartbreak. The album was recorded in a very short amount of time during West's depression phase, and sounded like he was losing the mojo that made him one of hip-hop's best artists.
West dropped the chipmunk-sampled instrumentals and meaningful lyrics for an 808s machine and saturated use of autotune. The message of the album seemed clear that Kanye's suffering was meant to be the listener's gain. Lyrics about how his family showed pictures of their kids while Kanye's showing off his new car gave people an inside look at what Kanye really felt. A man lost in the fame he once thirsted for who yearned to be a family man. Struggling between his astronomical ego and the true feelings in his heart hidden by lyrics from previous albums saying you can't tell him what to do.
808s & Heartbreak received some harsh criticisms when it first released. Some of the biggest flaws seemed to be how West went from three arguably classical hip-hop albums to moaning over 1980s inspired instrumentals with vocally enhanced technology. During the promotion of the album's release, Kanye still seemed fresh to this new idea he was creating in such a short span. The original version of "Love Lockdown" revealed that Kanye's voice was so bad during those takes, even the autotune couldn't pitch correct it. He was also accused of stealing the idea off of T-Pain, who back during that time, was the artist that brought the autotune officially into the mainstream.
In hip-hop's biggest gamble of the new century, Kanye West's decision to let his guard down for the world to hear makes 808s & Heartbreaks one of rap's biggest celebrations. Before this album was released, expressing your feelings in music was normally for R&B artists. Mainstream rap was more of a mixture of gangster rap, Houston chopped and screwed, and complex lyricism from knowledge rappers like Common and Blackstar. About a year after 808s & Heartbreak released, a young Toronto rapper named Aubrey Graham released a mixtape called So Far Gone. One of the standout tracks was "Say What's Real," which is the instrumental from 808s & Heartbreak's "Say You Will." Graham, AKA Drake, is the most popular rapper today, and has credited this Kanye West instrumental for bringing out his real emotions.
It's not just Drake that this Kanye West album has touched in today's mainstream rap. Rappers from Kid Cudi and Young Thug to Future credit 808s & Heartbreak for their respective sounds. Lil Wayne's appearance on the album's track "See You In My Nightmares" started his ascendence to using autotune more (although I can argue this was a bad thing). Working with Kanye also gave The Weeknd a taste of that simplistic production when he released "Can't Feel My Face" last year, which turned out to be one of the biggest hits in 2015.
This album has nearly broken the wall between both R&B and hip-hop. Most R&B artists like Chris Brown and Trey Songz debuted in the mid-2000s as soul singers. After 2008, they started to rap more and have both become two of the popular faces in modern music. Along with Drake, PartyNextDoor and Bryson Tiller are new artists with similar production and sing-song flows that bold resemblance to a 2008 version of Kanye.
808s & Heartbreak shattered the walls of the hip-hop stereotypical and turned it into a hybrid of many sounds. It made it cool for rappers to express their "soft side" and at least attempt to try and sing. It took the simple booms of an 808 bass and stretched its boundaries more than it was used before. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is considered West's "magnum opus," but 808s & Heartbreak has shown the strongest lasting power.