Kanye West’s 808s And Heartbreak – A case for a classic
Introduction to Kanye West
By the time of the release of 808’s And Heartbreak, Kanye West had already established himself as one of the leading figures of hip-hop; with his previous three albums changing the dynamics of the genre, shifting it from what was then made popular by artists such as 50 Cent, gangsta rap, to a more social and emotional commentary. His third album, Graduation, taking the number one spot in the US charts, fully ushered in this new age of hip-hop, as it pushed the gangsta rap album of 50 Cent, titled Curtis, to second place in the charts.
Born in 1977 in Atlanta, Georgia to Ray and Donda West and moving to Chicago 3 years later with his mother, Kanye West is one of the biggest names in the world and a modern legend in his field. Forever controversial, his remarks and outbursts have always kept him at the centre of attention and in the headlines. This essay will highlight the depressing events Kanye West preluding his fourth album, the massive shift in sound from previous albums, the technology used and finally, why the album is a contextual masterpiece and one of the most influential albums to be released in modern music history.
context
Kanye West had already changed plenty in the hip-hop genre prior to the release of 808s in 2008. His aforementioned role in the change, lyrically and sonically, of the genre is hugely evidential. His career start came as a producer for Jay-Z’s label, Roc-A-Fella Records, with West having credit heaped on him for well-produced beats and is often credited as being a leading factor in Jay-Z’s career getting a second wind for his critically acclaimed album The Blueprint, released in 2001. After this success as a producer, Kanye decided he wanted to launch a solo career as a rapper and hip-hop artist. His first album, The College Dropout, was released in 2004 to universal acclaim. Peaking at number 2 on the US charts, the album introduced a new style of lyricism, more relevant to everyday people as opposed to the tales of the crime life made popular previously. Creative sampling had also become popular thanks to the influence of College Dropout. For Kanye’s second album, Late Registration, released in 2005, he sought a new sound and found it in introducing a full string orchestra (Scaggs, 2007). Kanye innovated in the genre further with his third album, Graduation, released in 2007. Introducing and popularising the use of synthesisers and more diverse genres to sample from, the massive commercial success of Graduation led to it being yet another hugely influential album. However, certain events would lead Kanye to break boundaries yet again and introduce a completely different sound and outlook to the genre, and perhaps music in general.
On the 10th of November, 2007, Kanye West’s mother, Donda, passed away following an infection caused by cosmetic surgery. Kanye West was already known as a self-professed “mommas boy”, with him even writing a song about how much he loves his mother, titled “Hey Mama” found on his second album. Kanye to this day still blames himself for the death of his mother, stating that if he hadn’t made it in the music industry and moved to Los Angeles, she would still be around (Schwartz, 2015). The beginning of 2008 also led to increased heartbreak, with Kanye and his fiancée ending their 6-year relationship (Mcgee, 2008). These two events pushed Kanye into creating a much more sombre record, and these two defining moments are portrayed in the latter half of the album’s title; 808s And Heartbreak (Holmes, 2018).
West did not feel that he could get through his thoughts and feelings about these events via the medium of rap. Again, even at this stressful moment, Kanye wanted to break barriers in hip-hop again, or rather for a hip-hop artist. He wanted to create an album where for the majority of the album, he sings instead of raps (Reid, 2008). This was a change that would likely end up being a controversial one, with the risk of alienating fans of his past work as this album would be much different. The creation of 808s And Heartbreak would prove to be healing for Kanye West during the aftermath of the events he faced (Thorogood, 2008).
Content and technology use
Every song on the album was produced by West, with Jeff Bhasker, Plain Pat, No I.D. and Mr Hudson taking co-producer credits. Four other artists, including the previously mentioned Mr Hudson, also featured on songs. The other three artists are Young Jeezy, Lil Wayne and newcomer and Kanye’s future friend and prodigy Kid Cudi.
As mentioned in the title of the album, there is prominent use of the Roland TR-808. This was a drum machine that had been produced between 1980 and 1983. The Roland TR-808 is used on every single track of the album, which plays into the former half of the album’s title. He decided on using this drum machine as he drew influence from artists who had used it during the inception of the 808 in the early to mid 1980s (West, 2008).
Kanye West’s desire to sing in this album could have potentially been shot down by his self-confessed lack of singing ability. However, he would turn his lack of singing ability into an instrument itself with his stand out use of auto tune throughout the album. Every lyric is covered with the auto tune program, with its use being unexaggerated and make the use of auto tune obvious, rather than subtle to actually make Kanye sound like he can sing. This use of very electronic and almost robotic vocals had been previously used and popularised by T-Pain, who Kanye had worked with on Graduation before and had enlisted to help him become adept at using the auto tune program (Reid, 2008).
Musically, 808s And Heartbreak differs in almost every way from Kanye’s first three albums. 808s And Heartbreak barely classes as a hip-hop album, with more electropop and R&B influences than anything else. As previously mentioned, the first three Kanye albums were almost genre defining hip-hop albums. However, with 808s, Kanye proved that an artist doesn’t need to stay in one lane, instead choosing to go down another new artistic route. The album is even more synth heavy than Graduation was, which only sought to introduce and popularise the use of synths in hip-hop music. 808s And Heartbreak not only used more and more synths but went against Kanye’s previous extensive use of sampling. 808s and Heartbreak lists 3 sample credits. When compared to Graduation’s 13 sample credits, this is a definite step back in terms of his sampling techniques. These reasons combined is perhaps the reason Kanye West has stated that 808s And Heartbreak is not a hip-hop album, but a pop album (West, 2008).