Kanye West - 808s & Heartbreak
2007 was one of a pivotal year for Kanye West in a myriad of ways. He dethroned 50 Cent to become the biggest rapper in the world with the release of his synthesized third album, Graduation. However, it was also the year in which his mother, Donda West, passed away. Pile on a ended engagement with Alexis Phifer and swarming media scrutiny, and the result was a downward spiral for Yeezy. In order to effectively channel his emotions, he abandoned rapping altogether, instead grabbing autotune - a contentious tool that had already been popularised in hip-hop by T-Pain and Lil Wayne - by both hands, and twisting it to create sublime but mechanised despair. “Welcome To Heartbreak” swells with submarine chords and marching 808 beats, all tied up with a fluttering piano lead that sounds graceful, a quality that is not just unusual for hip-hop, but to R&B too - Kanye was crafting a unique sound in a genre that he didn’t regularly associate with.
Though the likes of Daft Punk and Radiohead had spent the early 2000s veiling their performances in vocodorised, robotic vocals, 808s saw this technique as a medium to express human emotion in a haunting way, and crucially ushered it into R&B and pop music. The notion of a hip-hop artist singing in a tuned-up voice was unprecedented, nonetheless paved the way for artists like Drake and Future to become musical institutions down the road, using a similar style of crooning rap. Tracks like “Paranoid” are laden with auto-tune, but also unearth the album’s roots in 80s synthpop and new wave, with its arcade-ripped synths firing like lasers around Yeezy’s melodic rapping.
On top of clearing the way for Drake’s mammoth success, it furthered the acceptance of hip-hop personalities laying out their emotions on wax, arguably initiated by Kid Cudi and Atmosphere. Fast forward to today, and “emo rap” is hitting charts and dominating Spotify through artists like Lil Uzi Vert and the late XXXTentacion. Plus, it has allowed rappers to deal with their internal struggles using their music, thus making the connection between these rappers and their fans all the more dynamic.
“Love Lockdown” was the album’s first single, and it perfectly encapsulates the album’s sound in one almighty piece of pop. Imagine the world first listening to this new Kanye, as each unpredictable element is sworn in to build the track up - first the booming bass sets a brooding tone, paints a passionate red hue. Ye crawls in with a performance that grows with the track, then brisk piano stabs enter to add flavour and rhythm. This minimalist production is then bolstered by corybantic drums in the chorus that send the song to a high-octane apex. Climaxes like this are what make this album so special: the emotions are strong and displayed at the size of Himalayan peaks, a fitting monument for Kanye West.