Most critics and fans wrote off the album as an emotional low-point between two better albums ( Graduation and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy), but nearly six years after its release, 808s & Heartbreak's greatest triumph has been its reverberations around the hip-hop and R&B landscape.Ī piece of art doesn't have to be "great" to inspire many others of its kind. And why should it be? It sticks out like a sore thumb in West's discography, the lone, alien outlier among certifiable hip-hop masterpieces. Though fans regularly butt heads about the "best" Kanye album, 808s & Heartbreak is rarely (if ever) included in the equation. West's musical output has always been a pretty good gauge of where hip-hop is headed, whether it be his early mantra of having a "Benz and a backpack" or his drill-invigorating remix of Chief Keef's "I Don't Like." But in a career filled with moments of trendsetting and breaking the mold, one era and album stand out as far more influential and forward-thinking than anything West's ever done. Starting with him and Just Blaze making "chipmunk soul" a hot sound in Roc-A-Fella's prime, Mr. In 2014, it's no secret that where Kanye West goes, the rest of hip-hop follows. He uses Auto-Tune better, too, now that I think about it.Ĭlick here to listen to samples of "808s & Heartbreak" at .2008's "808s & Heartbreak" is certainly far from Kanye West's best-loved album, but it may have had a more widespread effect on hip-hop as a whole than any of his "classic" albums. I’m not totally down on it, though: “Heartless” works a bouncy flute loop and Kanye actually sings, sounding just fine “Amazing” replaces Southern bounce with a heavy piano and organic percussion, providing a nice bedrock for Young Jeezy’s guest verse, and “Paranoid” is an modern uptempo take on ‘80s synth glam.īut the first single, “Love Lockdown,” largely misrepresents the depth of "808s & Heartbreaks." It’s a good example of what I think ‘Ye might have been shooting for on the whole album.Īn R&B record with almost no harmony? Even T-Pain knows better than that. The songs cover fairly generic love/hate/make-ups-to-break-ups, which in turn throws the spotlight back on the production, that at times sounds almost like an unfinished version of a regular mid-tempo Kanye song.īut even the Kanye West Mid-Tempo Jam has taken on a lot more character in the past. That leaves mainly the lyrics, and it's hard to turn a clever, punchy phrase as an R&B robot. But it just doesn’t make sense here, particularly given that Kanye’s actually got a pretty good singing voice (the several times he sings sans digital assistance, he sounds just fine).īut on "808s," with its already-spare soundscapes, his voice plays front and center, and all of the manipulation gives things a weird, plasticized feeling. Now, someone like Lil’ Wayne, who has no discernible singing talent? I understand why HE would want to Auto-Tune himself into submission. The most mystifying part about all this is his album-long penchant for everybody's new favorite musical toy, the Auto-Tune. What I’m trying to say is that too many of the songs here seem overly, intentionally simplistic, like ‘Ye is trying to drive the metaphor home with a sledgehammer and, unfortunately, it makes for a lot of sluggish songs during the course of "808’s" 52 minutes (relatively short for a Kanye album).