There’s a similar pattern that appears in many artist’s discographies. After releasing either a single monumental album (eg. Radiohead’s OK Computer) or a string of highly successful albums (eg. Kanye West’s The College Dropout, Late Registration, and Graduation), an artist will frequently seek to reinvent themself, both musically and aesthetically. As I’ve previously written about in this column, Radiohead revolutionized rock music with Kid A, an album that did away with the alternative rock that made them famous for a sound focused on electronica. Kanye West underwent a similar transformation in 2008 when after releasing three acclaimed hip-hop albums, he released 808s & Heartbreak. This electropop masterwork combined synth-pop and experimental R&B in a way that had never been heard before. While his first three albums were defined by their orchestral, maximalist approach to production with a focus on warmth and Kanye’s charisma, 808s was minimalist, sparse, and cold while masterfully utilizing Auto-Tune to exemplify Kanye’s emotional distress.
2007 may have been the worst year of Kanye West’s life. After his album Graduation debuted at number one on the charts, Kanye’s mother passed away with whom he had an incredibly close relationship. Not long after that, Kanye and his fiance separated after being together for six years. As opposed to rapping, he turned to singing to express his emotional turmoil.
808s and Heartbreak, as the title suggests, makes heavy use of the Roland TR-808 drum machine, which is perhaps the most influential and widely used drum machine in all of modern music. The 808s, combined with liberal use of autotune across the album’s twelve tracks, makes for a lonely and melancholic reflection on death, isolation, fame, and, of course, heartbreak.
The album opens with “Say You Will”, a slow and meandering track centered around a beeping synth loop, not unlike the sound of a heart monitor. Kanye croons about betrayal through Auto-Tune, singing, “Don’t say you will/[…]/Please say you will, for real, I pray you will”. He is already contradicting himself as he reveals his conflicted feelings about a supposed love interest. On the one hand, he wants this person to do something for him, nearly begging. On the other hand, he perhaps fears what will happen if they “say [they] will”. After Kanye finishes singing, the track continues for over three more minutes in an extended instrumental outro as the electronics are slowly melded with a programmed choir that is both menacing and beautiful.
In “Welcome To Heartbreak”, the instrumental palette of borderline-ambient synthesizers and distorted vocals continue. Kanye introduces a central theme as he wrestles with his disappointment that those around him are in successful relationships and have loving children while he feels alone in the world. He reflects on this, singing, “My friend showed me pictures of his kids/And all I could show him was pictures of my cribs” and “Dad cracked a joke, all the kids laughed/But I couldn’t hear him all the way in first-class”. While wealth is frequently the subject of pride in hip-hop music, Kanye flips that on its head and highlights that money can’t buy a loving family.
A couple of tracks later, on “Amazing”, Kanye delivers one of the most subtle songs he has ever written. On the surface, the track may seem like a standard boast about fame and success, as Kanye sings, “It’s amazing, I’m the reason/Everybody fired up this evening”. However, the way in which Kanye delivers his verses and the chorus reveals a deeper meaning to the track. His vocals remain monotonous and unenergetic throughout the track, revealing that, despite the fame and influence he’s attained, he remains unhappy about his place in life and feels like he is being forced to make boastful music that he doesn’t truly enjoy.
Kanye’s turmoil continues as he decides to keep his emotions to himself after having his heart broken on “Love Lockdown”. On top of an energetic yet spiteful piano loop and racing bass drums, Kanye sings, “Now keep your love lockdown – you lose”.
The most upbeat track on the album comes a few songs later in “RoboCop”. The baroque-pop-inspired instrumental wouldn’t sound out of place in a musical film, as swelling violins combine with an ethereal celeste to create a truly unforgettable piece of music.
This mood quickly changes on the next track, “Street Lights”, which is the most haunting track on the album. Kanye, after wallowing in Auto-Tune, depression, and negative feelings toward past lovers, seems to have gained a new perspective on life, singing, “All the street lights, glowing, happen to be/Just like moments, passing, in front me/So I hopped in the cab and paid my fare/I know my destination, but I’m just not there”. Kanye understands what he wants to do with his life and acknowledges that it’s fine that he hasn’t reached it yet. It’s also notable that Kanye’s voice starts the song out with heavy distortion, like the previous tracks on the album, but the distortion slowly disappears over the course of the track until it is barely present at the end. Kanye is becoming more comfortable and confident in himself.
After the primarily instrumental “Bad News”, Kanye seems to finally make the decision to move on from his past relationships on the track “See You In My Nightmares”. In the most Auto-Tune drenched vocals on the album yet, Kanye sings, “Okay, I’m back up on my grind/You do you and I’m just gon’ do mine”. While Kanye is moving on, he still seems to remain deeply insecure in himself, as demonstrated by the Auto-Tune.
On the penultimate track, “Coldest Winter”, Kanye directly addresses his mother’s death with no Auto-Tune, singing, “Memories made in the coldest winter/Goodbye, my friend, will I ever love again?”. While Kanye mourns his mother, he also looks towards the future for a better life, wondering, “If spring can take the snow away/Can it melt away all our mistakes?”.
The final track, “Pinocchio Story”, is, in my opinion, the most emotionally potent track Kanye has ever recorded. The song is an improvised freestyle recorded live in Singapore, making it all the more powerful. Kanye reflects on the fame and influence he’s acquired since his first album, The College Dropout, dropped in 2004. He despises the fact that his life has been taken away from him at the expense of constant touring and media scrutiny, singing “Do you think I’d sacrifice a real life/For all the fame and flashing lights?” and “There is no Gucci I can buy/There is no Louis Vuitton to put on/There is no YSL they could sell/To get my heart out of this hell and my mind out of this jail”. He pines for the normal family life he hoped for on “Welcome To Heartbreak”, nearly begging, “I just wanna be a real boy”. He compares himself and his mother’s death to Pinnochio, singing, “And there is no Gepetto to guide me/No one right beside me/The only one was behind me/I can’t find her no more, I can’t call her no more, I can’t!”. Meanwhile, the audience in the background continues to cheer, scream, and yell, “I love you Kanye!”. At the 2:20 mark, a highly distorted scream comes through that represents everything Kanye despises about fame; the public that treats him as only a performer, not a human being.
Kanye West’s 808s and Heartbreak is an intimate look into the loneliness of fame and loss that inadvertently revolutionized mainstream music. 808s is possibly the most influential album of the past two decades, as it was the first instance of a mainstream rapper using singing, vulnerability, and electronics in their music. It paved the way for chart-topping artists such as Drake, Frank Ocean, Kid Cudi, and Childish Gambino while also giving rise to the emo-rap genre in the late 2010s, with artists such as Juice WRLD and Lil Uzi Vert calling the album life-changing. Kanye West, for better or worse, has never been one to stay in his lane. On 808s and Heartbreak, the risk certainly paid off, as he created an introspective, somber, and passionate masterpiece of experimental pop that influenced an entire generation of artists.
Sources:
https://www.billboard.com/music/kanye-west/chart-history/TLP/song/537056
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-nov-20-me-west20-story.html
http://www.mtv.com/news/1599993/kanye-west-inspires-the-question-should-rappers-sing/
https://genius.com/Kanye-west-pinocchio-story-lyrics
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/808s_%26_Heartbreak#Legacy_and_influence