I am a Kanye fan. I’ve been a Kanye fan before I even knew his name, when I was bobbing my head to the songs he produced on Jay-Z’s “Dynasty” and “Blueprint” albums. By the time “Through the Wire” dropped, I was hooked. One of Kanye’s greatest strengths is his versatility, and his ability to weave personal and sometimes self-deprecating revelations – a departure from the typical pure bravado of hip hop – into his music. As a listener, I always felt that I was getting more from him than a glossy image he wished to convey – I was getting him, the real Kanye West. And if you’ve ever seen him perform in person – particularly at his latest concert, the “Glow in the Dark” tour – you know that he leaves his heart and soul on the stage.
Kanye is testing the limits of those strengths on his latest effort, “808s and Heartbreak,” releasing November 24th. While the personal admissions given in his earlier music were often told with tongue-in-cheek, witty plays on words over catchy, danceable beats, the emotion on “808s and Heartbreak” is raw, bare and unabashedly exposed, told over beats created on a Roland TR-808 drum machine, and with the distinctly synthesized voice distortions of the Auto Tune machine made famous by Roger Troutman in the 80s and re-popularized by T-Pain over the last few years.
Though there are cameos by such contemporary hip-hop stars as Young Jeezy, Lil Wayne and the up-and-coming Kid Cudi, don’t be fooled; “808s and Heartbreak” is not a popular music album, and it’s certain to leave many Kanye fans scratching their heads – myself included. When I first heard “Love Lockdown,” the first single off the album, I thought it sounded as though Kanye had locked himself in a basement with his voice and drum machines for a week and produced an album which might have better served as a private diary entry than a public release. We all know the tough several months the artist has been through – with the sudden death of his beloved mother and the dissolution of his engagement – and he is clearly working through the feelings caused by those events on this album.
But there is something deeper going on here. Kanye is pushing the boundaries by exploring something that has been lost in the genre that made him famous for some time now – emotion, loss, and heartbreak. Sure, every hip hop album released today features a requisite “love” song, and the occasional reflection on a lost friend or family member. But I can’t recall another example of a popular, commercially-successful hip hop artist putting forth something so personal, so introspective, and so risky.
Because “808s and Heartbreak” certainly is a risk. And while I doubt that Kanye will see the skyrocketing sales he experienced with his earlier albums, I think he achieved something more important with this one. In a genre flooded with half-hearted, cookie-cutter, emotionless music, Kanye West pushed himself to create something new. He tried something here, something beyond the proven, money-generating formula.
I think the album forces us to question what is more important – an artist creating an album for his listeners and his fans, or for himself. Because I do think “808s and Heartbreak” is a cathartic release for Kanye rather than an album created with his fans in mind. I can’t write this entry without also noting that while Kanye is a talented rapper and lyricist, he isn’t much of a singer, and since most of his latest album features his vocal styling rather than his rhyming, the musicality of this album is called into question. I personally think that, musically speaking, Kanye is best when he finds a happy medium between the personal and the commercial – take the moody, haunting “Flashing Lights” from his latest album, the wildly successful “Graduation.” The song was an enormous hit, and though it was a song about love gone wrong, it was a song people enjoyed listening to. And though it had a head-bobbing beat and a catchy chorus, it wasn’t any less powerful than many of the songs on “808s and heartbreak.”
While I can’t see myself driving around with this album playing in a constant loop for months as I did with his earlier albums, I can’t help but appreciate the effort behind “808s and Heartbreak.” Listen for yourself at: http://www.kanyeuniversecity.com/blog/?em3106=214212_-1__0_~0_-1_11_2008_0_0&em3281=&em3161=)
Kanye is testing the limits of those strengths on his latest effort, “808s and Heartbreak,” releasing November 24th. While the personal admissions given in his earlier music were often told with tongue-in-cheek, witty plays on words over catchy, danceable beats, the emotion on “808s and Heartbreak” is raw, bare and unabashedly exposed, told over beats created on a Roland TR-808 drum machine, and with the distinctly synthesized voice distortions of the Auto Tune machine made famous by Roger Troutman in the 80s and re-popularized by T-Pain over the last few years.
Though there are cameos by such contemporary hip-hop stars as Young Jeezy, Lil Wayne and the up-and-coming Kid Cudi, don’t be fooled; “808s and Heartbreak” is not a popular music album, and it’s certain to leave many Kanye fans scratching their heads – myself included. When I first heard “Love Lockdown,” the first single off the album, I thought it sounded as though Kanye had locked himself in a basement with his voice and drum machines for a week and produced an album which might have better served as a private diary entry than a public release. We all know the tough several months the artist has been through – with the sudden death of his beloved mother and the dissolution of his engagement – and he is clearly working through the feelings caused by those events on this album.
But there is something deeper going on here. Kanye is pushing the boundaries by exploring something that has been lost in the genre that made him famous for some time now – emotion, loss, and heartbreak. Sure, every hip hop album released today features a requisite “love” song, and the occasional reflection on a lost friend or family member. But I can’t recall another example of a popular, commercially-successful hip hop artist putting forth something so personal, so introspective, and so risky.
Because “808s and Heartbreak” certainly is a risk. And while I doubt that Kanye will see the skyrocketing sales he experienced with his earlier albums, I think he achieved something more important with this one. In a genre flooded with half-hearted, cookie-cutter, emotionless music, Kanye West pushed himself to create something new. He tried something here, something beyond the proven, money-generating formula.
I think the album forces us to question what is more important – an artist creating an album for his listeners and his fans, or for himself. Because I do think “808s and Heartbreak” is a cathartic release for Kanye rather than an album created with his fans in mind. I can’t write this entry without also noting that while Kanye is a talented rapper and lyricist, he isn’t much of a singer, and since most of his latest album features his vocal styling rather than his rhyming, the musicality of this album is called into question. I personally think that, musically speaking, Kanye is best when he finds a happy medium between the personal and the commercial – take the moody, haunting “Flashing Lights” from his latest album, the wildly successful “Graduation.” The song was an enormous hit, and though it was a song about love gone wrong, it was a song people enjoyed listening to. And though it had a head-bobbing beat and a catchy chorus, it wasn’t any less powerful than many of the songs on “808s and heartbreak.”
While I can’t see myself driving around with this album playing in a constant loop for months as I did with his earlier albums, I can’t help but appreciate the effort behind “808s and Heartbreak.” Listen for yourself at: http://www.kanyeuniversecity.com/blog/?em3106=214212_-1__0_~0_-1_11_2008_0_0&em3281=&em3161=)
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2 comments:
Some day we will have to discuss the lyrical value of rap. I have some pretty strong views. I have some pretty strong views about everything.
I remember one time I challenged a student about Eminem. The student, a suburbanite who had no idea what it meant to live in poverty, said that "Eminem wrote about real things. It was about life. Man. Real life."
I responded that bathroom habits are real life as well, but one doesn't necessarily want to read about them.
How does one define the work of Kanye and his ilk in artistic terms? Is there a convention? Are there criterias?
I remember looking back at some popular music from the sixties and doing a dramatic reading of "The Book Of Love". It was absurd, of course. But the point was that much of the popular music of the early sixties was fine for its audience (young girls spoonfed romanticism and frustrated sexual urges), but that it had no universal appeal and certainly would not stand the test of time, by and definition of that phrase.
Maybe the problem is that we try and legitimize our emotional response to certain musical forms or lyrics. Maybe we shouldn't. I don't know. Just thinking out loud....and now? Moving on..
This article doesn't really say anything all that new, but it's food for thought, anyway: http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2008-12-21/the-daily-beast-hip-hop-battle/full/
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