808s & Heartbreak is Love

December 5th, 2008

We’ve reached a point with Kanye West where some people can’t separate craft from reputation – they say he’s an ego-maniac, he’s a cry baby, he’s too over-the-top – and as a mega fan, I know his actions have reached a point where I’m not sure if I can still legitimately claim that his hubris is necessary as a hip-hop artist. But while one end of the Kanye spectrum houses pride and egotism, the other is burdened by the weight of heartbreak. And from that odd mix, 808s & Heartbreak was born.

I had my reservations about this album even though I already dug “Love Lockdown”. I guess it was mostly based on the whole overuse of autotune – I’ve never been a huge fan of the exaggerated T-Pain type autotune abuse (in fact when Cher used it in 1998, I wanted to burn my ears out). And let’s face it, things can get a little scary (or downright atrocious) when your favourite artists start experimenting with their formula. In case you didn’t know, Kanye’s not a singer. And so I started at my unopened CD for at least a week before I cracked it open one night and took the plunge.

Hey, guess what: I liked it. And each time I listened to it further, I liked it even more. And now? I kind of love it.

Kanye’s calling it pop art, he’s calling it his best work to date. It was recorded in less than two weeks in a deluge of emotional outpour, supported by his ever-present work intensity and self confidence. Then he was so excited about it that he pushed the release date to a month earlier than planned, and here we are, taking sides in the Kanye story. You support it, or you don’t. If you’re a hater, carry on – but if you’re a skeptical Kanye fan, give the album a chance.

It’s minimal, yet richly layered. It’s not short on boasting but also brimming with heartache and a grandiose sense of loneliness. “My friend showed me pictures of his kids, and all I could show him were pictures of my cribs”, he says on “Welcome to Heartbreak”. You could decipher that as a need to show off in the midst of dispair, but I think it’s something deeper than that.

Eh. Some people are going to say that 808s & Heartbreak is an unfortunate blip in Kanye’s musical catalogue, but I’m not sure if those people are giving it a chance. It’s no College Dropout, but I would put it above Graduation. Unlike some other superstars selling records these days, Kanye’s lyrics come from someplace real. After a year that saw the death of his mother and the break-up of his engagement, I’m sure Kanye has had a lot on his mind; he uses the medium he knows best to seek therapy. Even if you disagree with his foray into singing, I think we owe Kanye the right to use his art in this fashion; and even if you somehow see this as an egotistical exploitation of his power, we owe him the right to experiment in a world where other artists are letting everyone else do the work for them.

More: Read Rich’s excellent review at FourFour, he says it so much more eloquently than I ever could!

My fave tracks:
Welcome to Heartbreak (“Chased the good life all my life long, look back on my life, all my life gone – where did I go wrong?”)
RoboCop (“You spoiled little LA girl, you’re just an LA girl”)
Bad News (“Didn’t you know I was waiting on you? My face turned to stone when I heard the news”)
See You In My Nightmares (“Tell everybody that you know that I don’t love you no more”)