Let's be honest, Kanye West's 808's & Heartbreak is The Chronic of a new generation. Few albums can dramatically change the landscape of a musical genre but Kanye did just that on this innovative piece he released in November of 2008. Kanye released the album to critical acclaim and yet voters laid the smackdown just a year later as it was shut out of the 2009 Grammy nominations. First, second, and third-time listens often yield a premature review (guilty as charged), but after a year I can confidently say the album not only withstood the test of time but paved the way for other artists and styles in hip hop. 808's might not be the best album of the last decade, but it was certainly the most influential.
Dr. Dre released The Chronic in 1993, officially putting the new West Coast sound on the map. Up to this point, New Yorkers dominated the hip hop scene while if you heard one N.W.A. album you heard nearly everything the west had to offer. The signature east coast sound was emblazoned with real quick rhymes and low-budget production, emphasizing lyrics over beats. Dr. Dre slowed everything down, often sampling George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic, creating ultra-listenable tunes that weren't nearly as violent as the N.W.A. albums. Granted, the underlying style was still gangster rap so that never really went away, but most importantly, the singles appealed to the mainstream. Suburbians like me could listen to "Let Me Ride" and "Nuthin' But A G Thang" and not have to worry about shouting out to bloods and crips. The crossover ability of The Chronic changed hip hop in that it demonstrated the importance of hit singles. Rappers needed to get away from the hardcore material to establish a single, create hits, and sell records. The same formula applies today, sometimes even to a fault where a hit single sounds nothing like the rest of an album.
Fast forward 15 years and hip hop looked incredibly different. Turn on the radio and without turning the dial you find one-hit wonders, wanna-be gangsters, lying fools, and most importantly--autotune. Though the autotuner has been around for longer than just a few years, we can credit T-Pain for reintroducing it to the mainstream, and introducing it to hip hop. Every rapper and R&B artist felt the need to try the autotuner, and most failed miserably. Just the plain "uncoolness" of some artists killed their autotune experiences. The artists that could pull it off had a certain...je ne sais quoi. You have to be cutting edge, innovative, daring, experimental, unafraid...and all signs pointed to Kanye West.
You can think all you want about Kanye, but 2007 and 2008 could have been a little better for the guy. He lost his mother in a freak plastic surgery procedure-gone-wrong and was dumped by his long time girlfriend and fiance in a span of 6 months. According to legend, Kanye went to the head of Island Def Jam, the album's distributor, in the summer of 2008 and demanded that the album he was working on be released before the end of the year. Up until this time, Kanye was even rumored to be working on the 4th installment of his school-related albums, the 4th supposedly titled Good Ass Job. So he completely shifted gears, used all the pain in his life, and plowed through 808's & Heartbreak. He needed to take advantage of the autotune craze and to take a chance at making an album that, because of the timing of the industry and his life events, had a short window for recording and release. If anyone was going to take autotuner to the next level, it would be Kanye.
If you haven't gathered my feelings toward the album just yet, let's just say it doesn't disappoint. Kanye takes chances on 808's that no other hip hop artist of this time would, and especially not any rapper. First of all, though we can use the term "singing" loosely here, he sings the entire album using the autotuner. Secondly, the subject matter contained topics unheard of in hip hop. Gangsters don't talk about love. Gangsters don't talk about their moms. And gangsters certainly don't talk about having their heart broken. Kanye seduces the listener on the first two tracks with heavy drumbeats, piano chords, ominous background vocals, and lulling yet poignant vocals of his own that set the tone for the rest of the album. He lashes out as his ex for the first of many times, all the while expressing his own desires and faults. The album flows seamlessly into the smash single "Heartless," before attempting to build back his own confidence on "Amazing" and "Love Lockdown." The tracks are compiled in such a way that emulate the breakup process, and Kanye gets himself up here before becoming accusatory towards his ex in "Paranoid" and "Robocop." He then moves into the self-reflection phase on "Street Lights" and back into depression on "Bad News." "See You In My Nightmares" is reminiscient of a long night of binge drinking and anger, and the album ends on "Coldest Winter," his most touching track that puts all his relationship drama aside to focus on how much he misses his late mother. Taking a step back, any listener must realize the brilliance of this compilation. Makes you wish you could put all his nonsense in the media aside, doesn't it?
808's & Heartbreak has made it acceptable for hip hop artists to get outside their comfort zones. The only album as intimate as it is Kid Cudi's Man on the Moon: The End of Day in 2009, not a surprise given the close relationship between Kanye and Cudi (though some say it was Cudi who influenced Kanye when recording 808's). Many hip hop artists are attempting to go the way of dance and electronica because of the 808's influence, and the autotuner still gets heavy play on the airwaves. Kanye blurred the lines between hip hop and pop, and many artists in other genres are starting to blur the lines between genres as well. We continue to see compilations between rockers and hip hoppers, and I wouldn't be surprised to see compilations with crooners in the near future (if it hasn't happened already). Music is becoming less polarizing as artists branch out in style and their listeners branch out in regards to taste. The industry is in a win-win situation as artists push the innovative envelope, and it can thank Mr. West for this.
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