“Him fighting his fear, fighting depression, kind of for real, for real thrown into the public eye.
“That was the first time that we knew exactly where he was emotionally.” -Tony Williams The achievements of 2007’s Graduation - beating 50 Cent in a highly publicized first-week sales battle, selling 957,000 copies in the first week, the crossover success of “Stronger” and “Good Life” - turned West into what Yusef describes as “not just rap fame, superstardom.” Malik Yusef, one of Kanye’s oldest writing partners, remembers an inflection point between the tragedy of West’s personal life and his ascension to a new level of fame. “A lot of it was not ever voiced verbally to us in those situations.” “I think because he doesn’t wear his emotions on his sleeve a lot of time that a lot of us that are very close to him in his inner circle, that was the first time that we knew exactly where he was emotionally,” Tony Williams, Kanye’s cousin and frequent collaborator said. For West’s closest confidantes, his early, raw and unfiltered recordings were the first time they heard how he was coping with the losses. Otherwise, no matter its commendable fearlessness, the album is a listless, bleary trudge along 's permafrost.According to its well-worn inception story, 808s & Heartbreak is part self-examination, part-exorcism of two tragic and life-defining moments for Kanye: the death of his mother, Donda West, on November 10, 2007, from cosmetic surgery complications and the dissolution of his 18-month engagement to Alexis Phifer. ('Coldest Winter,' where longs for his departed mother, samples the most desolate song from the first album.) For anyone sifting through a broken relationship and self-letdown, this could all be therapeutic. Several tracks have almost as much in common with irrefutably bleak post-punk albums, such as 's and 's, as contemporary rap and R&B. All the blocky drums, dragging strings, droning synths, and joyless pianos lead to a bleak set of productions - even the synthetic calliope in 'Heartless' is unnerved, and the relative pep of 'Paranoid' provides no respite, its bitter lyrics subverting a boisterous beat. The majority of the lyrics, however, are directed at an ex who evidently did some damage in 'RoboCop' alone, she gets compared to the antagonist in Misery and is called a 'spoiled little L.A.Įarlier in the album, the number she did on him is called 'the coldest story ever told,' yet he admits he still fantasizes about her. When, in 'Welcome to Heartbreak,' he dispassionately recounts sitting alone on a flight, ahead of a laughing family, he makes first class sound like Siberia he'd swap lives with the father in an instant. In various spots across, the constant flutter of 's processed voice, along with a seldom interrupted sluggish march of aching sounds, is enlivened by the disarming manner in which despair and dejection are conveyed. It was indeed a wreck, if a kind of fascinating one, which helped make the material - voiced by someone who could not really sing, whose substantial shortcomings were not made less obvious by a polarizing studio device - seem a little less difficult on the ears. Not only did he go through with it, but Roc-A-Fella released the result in time for the 2008 Christmas shopping season. 808s And Heartbreak Zip DownloadĮxcept wasn't joking. Remember when threatened to make an album where he would bear his heartbroken soul, align with, sing on every song with the then inescapable Auto-Tune effect and, less problematically, lean on the common element - the Roland TR-808 drum machine - of classics like 'Make It Last Forever,' 'Posse on Broadway,' '808,' and 'Bossy'? It would have been a wreck, a case of an artist working through paralyzing heartache while loose in a toy store. I always hated Kanye, but I could never hate on his production. I'm a big rap fan and a DJ myself, but this is what happens when rappers think they're more musical than they really are - 80's throwback garbage with an autotuner. If anyone out there still didn't understand, rap becoming the new 'club music' has created a new sub-genre of garbage music. now too, he released a track just like all of Kanye's. Songs and lyrics from ReverbNation Artist Kanye West - 808 Heartbreak, Hip Hop music from Atlanta, GA on ReverbNation.
KANYE WEST – 808S & HEARTBREAK (FULL ALBUM) Stream & Download “KANYE WEST – 808S & HEARTBREAK (FULL ALBUM)” Album Zip Download”.