Roc-A-Fella
Kanye West is a hell of a producer and a mostly alright rapper and in a genre dominated by ego he stands toe-to-toe with the greats. Considering 808s & Heartbreak moved almost 450000 units in the U.S. in its first week easily beating Guns N’ Roses’ 17-years-in-the-making Chinese Democracy his arrogance isn’t unearned. He’s kind of a big deal and his constant boasting and defensive diatribes against squid-brained haters are part of his appeal.
It’s hard to reconcile that one-man cult of personality with the sad sack behind 808s . There’s very little rapping on the album just West’s highly processed singing and exactly the kind of minimal production the album title promises. If you took away the Auto Tune and tweaked the production these songs could’ve come from any nondescript Barsuk Records mope-rockers. “Life’s just not fair” West sings on “Streetlights.” His cribs come into play in “Welcome to Heartbreak” but only to talk about how hollow the whole lifestyle is. Even first single “Love Lockdown” is far from upbeat. Tribal drums keep it moving but the keyboards and vocals drip with barely concealed depression.
With its spare production and near complete lack of rapping 808s is a left-field departure for the rapper. While that’ll turn some fans off it’s also what makes the album work. An album front-loaded with depressing ballads punctuated with oddball pop and rounded off with a six-minute ode to Pinocchio is exactly the kind of bizarrely personal mess more superstars should aspire to.
