808s and Heartbreak

“I'm not loving you, the way I wanted to
See I had to go, see I had to move
No more wasting time, you can't wait for life
We're just racing time, where's the finish line?”

When I first heard the concept for Kanye West’s 2008 album, 808s and Heartbreak, I was thoroughly unimpressed. After releasing a series of albums that I loved, why was Kanye West releasing an R&B album? More importantly, why the hell was Kanye West singing? Then the singles came out and West was singing using the dreaded Auto-tune  For me, 808s and Heartbreak represented everything wrong with music at the time.

I just didn’t get it.

When 808s and Heartbreak came out I was familiar with 808 drums but I never was heartbroken. The feelings that were raw for Kanye West were unintelligible to me. I was still dating and in love with the girl I dated since high school. 2008 wasn’t a good matchup for me and that album.

That was a long time ago…

I recently decided to give this album a second chance and some of my initial feelings about the album haven't changed. Kanye West will never be confused with Marvin Gaye, Luther Vandross or anyone who’ll “definitely set this party off right” as Jamie Foxx sang in “Slow Jams”. But I also understand the emotion from the album. More importantly, it makes more sense to me that this HAD to be an R&B album. Rap Music doesn’t lend itself well to talking about heartbreak. There’s a culture of toughness there. It’s fine to talk about tragedy, but not a lot. This album was after a huge break up and after the passing of Kanye West’s mom. The cocky bravado that lends itself to well to Kanye West’s rapping style is generally absent from this album and replaced with an unsure vulnerability. But the album, while not Kanye West’s best work, is still a very solid album. 

Even in the singles, the emotion is extremely raw. The song “Heartless” has a strong sense of irony. He describes the woman in the song as being heartless but the lyrics reveal something slightly different. He has lines like “Ayyo, I know it's some things that you ain't told me / Ayyo, I did some things but that's the old me” where he dismissively reveals that he’s just as bad if not worse than she is. Kanye is at his best when he’s being the most creative and he’s inconsistent on this album. “Robocop” for example, doesn’t really have this feature.

One of the more interesting pieces on this album is "Bad News" which is a raw song because of the amount of time that is just spent with Kanye West being silent. Before West gained fame as a rapper, he was a music producer, and his immense talent as a producer shows on an album like this. His ear for a great sample, or a great time to be silent, letting the music play in the background is pretty much unparalleled amongst rappers. This is even more true on the intro song, “Say You Will” which is filled with couplets that take the place of verses. “Mrs. So-Fly crash-lands in my room / Can't waste no time, she might leave soon” He starts off by sarcastically calling her “so fly” as she clumsily enters his room, but you can tell that he absolutely wants her to be there trying to rush things so that she doesn’t change her mind and leave him. West does a good job of capturing emotion.

Music appreciation generally has two parts. There's the effectiveness of the creator to convey a message and there's the willingness of the listener to receive the message. 808s wasn't the most effective delivery, but there was a very powerful message. This album was a springboard for future albums where he used methods developed here in better ways, such as the music in "Runaway" from his subsequent album "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy". On the other hand, while I didn't appreciate the message or the delivery when I first came across the album, because of my own experiences, I really enjoy this album for what it positively brings to the table, even though I find myself skipping through large portions of the album.


The album ends with the song that touched me the most in “Coldest Winter”  It’s another minimalist song, but it’s also only 2 minutes and 45 seconds long.  

On lonely nights I start to fade
(On lonely nights I start to fade)
Her love is a thousand miles away
(Her love is a thousand miles away)
Memories made in the coldest winter
Goodbye my friend will I ever love again?

Memories made in the coldest winter

It's 4am and I can't sleep
(It's 4am and I can't sleep)
Her love is all that I can see
(Her love is all that I can see)
Memories made in the coldest winter
Goodbye my friend will I ever love again ?
Memories made in the coldest winter

Winter, winter

Goodbye my friend will I ever love again?
Goodbye my friend will I ever love again?
Goodbye my friend will I ever love again?
Goodbye my friend will I ever love again?

If spring can take the snow away
(If spring can take the snow away)
Can it melt away all of our mistakes
(Can it melt away all of our mistakes)
Memories made in the coldest winter
Goodbye my friend I won't ever love again

Never Again