Sure Eminem weaved biography into his songs but he also wore multiple faces and worked in and out of character when it suited him West, on the other hand, is one of the few hip-hop artists without any pseudonyms, let alone characters.Ĭolleagues at Pitchfork have therefore wondered why this wasn't a private record West made for himself, but again nothing he's done is private, and that's in part why he's been so compelling. This isn't new: Kanye West's music is about being a specific celebrity more than anyone's since the solo works of John Lennon. But filtering these ideas through John Legend or Chris Martin or whomever would essentially kill the whole effect. These are expressions of the specific feelings of one guy there is still, to West at least, more emotional nourishment to be wrung from song than speech, which certainly colored his decision here. But it functions here as a democratizer as much as a crutch, because like all Kanye West songs, these are primarily about the experience of Being Kanye West. West's singing is shaky, of course, which is in part why he leans on the Auto-Tune. Instead we get bedroom pop, quiet ruminations in which after staying up night after night pursuing and living the good life, Kanye wakes up to a cold, lonely dawn. If this guy was jumping on a radio fad here, we'd likely get an LP's worth of "Put On"s, his summer hit and collaboration with Young Jeezy. But Kanye has always been more of a master assimilator: He's achieved in part because he's used wealth and fame to explore the wider world- culturally and artistically- rather than shut himself off from it.
Stylized Auto-Tune seems to be on about every third song on top 40 radio these days, making West seem like an opportunist or a bandwagon-jumper. In part it's because it's not what people want or expect from Kanye West. So why is this approach, from this guy, now such a problem? And, lest we forget, Kanye West himself made his name as a producer in part thanks to his "chipmunk soul" vocal samples. In this decade, records like Radiohead's Kid A/ Amnesiac, the Knife's Silent Shout, and Daft Punk's Discovery were heralded in part for screwing with vocals last year both Battles and Dan Deacon revived the old Alvin and the Chipmunks trick of shifting pitches and speeds and Bon Iver's forthcoming EP features a song sung through vocoder. But vocal manipulation isn't only the practice of radio-ready rap, of course- it's been a signpost for "futuristic music" ever since Joe Meek heard "a New World" almost 50 years ago.
#808s and heartbreak zip pro
The recent embrace of the common studio aid seems akin to pro wrestling saying, "Fuck it, this isn't real" and making it more transparent and scripted (and successful). And as you've no doubt heard, on 808s West sings everything through Auto-Tune rather than rapping, a decision that for some has made this record a non-starter.
His response? He's made 808s and Heartbreak, which as the title hints is an introspective, minimal electro-pop record steeped in regret, pain, and even more self-examination than a typical Kanye West album. Kanye blamed himself for his mother's death, singling out his own vanity, wealth, and pursuit of glamour and celebrity. This year, however, was particularly rough: He and his fiancée broke up, and his mother, Donda West- who alone raised Kanye from the age of three- died from complications after cosmetic surgery. He's someone as driven by ego as he is plagued by doubt- in other words, a wholly human pop star. The guy was already a ball of conflicts and contradictions- hand-wringing over his consumption one moment, boasting about his wealth the next. West had a wide-ranging landscape of music inside him, but to hear 808s is to appreciate how truly diverse his musical mind is.Poor Kanye West. "Bad News" is a densely layered track that takes an almost emo approach (in a good way, if that’s possible), and Paranoid indulges Kanye’s fetish for the 80s with synth-heavy melodies. Lyrically, Kanye wanders into new poetic territory with lines like “ and that haunted me, all the way home.” It works in part because it’s surprising to hear such ambient soul come from Kanye’s mouth (so to speak), but "Love Lockdown" is predictable compared to the rest of 808s, an album that sometimes sounds more like Coldplay than the work of a man who can’t be told nothin'.
(How many other rappers could say that if we can continue to call Kanye a “rapper?”) " Love Lockdown" takes a more eclectic approach, floating on a repetitive piano line and sparse bass before exploding into a drum-heavy chorus. If we take away one lesson from this album it’s that Kanye doesn’t have to rap in order to make hits.