Heave Media

Dull Rhymes Don't Drag 808s into Heartbreak

Post-Graduation Depression Or Haute Musique

Kanye West

808's and Heartbreak

Released on Nov 24, 2008

Kanye West’s last album (Graduation, 2007) represented the culmination of his collegiate-themed string of records, & the emergence of an artist without a shred of self-conscious doubt in his delivery. Graduation also witnessed the evolution of the Dropout Bear from Mr. West’s simple caniform mascot to his full-fledged anime alter ego, complete with a cartoon world populated with anthropomorphic animals.  Takashi Murakami animated this world in the “Good Life” video, in which Dropout Bear prevails over a number of challenges in order to receive his diploma.  The video is obviously an intended analog of Mr. West’s success, but the ultramodern urban expanse of the video instead forbears his embrace of & ultimate reliance on technology to communicate his imagination.

808s & Heartbreak is certainly not a hip-hop record, or at least not exclusively.  If confined to generic conventions, the album falls (or asserts itself) somewhere between experimental Emo & operatic electro pop.  The soundtracks incorporate strange sonic effects, from something like a pan-flute to 16 bit explosions, or the compression of hydraulic cylinders.  The only consistent thread through the tracks is a conspicuous lack of lyrical originality &, of course, the omnipresent Auto-Tune.  What the words lack in semantic significance, Mr. West tries to supply in sheer emotive output.  Choruses consist of some variation of a well-tread heartfelt sentiment, as in “Coldest Winter”: “If spring can take the snow away, / can it melt away all our mistakes? / Memories made in the coldest winter / Goodbye my friend, / I won't ever love again.”  The heavily manufactured & oftentimes downright machinic production does little to assuage cliché.

Perhaps it’s appropriate that an album from a Producer-turned-Artist rely less on substance than style, but any album from an artist as accomplished as Kanye West must be held to other standards & scrutiny.  When Mr. West does venture a verse in “Welcome to Heartbreak,” his rhymes are recycled: “My friend shows me pictures of his kids / and all I can show him are pictures of my cribs.  / He said his daughter got a brand new report card / and all I got was a brand new sports car.”  Even rhythmic conventions across the album exhibit repetitive traits; many songs rely on the same one-two, tick-tock drumbeat to suggest a certain minimalist aesthetic.  “Amazing” epitomizes this sound in a Western-cadenced, carefree kind of swagger.  The track ends with animalistic hollers, familiar from “Love Lockdown,” the kind of signature that made Justin Timberlake’s Timbaland-produced tracks so identifiable.

To be sure, there are moments of brilliant invention and pure enjoyment.  “Robocop” sounds like the credits from Mega Man mixed over an industrial architecture during the build-up to a good battle sequence from Dragonball Z.  Elsewhere, the artificial vocals perfectly suit the subject of “Paranoid,” & exhibit the energy of a feel-good dance track, had Ray Charles done disco.  The genre-bending scope & multivocal approach create a reliance on & simultaneous refusal of musicality impossible to ignore.  808s & Heartbreak is notsomuch Mr. West’s fourth studio album, as it is his first installation piece; to be admired in the gallery & within its cultural context. 

The video for “Love Lockdown”, the first single off the album, is truly a work of just such art.  Mr. West’s activity onscreen coincides with the threefold introduction of each audial thread: percussive, piano, vocal.  The bassline begins with the shudder of a ventricle (an effect inaudible on the album), & muted neutrals fill the screen as Mr. West starts his auto-tuned crooning.  A stereoscopic blurring of his body amplifies the distorted vocals.  With sparse, simple piano scales natives in natural hues run across, & then towards the screen, nearly leaping over the letterbox frame.  Their brown skins & bright feathers provide a stark contrast to the chrome & stainless steel of the kitchen in which Mr. West reiterates, essentially verbatim his lovelorn sentiment.  The next few minutes include white women in black bodypaint, black men in white, a glimpse of some strange alien specie & otherworldly aircraft, intergalactic lust. 

Incredible though the video may be, the audial art can never escape its images.  By his final appearance, it’s apparent Mr. West is notsomuch part of the performance, but a figure in various poses & positions, an immobile complement to the art around him.  It would seem Mr. West’s ego has outgrown his accustomed mode of expression.  A prerelease listening party in LA for 808s & Heartbreak was accompanied by an exhibition of nude women as arranged by visual artist Vanessa Beercroft.  The impact of the music on an audience enrapt with so many unclothed models’ bodies must have been minimal, or at least auxiliary.  A similar experience was evidenced in the first revelation of Mr. West’s latest artistic leanings.

The finale of the 2008 MTV VMAs featured a painful rendition of “Love Lockdown,” during which the audience was noticeably silent, an indication of its uncertainty as to whether to take Mr. West seriously in his endeavor, or to appreciate this new, albeit unusual delivery.  To be frank, watching Mr. West “sing” onstage is like amateur night at the Apollo; his performance would fare pitifully at best, in even the initial rounds of American Idol.  How then to gauge the impact of the already established Idol-Artist in an undefined generic field?  The answer is impossible in an album.  Only in live performance can the dual effects of raw emotion & technological reliance be evaluated. 

And yet, one cannot help but wonder to what extent an audience will tolerate the impetus of the celebrity ego.  It’s doubtful that even the most devoted fan will shell out $70+ to attend an evening of Mr. West’s mediocre melodies.  But, as evidenced by his recent cameo on Fonzworth Bentley’s solo venture, among others, Mr. West can certainly still rap, so expect another album before he goes back on tour.  Whatever it is, 808s & Heartbreak is an ambitious & innovative, if not at times misdirected, departure from Mr. West’s otherwise ambitious & innovative efforts.

Posted by Diego Baez on Nov 24, 2008 @ 11:30 am