The lyrics of this album are absolutely soaked in self-pity and melodrama: “Who knew she was a drama queen that’d turn my life to Stephen King?” as well as a sense of snubbed conceit, “Wait a couple months, then you gon’ see you’ll never find nobody better than me.”
West was the prototypical, self-indulgent sad boy hip-hop loves so much today. In the words of West himself, “It’s lonely at the top.” West has made his egomania a well-known fact today, but at the time, his super-stardom was only just beginning, with this being his first airing of grievances the public had ever witnessed. More important to this theme of loneliness is West’s minimalist production, as many of the album’s tracks feature little more than West’s auto-tuned-drenched vocals and a simple 808 beat. This loneliness is ever present on “808s & Heartbreak.” An album with a total length of 51:58 has just four features, including a then up-and-coming Kid Cudi. On top of this, West was far more famous now than ever before, leading him to feel lonely and disillusioned.
In November 2007, West’s mother died due to complications from surgery, and shortly after, he broke off his long-term engagement with fiancée Alexis Phifer. This leads us to the minimalistic, auto-tuned droning of 2008’s “808s & Heartbreak,” the most influential hip hop album in the 2010s.įollowing the release of “Graduation” in 2007, West was ready to cap off the first era of his career, now known as the “College Trilogy,” with the release of a now-vaporous fourth entry, “Good Ass Job.”īut before production of the album could commence, a series of tragedies plagued West, forcing him off the beaten path and into uncharted territory.
While it has so far been polarizing, one thing is almost guaranteed: It will be West’s last effort of the 2010s decade, a decade he began by releasing his since widely acclaimed record, “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.” While that album was an important landmark in his career, if we want to get a firm grasp on just how wide West’s influence has been, it is best to look back just one album further in his discography. After several delays and renamings, two acts, which have become motifs of West’s career, the album was finally released on Oct. This past Friday, rapper Kanye West released his ninth studio album, “Jesus is King,” to much anticipation.
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