808heartbreak

By Zihan, Liu (Samuel)

Kanye West, as known as Ye and Yeezy. In most people's opinion, he is a rap singer and producer, but he is more than that: He is an artist, an artist that has won 22 Grammy awards, an artist who is able to combine jazz, blues, and even classic music all together in hiphop song, an artist that involves fashion design: he is the designer of one of the most lucrative sneakers in the world : Yeezy, and there are way more achievements to talk about in the field of music and fashion, But we aren't going to talk about these glorious pasts, instead, we are going to talk about one of Kanye's low ebb of his career and even his whole life; the creation of a new album due to this part of experience in his life, and the the process of Kanye finding himself through music. Welcome to the, issue October.

Hiphopology

The Tragedies

When Kanye’s third album GRADUATION was released, he was on top of the world. This project sold nearly a million copies in its first week and his cut a “Stronger” peaked at number one. However, fate would intervene and it all came crashing down.

In 2008, Kanye end his six years relationship with his fiancée who was about to engaged with, they claimed that they will still be friends but this event is one of the fuses that leads to the devastation of Kanye and the release of 808&heartbreak. However, the main reason is the death of her loving mother.

Donda West

In November 20th 2007, devil took her mother: Donda west’s last breath on a Plastic surgery operating table, and what has drove Kanye to depression is his mother decides doing this operation because of Kanye himself: as a mother of a celebrity, she chose to show up in public with a perfect image with his son and ignores the fact that she is already 58.

When Kanye was 3 years old, His parent got divorced, normality, it is really easy for a child turning into a problem

child when the love is absent in a family. But luckily, the judge distributed the custody to his mother who loves Kanye deeply. His mother is the literature professor in University of Chicago, the occupation of her mother has a huge influence on the artistic trait and he already started to wrote poets when he is only six, when Kanye was only ten years old, her mother got a chance to be the guest professor in Nanjing China and she took Kanye to China with her, It was the year in China that made Kanye yarned to be a star. During that time, Chinese people had never seen a dark skinned person, and they would come to see Kanye all the time, stare at you, pay attention to you, and that was what Kanye eager for, so when Kanye was only 13, his mother took him to the Studio and complete his first song, three years later her mother bought The first Recording device for Kanye, and that is when Kanye started to become a professional producerand later on it is his mother who agrees Kanye to drop out of the college for his interest in music, and giving him unconditional financial support. Nobody but Kanye himself knows the best about how much her mother loves her. So when his mother passed away because of Kanye himself, he collapsed, it is something Kanye is most afraid of: losing the sense of belonging.

Birth of the New Album

The deaths of her mother and the end of his engagement to Alexis weighed heavily on Kanye ‘s mind, but Kanye is not the type of person that will surrender to the strikes, instead, it has pushed Kanye to develop in a new direction, He replaced the previously announced album: “good ass Job” and determined to produce a brand new album: an album to find his own belongings by music, without the ones he loves the most. And the project was called 808&heartbreaks,

The cover of this album is the director of Off White and the design director of Louis Vuitton: Virgil Abloh the image of a torn heart is presented on the cover, 10 months later, the cover of the soft track version is remastered by the World renowned Street artist: Kaws.

1, Viral and Influential

The Album 808&heartbreaks released in November 2018, and it is a project that still resonates today. To convey this pain on a record, he used a technology that was already in vogue now, the secret weapon of Chris Wu: Autotune, it seems to be the most common register now in hip-hop industry, but back then it is the environment that Gangster rap dominate the whole market , it is a skill that most rapper reject and contempt,One of the most influential rapper at that time Jay z Even wrote a song called : DOA, which stands for death of autotune. But Kanye then is what Kanye is now: headstrong.

The reaction of the market proves that Kanye was right, 450,000 copies of albums was sold within the first weak and the album went platinum within a month. But most importantly, use of autotune, And the emotional lyrics has influenced the future market of hiphop: the career direction of a large sum of rapper that are heated now was affected by this album: Travis Scott, Future, Juice WRLD, Drake etc, But it has to occur long time to make the hip-hop circle to accept this album.

2, New school VS old school

Like I said，It took a long time for the HIPHOP industry And those old-school rappers to accept this album, Because most of the songs in that period Are talking about the life in gangster:

Drugs, Alcohol, and Violence, because this is where hip-hop culture came from: the hood. However,Kanye is a trailblazer, a pioneer who first tried to create a hall album about love and belongings into the album, It is seen to be a blasphemy against hiphop culture at that time, what is interesting is that when Kanye Was about to drop his album, a viral gangster rapper 50 Cent it’s also about to drop his own album, So he defiant Kanye on the media and claimed that his album will outsell Kanye’s album, or he will be retired forever, and the result clear now, Kanye won the battle, and 50 cent is still dropping songs today, but this is a mile stone and the turning point that represent the wane of gangster rap, and the hip-hop culture I Began to find his own belonging: diversification.

3, Album Dissection

An album it’s always composed by plenty of songs and they are ranked in a specific sequence purposely.

In 808 heartbreak, the first song in the album is ‘say you will’, it is an intro of the whole album, the song is 6 minutes but the half of the song is instrumental outro: the harmony of a female vocal with the slow drumbeat, the drumbeat represents the heartbeat of his mother, creating a sorrow basic keynote for the following album.

The following song ‘welcome to heartbreak’ link up with the first song, the song was featured by Kid Cudi, it is like the an opening introduction of Kanye’s world of sadness.

My favorite song In this album is the 8th song: street light.

“Seems like street lights, glowing, happen to be, Just like moments passing in front of me,

So I hopped in the cab and I paid my fare,

See I know my destination, but I'm just not there, In the streets,

I'm just not there,

Life's just not fair.”

The sense of emptiness runs through the song, describe a homeless person Who has lost the sense of belonging, He is puzzled about his future, his destination, But he hopped in the cab, No matter how far is the terminus, he is always on the road. I think that is representing the real life Kanye West who is devastated and confused about life after the death of her mother, He is too successful but too young, but he hops on the cab and decided to find himself and he’s belonging through the music, without the person he loves the most.

The album also contains songs like bad news, see you in my nightmares, coldest winter which are the songs that dedicated to his passed away mother, which I recommend you to listen it by yourself, because Kanye’s music is the kind of music that purify my soul, and You won’t feel the shock unless you‘ve heard the music by yourself.

Outro

Overall, 808heartbreak Is one of my favorite album by Kanye(The other one is ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy ’)，This is not only album that is pleasuring to ear and artistic to listen, but also highly influential albums to the hip-hop industry, And for Kanye himself, this album is especially meaningful because it represents the end of a stage of Kanye and the beginning of another. We always said we miss the old Kanye, but Kanye is always developing, every stage of Kanye is unique but grateful, now he is the father of several kids，and he had just released the Album that was named by his own mother: ’DONDA’, Hope 808 is the Kanye‘s last heartbreak.

Recommending several BEST songs in the album Welcome to heartbreak- feat. Kid Cudi

Heartless

Street lights

Bad news

(Last but not least, i’m backing the fans of Taylor Swift to treat this article rationally, I used to like Taylor Swift‘s music, until l feel in love with Kanye.)