Kanye West - 808s and Heartbreak

Kanye West's fourth cd '808s and Heartbreak' is a departure from his earlier hip-hop/pop music with big songs and catchy hooks. Kanye split up with his long term fiance in 2008 which forms the basis for many of the lyrics on it. Interviews with Kanye seem to show a complicated person full of self belief (possibly too much) who has been knocked back by the end of his relationship with his fiance and the death of his mom in the same year.

The first song on the it 'Say you will' sounds like a low key song from the TV show Miami Vice and bleeps along with Kanye's auto-tuned vocals. In 'Welcome to Heartbreak' Kanye sings about his material possesions but lack of family and his regret about this. 'Heartless' and 'Paranoid' have more of Kanye's traditional hip hop vocals. 'Love lockdown' has Kanye using the auto-tuner on his vocals and stands out as one of the better songs on the cd.

There is more singing and less rapping on '808s and Heartbreaks' which makes for an interesting cd but the lack of big catchy hooks is noticeable. It is more understated and different from his earlier releases but he should be acknowledged for trying something new.

I respect Kanye for his comment during Hurricane Katrina for going off message and saying that "George Bush doesn't care about black people." as well as his putting money and his energies into trying to help people in the black community with his foundation.