808's and Heartbreaks

808’s and Heartbreaks

“I bet if I give all my love, then nothing is gonna tear us apart”. That line marked the peak of romanticism and its entrance into hip-hop. It’s a very naïve statement, one that is subjective, hopeful and detached from reality. It is as if Drake has taken love heroine; it is impulsive and desperate – it drips of anxiety and wishful thinking. In an age of romanticism, it is beautiful hence its success on the billboard charts, it peaked at number 1. This song comes off Drakes debut album “Thank Me Later” and the title of the song is “Find Your Love” written and produced by Kanye West. Kanye West is an amazing artist. He ushered in this new sound and made hip-hop lyrics more descriptive, more abstract. Sure, we had artists like Common who could paint pictures with their words and use words to evoke feelings but Kanye went a step further – he could do it with beats to create a mood, an atmosphere. He brought something new to hip-hop, something fresh. He was so innovative. He is the greatest creative of our time.

In 2008, he released his fourth album 808’s and Heartbreaks. It was completely new from anything he had ever done before. It was risky. However, romanticism had been at its peak. We had songs on the radio about love dominating. The Romantic Comedy genre was booming and Hollywood was hard at work. Love and romanticism was popular culture. This was reflected when Jay –Z, hip-hops biggest and greatest star released a song titled “03 Bonnie and Clyde” in which he proclaimed “All I need in this life of sin, is me and my girlfriend”. Tabloids and magazines went crazy with the idea, Jay –Z had proclaimed to the world that Beyoncé was his girlfriend – it was amazing, mystical and majestic! Once again, Kanye West was at the heart of it all – it was he who produced “03’ Bonnie and Clyde”. So there was a destiny to the release of “808’s and Heartbreaks”. Being Kanye, the album had to be different and fresh – a sound no one has ever heard before. To do this, he had to deconstruct the Rap genre only to reconstruct it again. For this album he would use all sort of drums, melodies, auto-tune, deep, heavy strings, keyboards and pianos. His lyrics were melancholic, desperate, full of loneliness, dread, rue, resentment, sometimes hopeful and optimistic but detached from reality. It was such a grand idea – mind blowing concept but only execution mattered, he was in unchartered territory and only excellence would do and it did! 

The first track of the album takes off from “Find Your Love” in the sense that he gives everything to this girl. Instead of reciprocating she’s distant and makes half-baked promises. You see this girl doesn’t really love Kanye and eventually he sees this and breaks up with her. “Say You Will” is about Kanye venting out his troubles and anxieties. Kanye is caught up and in a world of his own. He is sad and wishes things were different. Kanye wishes that this girl loved her, this is reflected in the lyrics “I admit that I, still fantasize about you”. The chorus “Hey, hey, hey don’t say you will, unless you will” protests and confronts but he does this subjectively in his mind because he is alone and contemplative. The looped beat is symbolic of how pathological promises are and it communicates that Kanye West is locked in trance – a world of his own. Further, it sets the mood of the album and preheats the listener to the sound of the album namely that it will be rich in melodies, drums and sorrowful lyrics and venting.

 

The album commences with the second track “Welcome to Heartbreak”. The song starts off with heavy strings that communicates anxiety and distress. The lyrics are full of disappointment and the notion that everything always goes wrong. The song features Kid Cudi who is known for moaning and groaning in his songs. He gives the song edge and his tone compliments the song’s texture and sorrowful melodies. The song is the equivalence of “why always me”? The song that follows is “Heartless”, it tells the tale of how Kanye West met a girl who changed his life. A girl who showed him human nature. He describes her as cold and devoid of a heart. The beat is up-tempo, repetitive and easy on the ear. This is a dramatic turn from “Welcome to Heartbreak” and it sets the mood for the upcoming songs. We can assume that the girl he is referring to on Heartless is the same girl on “Say You Will” because not delivering a promise has legitimate grounds to being heartless especially in the context of something so complicated as love. Again, the song is in the first person indicating that Kanye felt a direct injustice – something covered on “Say You Will”.

      

The fourth track “Amazing” takes off from the upbeat and up-tempo “Heartless”. It is endorsed by powerful kick drums and complimented with soulful melodic keys. It is your typical Kanye West song. It is strong, affirmed, assured and a confidence booster. The song is egotistical and narcissistic. He prides himself to being a great prize. The use of “amazing” as an adjective communicates superiority and being number one. It is an infectious statement and one he says no one will ever take away from him. It is the rare moment in the album where he is upbeat and confident of himself. The next track “Love lockdown” is about the glory of falling in love. How it can hypnotize and keep you in a trance. The song is up-beat, rich with multiple drums and complimented with piercing keys. It is musical, cohesive and concise. It sounds like the best day ever! It is an iconic song, the first single of the album.

The next song “Paranoid” is a tale of the common ground most relationships reach in this era of romanticism. Namely, that everything is great at first and you are in love as exhibited on “Love Lockdown” but as time goes on you get fed up with one another, you fight, get irritated by one another and ultimately hate one another. Kanye West explores the obsessive nature of relationships in this phase – it is only natural in this era of romanticism that when you love someone, you want to possess him/her and know everything about that particular person. Spying and surveillance becomes the norm. At this stage of the album Kanye West is rational stating “You worry about the wrong things, the wrong things, you worry about the wrong things.” Once again, he is contemplative.

He continues contemplating on “Robocop” and tables a “pros and cons” list. He discovers a lot of bad than good. Kanye feels confined, restricted cooped up in her little cell. He describes her as a “drama-queen” and questions why she is always surveilling him and checking everything! Kanye West at this point is fed up because she never stops – she likens her to a Robocop an entity that’s suffocating and challenging his freedom with no recess. He states that she is crazy, but he loves that about her, however it’s not enough. He makes a decision to leave her and cites the reason as her being a “Spoiled little LA girl.”

 

Now single on “Streetlights” he is optimistic about life again. He feels liberated. It is as if for the first time in his life, he is alive and it excites him. He realizes for the first time that everything in the world ultimately fades and he wants to experience life. As an individual, he has goals and destinations that he has to go to and his hoping the streetlights will illuminate the path for him. The song is optimistic and has a good feeling about it. A departure from the earlier songs in the album. The beat is energizing and forward-going. The melodies are more golden and spirited with plenty of life. The song is soothing, motivated and beautiful. At least that’s what it sounds like, despite the optimism of the beat, the golden and rich melodies, the song has a terrible and dark anti-climax. There is an internal confliction – the beat and the melodies are a deception. While Kanye feels like he has done everything he could to get to his destination, he remains stagnant and he is left a frustrated figure. Ultimately confessing that life is not fair. The realization that maybe the streetlights lead nowhere. He questions his life – he questions his destiny.

   

Kanye once again drifts off into melancholy on “Bad News”. He once again contemplates about the girl on “Say You Will” and thinks about her betrayal. The fact that he loved her and she wasn’t emotionally there for him instead she had somebody on the side. Kanye West sees everything in blue and this is reflected with the violins and other strings in this song. They emphasize Kanye’s sadness and paint a picture of rue and heartbreak. He just can’t stop thinking about her. The power of melancholy is that it enables you to reflect, it slows you down and takes the will of life out of you, leaving you in shambles and tatters. At this point of the album Kanye West feels broken.

On the next song “See You in My Nightmares” we see a different Kanye. He is resentful and angry. The anger in the song makes him passionate and forceful. Anger is the next stage from melancholy because it enables you to act. He takes out all the hurt and confusion of the album in this song. The song is grand and bold. It has synthesizers that echo and robust hip-hop beats with additional vocals from Lil Wayne. It is a therapeutic song for Kanye West in the context of the album. This song will help him move on. On the last track of the album “Coldest Winter” he makes peace with everything and falls in the background of the hard, hitting drums. On “Coldest Winter” he bids goodbye to the girl in the intro whom he loved. However, a powerful realization just came to me, he could be bidding goodbye to his mother who died round about the same time he created “808’s and Heartbreaks”. He states “Good bye my friend, I won’t ever love again. Never again” – that’s powerful and it sheds important insight to his frame of mind. Of course, Kanye can “love” again via romantic relationship and he has done with Kim Kardashian – but when your mother dies, that’s it you can make that powerful declaration of not loving ever again. No one is like your mother. A masterful creative project from Kanye West! So emotionally charged and beautiful in a tragic way. One of his best albums. People 50 years from now will listen to it and think “WOW”!  

The hidden track of the album “Pinocchio Story” is a very sophisticated song. It is very lively and intelligent. It covers the topic of existentialism – the meaning of life. Pinocchio is a wooden puppet who has a lot of questions about life. He lacks a self-campus and seeks to find self-worth from the outside world. His deep hatred of himself makes him want to be a “real boy”. Kanye West uses Pinocchio as a metaphor to communicate his worries and troubles – to make a connection between the “real” and the abstract. Kanye West questions the validity of life, its essence, its fabric and whether the life of fame is worth it. He looks at his own life and notes that it’s too material and those worldly assets are making him empty inside. He feels like a wooden object devoid of emotions like love – like Pinocchio. There’s this comical irony in this story; Pinocchio seeks a self-identity from the outside world and Kanye West finds nothing from the outside world instead, the outside world makes him empty and feeling worthless. Since Kanye West is already a “real boy”, he feels being alone with himself again will make him “real”. In the context of the song “real” is the ability to love. He doesn’t find answers in the song, he is just being thoughtful and thinking out loud. He is confused about life and the meaning of it and he consults with a wise man who advises him that one day he’ll find his way.