Well, let’s qualify that statement. Kanye and his producers/managers/record execs are brilliant. Kanye’s latest album, 808′s & Heartbreak, is a COMPLETE departure from his previous records. And when I say complete, I may be under-emphasizing the fact that moving from rapper-who-samples-from-everything to pop-singer-with-pitch-correction-effects-and-original-compositions is an incredibly drastic change.
Kanye has sold millions of albums; in fact, he’s sold millions of each of his albums. The College Dropout, Late Registration, and Graduation were stellar – 10 Grammys from 24 nominations, numerous other awards, and triple platinum certifications all around. However, these records were a trilogy. They had an overarching theme around education, and were all very similar in nature of style, technique, and musicality (some might argue for a lack thereof). They were awesome, sampled, explicit language-ridden rap albums through and through.
808′s & Heartbreak takes a different approach. It’s left the education motif, the rap, and the sampling techniques in the trash. iTunes, amazon.com MP3, and others classify it as a hip-hop or rap album; it is most definitely NOT. If anything, this is one of the better pop albums i’ve picked up in awhile. But this is not without quite a bit of controversy. MTV has a blog article titled “Kanye West Inspires the Question: Should Rappers Sing?.” When I tweeted that the album is great, quite a few of my followers disagreed whole-heartedly. So is this approach good? Is releasing a pop album with all singing, little if any “rapping,” no cursing, and no sampling a good thing for Kanye West?
Hells yeah.
This is why Kanye, his producers, his managers, and others on his team are brilliant. They just opened up a completely new segment – think of how many 8-14 year olds have parents that won’t let them buy explicit albums. Think about how many adults that enjoy popular music detest rap. Or young people in the same category. Kanye has proven he’s diverse in his musical ability, and it’s only going to help him out from a business perspective. Not only is 808′s going to sell like crazy, but his back-catalog is going to be reinvigorated from people who are just discovering Kanye is truly a popular artist.
I smell a (few) Grammy(s).
While there are a fair amount of explicit moments on 808, "My Angel" and "Pinocchio" come to mind (my least favorite tracks on the album), I agree with you whole heartedly.If I have to be labelled a Kanye Fanboy then I’m ok with that. Tattoo it next to the Apple logo and the Audi rings.. (metaphorically speaking of course.) But seriously, this album will be big I think. Similar to David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust days.. accept what COULD come out of the Kanye album is the opportunity for people to be their music and not their music’s genre. I’m not saying Kanye is the prodigal son of music, here to bring a new day but I subscribe to the mentality that he brings a new mentality to the craft.808′s isn’t as heavily sampled as previous albums, but the samples are there. He’s a connoisseur of good music, and like a connoisseur of good wines he’ll pair it up with something new to give a great experience to the consumer. I think it’s cool to be educated on music history while also finding appreciation to the production and difference in what he’s doing.
If you haven’t seen this video it’s a good watch. The title has a negative connotation but … like I said, I just think it means he knows how to use his resources. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XaDeC2LEdAAnd my Ziggy reference was to say that musicians might adopt a bit more freedom with their expression. Songs like "Never Let Me Down" and "Street Lights" wouldn’t normally be in a single artists repertoire; though Ziggy was a bit of a performance in itself, Kanye isn’t creating another character to express himself differently, he’s saying outright that he’s multi-facetted.