The time now is 1.35am, hours before in a lush bar in the O2 Dome, special guests and the press were invited to listen to Kanye West’s new album 808’s & Hearbreak’. The Hip Hop Chronicle were in attendance.
Set for release on November 24rd, the album has already raised eyebrowns over what kind of sound the Chi-Town singer/rapper/songwriter/producer would bring.
Kanye walks into a packed bar, everyone anticipating to hear this album. He whips out his apple notebook. DJ Semtex, on the one’s and two’s starts to co-ordinate with Kanye’s people over how to play the album.
Kanye wearing a grey blazer, grey shirt and a purple scarf is calm and collected. As Semtex play’s ‘Let The Beat Build’, Kanye starts to recite Weezy’s lyrics while setting up his laptop. Its not been 5 minutes but already Kanye is in his zone. Semtex then plays the newly release ‘History’, a Jay-Z track which Kanye produced. Kanye starts to bop his head as if he’s reciting the lyrics. You can see his passion for his music inside 5 minutes.
After setting up, Kanye addresses the audience and thank’s them for coming. He then starts to explain why he decided to make this ‘piece of art’. His attention quickly shifts to the blogs.
‘The blogs try to suggest stuff’ but he wants to make music that he wants. He explains that he has to live with this music, he has to perform this music, so he’ll make the music he likes. He used the analogy that making music is like decorating a home. When people tell him not to sing he says, ‘its like saying dont sit on that couch in your house’.
He ends with a message to the negative blogs: ‘respectfully fuck you’!
Kanye wants to be a pop-artist, not in the negative sense of the word but he wants to stretch the game. He wants to make his mark in such a way that no other has done.
He admits that recent losses have hurt him, that he himself has been lost but going to events like the MTV EMA’s and seeing Beyonce, Grace Jones, Bono, Sir Paul McCartney, made him realise that’s where he belongs, in the company of greatness.
The artist said that the 808 drum is important, its something that can move you, a concept pointed out to him by John Byran. Every beat on the album is off a 808. The heartbreak is symbolises the effect he had created with the use of the vocoder.
Soon we get into the first track.
Track 1 - Say You Will
The track is dark, it has a epic sound. The drum hits you in the face. This isnt like previous Kanye tracks we have heard before. Lines like ‘cant waste no time, she might leave you soon’ and ‘when I grab your neck, I touch your soul’, you can see Kanye has upped his songwriting skills. There’s a great arrangement. There’s a long period of the track, which is instrumental, where Kanye wants the listen to appreciate the arrangement.
The track itself is 6.30minutes. If you are a producer and a music lover, you are gonna understand why Kanye has arranged the track like this.
Track 2 - Welcome To Heartbreak
Again it starts off dark. When I first heard the beat, it sounded like battle music. Something you’d hear in a Hollywood movie. I like the use of the paino in the track. It gives a sense of hope. I personally dont think the vocoder was needed in this particular track. Kanye’s normal voice would have been sufficent. While this track was playing, Kanye was very animated especially during the following lyrics ‘head spinning, cant keep having these visits … welcome to heartbreak’.
Already two tracks into the album and the rapper has set the tone for this album.
Track 3 - Heartless
Heartless - this was the 2nd single. It gained a good response from the audience
Track 4 - Amazing ft Young Jeezy
‘Im a monster’, I’m a killer’ rings out of the sound system. Kanye is aggressive on this track. ‘I’m exhausted of greiving’. He later proclaims on the track ‘Im a problem that cant be solved’.
Kanye almost sounds like a King overlooking his throne. A refreshing addition to the track is Young Jeezy. After the album listening session, Kanye said he liked working with Jeezy because of the authencity they bring together. They have wonderful chemistry and a line that Kanye uses sums it best. Its ‘pop and hood mixed together’.
Track 5 - Love Lockdown
The first single off the album, which raised alot of eyebrows but grew on most people. Kanye changed the drum arrangement at the end. At this point in the evening, Kanye was performing each track in his chair. It’s a passion that was nice to see.
Track 6 - Paranoid
This track is an ode to 1980’s Electro music. It’s about a relationship. ‘Why are you so paranoid’, ‘you worry about the wrong things’. This is the first part of the album where he actually rhymes, which is rare in this album.
Its also the first upbeat track in the album and what’s telling is that the vocoder is hardly used. I think that Kanye is making a metaphorical point with the vocoder. When he’s upset or angry, the vocoder is used. In essence the vodocer equals ‘Heartbreak’. However, when he is happy during this album, he uses his own voice. There’s also a break beat too in this track.
Track 7 - Robocop
At this stage in the album, we have gone back to the dark sound along with thumping 808’s.
‘Baddest girl I’ve ever seen, out of a movie scene, a drama queen’. This track is of course, Robocop, which was leaked last week.
Track 8 - Street Lights
This track is like a monologue. Here’s Kanye is speaking to himself and looking at the world around him. ‘I know my destination … streetlights, broadway’. It seems at this point of the album, he has finally found his way past all the hearbreak and anger. The use of the guitar definately helps the track. The vocoder is also used less in this track. He’s come to a realisation. The arrangment of the strings and guitar helps the track to have a sense of upliftment and hope. The track ends ‘ I know my destination but I’m not in the streets’. That line is repeated until ‘life’s just not fair’.
There’s been alot of talk about Kanye. His dress sense, his musical sound. I think he’s making a statement, a statement that he’s not looking back at the streets, that he’s now found his place at this stage of his career. He’s now a megastar and this track is that realisation.
Track 9 - Bad News
I love the string arrangment on this track. The drums are like Kanye said ‘retarted’. This was one track where my head was bopping waiting for Kanye to spit rhymes. It has a different pace. It’s slightly quicker. The vocoder is used again. ‘I just heard some real bad news’. The track has a sense of melacholy about it. Its a track written in the first person from a female’s perspective. It’s about when you break up with someone and they met someone else so quickly, they never told you and you are still surprised. That’s what Kanye means when he says ‘I just heard some real bad news’. There’s not alot of lyrics in this track but its certainly one of the standout tracks because of the beat and the lyrics.
When this track had finished, Kanye replayed the track to the surprise of some of the guests. Kanye told us that this track is his favourite from the album. Kanye wanted us to hear it word for word. At that point, I understood why. The beat is dope and the lyrics are too. Hearing it at the volume, you dont appreciate what he’s saying. When making this track, Kanye revealed he was in his zone, like Jay-Z would be. He was truly inspired with this track. The paino arrangement was created by Kanye. He hummed the paino arrangement and freestyled the lyrics.
Track 10 - See You In My Nightmares ft Lil Wayne
As soon as I heard this track, I thought of DJ Khaled, I was almost waiting for ‘We The Best’, I have no idea why. This is a track that features Lil Wayne. There’s no rapping on this track by Wayne, he just sings with the vocoder.
Hearing this track, it seemed like a statement. Lyrics like ‘letting you know’, ‘you do you, I’ma be fine’, ‘after tonight, there’s no turning back’. The statement I saw was two artists at the top of their game saying that they will make the music they want, telling haters ‘you do you, while I’ll do me’. ‘You can hate but ‘ima be fine’.
There’s more aggression in this track from Kanye. Its almost like he’s venting his frustration at the hate, fighting back with his talent. Again I love the string arrangement, its sweeping and definately adds depth to the song.
Track 11 - Coldest Winter
‘On lonely nights, I start to fade’. Drums thumping, pounding through the speaking, almost like its punching you in the face. ‘Memories made in the coldest winter’. Coldest Winter was a song about Kanye’s mom, who he sadly lost. Hearing him speak about it, you can see its still painful. This track is full of clever metaphors. ‘Goodbye my friend’. That can be to his mum, it can be to heartbreak, which has been his friend throughout this album. What I have been impressed with throughout this is Kanye’s songwriting skills. He’s hit a new standard.
Track 12 - Pinocchio Story
The final track on the album was a live freestyle Kanye performed at a concert. It insipred Beyonce so much that she told Kanye to put it on his album. ‘Its so crazy, I got something figured out’. For the most part, this track is acapella. Essentially Kanye is talking about his fame and venting that with all the vacations, all the money and clothes still wont make him be happy. This track is certainly introspective. ‘Do you think I will sacrifice real life for fame?’ He asks during the song.
As the song progress we get to what he wants. ‘I just wanna be a real boy’. A guitar softly fades in. ‘Just want to be an American dream … [people say] Kanye you keep it real boy, perspective’. What I soon realise is that this final track is like a poem. Just like Ted Hughes or Slyia Plath would vent their emotions through poetry, Kanye is doing the same through his music.
The final words of the album - ‘a wise man once said, you’ll find you’re way’
The album is interesting. Looking at it as a piece of music, its not bad. Its actually pretty dope. Some of the production had me stumped. I’m like ‘how did he do that?’ He’s got animal sounds and incorporated it into his music. Its not a Hip Hop album in the sense of Rakim, Guru, MOP etc, its Hip Hop because its musically expression. Kanye is looking to strech the game, etch people’s name’s out and put his on top. He was explaining after playing the album that he wants to be the first person to create this type of Hip Hop. He said that people who started trend off will never be forgotten.
His mother once told him ‘life’s not promised’ so make the most of it, which Kanye is trying to do. At this stage of his career, Kanye says he can make art out of anything. He’s certainly in a zone.
Year’s before he got fame, he once saw Phonte (of Little Brother) as his competition. ‘Ye revealed that he and Phonte were similar in style and that he needed to excel his own game to separate himself from artists like Phonte.
The reason why he ‘Ye did Love Lockdown was to shake up the industry. He sees rappers and artists in general being to lax, getting to comfortable and he’s trying to keep them on their toes. He releases Love Lockdown, so his peers think they are safe and then he drops ‘Heartless’ and switches it up again. ‘This is a wakeup call’. He even said that Rihanna was the best thing to happen to Beyonce. Kanye now believes that Bey has since stepped her game up and is making sure no challenger’s can take her crown.
All West wants is quality music. Music like Michael Jackson at his peak. Music like Boy George and Culture Club, something that the rapper believes is lacking.
At the moment, the Chicago artist is working on Kid Cudi, Mr Hudson and Jay-Z album’s. He revealed that he did have a track with Jay-Z for the album called ‘Haters’ but it didnt fit the tone of ‘808′ so it will now appear on Jay’s Blueprint 3.
At one point in the evening, Kanye referred to Jay’s album as ‘drug-dealer rap shit’. lol
Kanye wants to grow up. He talks of settling down with kids and a wife but its about meeting the right person. He explained why he gets heated with the pap’s. He just wants to live his life. While he know’s that he’s a star, he still wants to do normal things like going to the store and walking through the airport without security.
My Short Chat With Kanye West
After the album session, there was a Q&A session, which Kanye really wanted to do. He was real respectful. The first question was not music related. One person asked Kanye about Obama being elected being a fellow Chicago citizen. Kanye said it was great but let’s talk about the album. The mic when to me. I didn’t have a clue what to ask Kanye. You gotta come correct when asking focused people like Kanye a question. If they dont like it, they will tell you.
I then remembered that at the start of the session, the rapper talked about making music for stadiums like the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix. So I asked Kanye why he felt the rest of the Hip Hop genre havent caught up with him with making tracks that can fill stadiums (stadium status!)
Kanye’s response
‘I feel I’ve been placed into this position … not everyone is anointed to be in such a position’ He then went on to speak about translating his losses as a child into music, something that he feel’s is extremely hard to do.
‘Tapping into your childhood isnt easy’. While Kanye acknowledged that he has a talent, he left by saying to me, ‘Hip Hop is about doing what you feel’.
This was a fabolous night. I was really glad to have been invited to hear the album. While you can see my opinions above, be sure to buy the album on November 24th.
