Kanye West is no stranger to controversy. But the in last couple years his stay in the public conscious, and tabloid headlines, has revolved around increasingly outlandish actions. Rants at concerts and on radio shows, fights with paparazzi, his marriage to Kim Kardashian and his highly polarizing album "Yeezus" (2013) have proved that no one really does it quite like West. Among the recent headlines, it's easy to forget the height of his past controversies ("Imma let you finish," anyone?). Overshadowed by the controversial sounds and reaction to "Yeezus" is the public debate that once swirled around West's fourth studio album, "808's & Heartbreak" (2008). At once acclaimed and derided, the auto-tuned electro experiment is platinum album that sold almost a half million units in the week after its release. Yet among many music circles, the album was attacked as "soft," derided for not truly being hip hop - and drew comparisons to Common's failed experimental album "Electric Circus" (2002). However time has proved that "808's" was one of West's most important and influential albums.
To examine the impact that "808's & Heartbreak" had, it first needs to be evaluated in the context of hip-hop music in 2008. In the mid-2000s, many considered hip-hop to be dying, if not already dead; it was seen as a genre run amok by commercialism, braggadocio and an increasingly generic sound. Charts, and the genre as a whole, were dominated by the likes of Lil' Wayne, Flo Rida and TI, who were all cultivating a similar club-oriented sound. The T-Pain phenomenon had recently crested, and backlash against auto-tune was mounting.
Thus enter West, devastated by the recent death of his mother and the breakup with his long-time fianc?©e to make an album divergent from all expectations. Fueled by the depth of his pain and emotion, he eschewed much of his rapping background in favor of synthesized vocals and melancholic singing. His production work was a stylistic departure from his earlier music. Still relying on heavy layering of instrumental sounds, West abandoned his soul music trappings in favor of somber string instruments, stretched out synthesizers and tightly laced piano notes. The result was an introspective and unsettlingly emotional album. Cohesive in its depressing soundscape, fluctuating between angry and distraught, and distinctly rooted in genres beyond hip-hop, "808's" was a vast departure from West's previous work.
What "808's" really accomplished was pushing the boundary of what hip-hop could be. West proved he could make a commercially successful album without relying on standard hip-hop tropes and narratives. Moreover, he introduced pop and electronic elements to his hip-hop formula well before it became a common phenomenon to draw on ulterior modern genres. "808's" paved the way for a plethora of artists to explore introspective and emotional sides of hip-hop. Kid Cudi's "Man on the Moon" (2009) is a perfect example: moody and similarly electropop, he clearly drew on the influence of "808's" (on which Cudi himself was featured) in making his debut album. The success and development of other artists such as Drake, Childish Gambino and Frank Ocean have been linked to the influence of "808's" in allowing such artists to explore more personal scopes of hip-hop.
To bring this back to a modern context, there is a pretty natural comparison to be drawn between "808's" and "Yeezus." Both presented production and sounds that were completely foreign to contemporary musical landscapes. Both drew heavily on cross-genre influences, "808's" being something of a pop album, while "Yeezus" pulls elements from electronic dance music. Both simultaneously attracted lavish praise and popular criticism. But only time will tell if "Yeezus" changes the direction of hip-hop as much as "808's" did.
