Rolling Stone recently recognized a few albums that have changed the game, and among them, Kanye West's 808s & Heartbreak was named one of the "most groundbreaking albums of all time."
Since its release, West's 2008 album has proven that hip-hop is not always about trap beats and toting guns. West's ability to try something different and succeed so effortlessly has made the album a standout in his discography.
"Kanye West's Auto-Tune-heavy, emotionally naked fourth album came after a brutal year during which his mother died and his engagement broke up," the legendary music-based magazine wrote of the album. "But the album's cavernous sound and exposed-soul lyrics confused even those who had been aware of West's recent trials.
"Its core aesthetic was like nothing in Hip Hop: freshly butchered feelings enumerated in detail, but masked by digital processing; beds of spare synths used to balance a mix of singing and rapping. However, over time it served as a new template for up-and-comers in Hip Hop and R&B. Drake cited West as his budding sound's 'most influential person' when he was hustling mixtapes, while artists like Future further tweaked the idea of using Auto-Tune as a way to convey emotions that evoke too much feeling when spoken of explicitly."
808s & Heartbreak was initially met with mixed reviews. Rolling Stone even called it a "noble failure" in its original critique:
So it's no surprise that his untrammeled egotism has led him well beyond the usual limits of his genre. With Kanye largely abandoning rapping in favor of digitally altered crooning, his fourth album represents a cultural high-water mark for Auto-Tune, that now ubiquitous pitch-correction technology. But Auto-Tune isn't totally to blame for 808s & Heartbreak. A bold, fascinating, foolhardy, occasionally unlistenable Kanye West record was inevitable, with or without the cyborg-soul software.
Other Hip Hop albums mentioned include Dr. Dre's The Chronic, Public Enemy's It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back and Run-D.M.C.'s self-titled debut.
Read the full Rolling Stone story here.
