He called the sparse opener “Say You Will” one of “his favorite tracks he’s ever done”: Propelled by cold atonal bleeping evoking an EKG machine, and faint, haunting synth pads, it feels like a tribute to the exposition of Phil Collins’ 1981 hit “In the Air Tonight,” one of the moodiest drum-machine-driven classics in the history of pop. In a 2008 MTV interview, Kanye specified that he was tapping into an interest in auteurs from that decade, from Gary Numan to Sting to Phil Collins, as well as musically paying tribute to “minimal and functional” architecture, one of his interests at the time. 808s can also be reasonably credited with proliferating trends toward an unabashedly ‘80s-pop-influenced sound in rap and pop production, expanding on a wave that was on the rise already in indie music. The influence of Kanye’s melodic, melancholic sound on the record has been noted in regards to the career of successors like Kid Cudi and the man who’s by now seemingly sublimated everything that originally made him what he is: Drake. On Friday night, Kanye is revisiting the album by performing it in its entirety at the Hollywood Bowl, for two nights - presumably, he’s also aware and proud of its continuing significance. Over time, it’s proved itself to be much more than a fluke, anticipating and influencing the direction popular music would take in the following years. In hindsight, the album seems like a logical extension of Kanye’s pre-existing interest - on Graduation, most dramatically - in synthesizing pop, indie pop/rock and hip-hop trends. Faithful Kanye devotees who didn’t like 808s prayed that it was a one-off experiment, and many others had to take a little time to let its unique pleasures settle in. Detractors thought Kanye was on the verge of insanity or washed-ness he’d let the massive success of his previous experiments go to his head, and thought an album he’d lobbed off in two months on vacation would be regarded as an instant masterpiece.
A down-tempo album with little in the way of sampling and more singing than rapping - processed through T-Pain’s maligned Autotune patch at that - 808s was perceived as Kanye going “emo” in the wake of the death of his mother and the dissolution of his relationship with Alexis Phifer. If he runs all its tracks through Auto-Tune, it isn’t just to get the notes right, but to convey the reality of what it means to try to feel everything at once: You go numb.Kanye West’s 808s and Heartbreak was, upon its impact almost seven years ago, an instant source of bewilderment and fascination. And for all its robotic austerity, 808s is a kind of kids’ album, or at least one that taps into the rush of unsorted emotions that comes with youth. Kanye says he started exploring melody because that’s how teachers taught concepts to him when he was a kid-learning through song. And no matter how alienated fame makes him feel (“Welcome to Heartbreak”), he can’t quite give it up (“Amazing”). He recognizes the transitory nature of life (“Street Lights”), but it doesn’t stop him from holding a grudge (“Heartless”). His pain is real (“Coldest Winter”), but his arrogance is, too (“RoboCop”). But in the intervening years, the album has become a blueprint for an entirely new wave of rap: introverted, melodic, melancholy, confessional-the sound of Drake and The Weeknd on down to Juice WRLD and Lil Uzi Vert. At least, it certainly wasn’t when it came out in 2008. It isn’t hip-hop in the conventional sense. But you’d have to have a pretty good internal compass to bet your future on where that wind’s gonna take you. You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows, Dylan sang-a line, incidentally, from the first electric song of his that most people would have heard (“Subterranean Homesick Blues”). Like Dylan, the new direction made him a genius to some and a traitor to others-a split that highlighted both the divisiveness of his art and the conservative streak in a scene where the imperative to keep it real can be as stifling as it is comforting. Like Dylan, Kanye didn’t need the fame or credibility: His third (and third multiplatinum) album, 2007’s Graduation, had come out only a year earlier, and he’d already established himself as the kind of visionary who could steer the conversation while hovering somewhere above it. Perhaps the best comparison for 808s & Heartbreak is when Bob Dylan went electric in 1965.