Opener "Say You Will" is built around a sparse electronic track with what sounds like a game of "Pong" being played in the background. The problem with "808s & Heartbreak" is that too often it sounds half-baked, a rush-job full of half-formed ideas. Those two incidents, coupled with Kanye's continued struggles with fame, set the stage for the decidedly downtrodden "808s & Heartbreak." Consider it Kanye's emo album. It's been a tumultuous year for Kanye: His mother passed away, his engagement fell apart. And the music is far from the celebratory hip-hop that's become his calling card. For starters, he doesn't rap, he sings, tunelessly at that, with most of his vocals clouded by layers of T-Pain-like Auto-Tune vocal effects. West has never really done things by the book, and with "808s & Heartbreak," he sets the book on fire. He displayed an honesty, a vulnerability and a willingness to self-criticize that was all but alien in the inflated world of hip-hop bravado. On his first three albums, "Dropout," 2005's "Late Registration" and last year's "Graduation," West positioned himself as a different kind of hip-hop star, full of swagger but free of the gangsta trappings that bog down so many of his peers. "808s & Heartbreak" is a stark departure for rapper-producer Kanye West, who since emerging with his 2004 debut, "The College Dropout," has grown into the decade's most transfixing music star, hip-hop or otherwise.
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