Kanye's Walk to the Edge

The infamously lighthearted rapper/producer had been promising for months that he was going to reveal a whole different side to his music as well as his personality, and he certainly meant business. 808's and Heartbreaks is unlike anything Kanye has released to date, and although I was a huge fan of his first 3 albums, there is something different about this one: Depth. Kanye means what he says, "my friend showed me pictures of his kids, all I could show him was pictures of my cribs." Kanye wonders if he's gotten too wrapped up in a life of material things, and let other, more important opportunities pass him by. The change in depth Kanye admits is a result of the loss of his mother.

Along with a change in depth has come a change in style. All of the songs are heavy in 808 bass loops, and Kanye has conformed to the world of auto-tuning his voice. However he does so in a manner that is irresistable. He writes unforgettable hooks, and the loss of his rapping is not missed as a result.

There will be a handful of pretentious critics who say Kanye couldn't pull off this sound, and that he lacks the depth, but condemning his past as a prediction for the present work is far from fair. Kanye succeeds with flying colors in my opinion. On such a rich day of music releases in The Killers and the 14 year wait for Guns n Roses' Chinese Democracy (entries to come on both in the future), Kanye's release outshadow's the competition.