Goodbye My Friend, Will I Ever Love Again?

Much like the balloon on the cover, my faith in Kayne has deflated.

Early in his career Kanye West, the Grammy awarding winning Chicago bred hip hop superstar known for his massive ego, had to fight to prove he was a rapper/producer and not just a producer. After three highly successful albums that had both critical acclaim and chart topping success (including a sales showdown with Billboard behemoth 50 Cent, whom West bested) the death of his mother, and a nasty breakup with his fiancée Alexis Phifer, Mr. West decided he no longer needed to rap. On 808s and Heartbreak, Mr. West’s fourth studio album, he continues to play the underdog by singing—with the assistance of the Auto Tuner—through an entire album that’s neither amusing nor uplifting unless your going through heartbreak yourself.

“I don’t even listen to rap,” said West, in an interview with DJ Semtex. “My apartment is too nice to listen to rap in. I have to be in a way more grimy environment to turn any rap music on.”

Presumably, Mr. West doesn’t even play his first three albums in his house. In fact, not only does Mr. West not listen to rap—the genre that made him into everything he is—he questions the ability of the style itself.

“There’s limitation to rapping,” he told MTV.

If Kanye is abandoning rap because he feels rap is too limited to express true emotion, like that of loss and heartbreak, he may need to take a closer took at artists like 2pac, Joe Buddens, Scarface, and Lupe Fiasco. In reality, the genre is not limited, but Mr. West’s rapping ability is.

His flow should be considered clumsy at best. As a lyricist, he never had the technical skill of emcees like his big brother, Jay-Z. Instead, Kayne was thoughtful, earnest, and most importantly humorous; qualities sorely missing in his rapping counterparts.

On 808s and Heartbreak, most of the good is gone, and only the bad remains. He may have never been a great rapper, but he’s a terrible singer. But the only place you actually get a chance to hear him sing is on a bonus track titled “Pinocchio Story.” The track is listed as a live freestyle he did while performing in Singapore, but it sounds like the audition of an American Idol reject.

The rest of the album is done with the assistance of an Auto-Tuner, which makes West’s voice bearable but still not something to envy. Especially considering that he’s still a clumsy vocalist who often tries too hard to jam too words into a sentence.

“Hip hop is like a big high school,” he told MTV. “It used to be about standing out. Now it’s about fitting in.”

Considering the fact that Lil Wayne, Snoop Dogg, 50 Cent, Lil Kim, Bow Wow, and T-Pain have all used the Auto-Tune, fans may wonder how using the Auto-Tune will help Kanye stand out.

What will stand out is how candidly and carelessly he discusses his despair.

“My friend shows me pictures of their kids, and I can show him is pictures of my cribs/He said his daughter got a brand new report card, and all I got is a brand new sports car,” he sings, on “Welcome To Heartbreak.”

Yes his lyrics are heartfelt, and he’s interested in conveying emotion than being clever or making a point; things he used to excel at.

The other thing he used to do so well was make beats. Here every beat makes use of the TR 808 drum machine, which along with being Hawaii’s zip code (Where the album was recorded) is where the title of the album derives from. The results are thriving drum beats on tracks like the first single “Love Lockdown” and “Amazing”, which are both mesmerizing and memorable. Although he continues to evolve his sound further into electro territory, the other aspects to the production are somewhat lifeless and totally joyless.

Or maybe their just heartless, much like Kanye’s ex-fiancée, whom most of the lyrics are directed at (The sole exception is “Coldest Winter”—a track about his late mother). Through the course of the album, Kanye refers to his ex as heartless, compares her to main character of Robocop, as well as Katy Bates’ character in Misery, calls her a “spoiled little LA girl”, but admits he still fantasizes about her.

The mix of emotion leave Mr. West sometimes sounding like an ex who leaves a sing song message on your answering machine, hoping to win you back when in truth it just freak you out all the more.

Whether or not his ex forgives him is anyone’s guess. But his fans may not forgive him for this record, and he may find himself, once again, out in the cold.