Ye “Kanye” West released 808s and Heartbreak on November 4th, 2008, to mixed reviews. Some hated the new sounds and use of 808 drums while some found the album to be the best Kanye album to date.

The album had an innovative use of synth’s, 808 drums, and melodic lyrics which previously had only been found in underground hip hop groups with Kanye bringing it to the forefront of modern hip hop.

Younger artists such as Lil Uzi Vert and The Weeknd both have taken major influence from the album.

Background

Before the making of 808s Kanye’s mother, Donda West tragically passed away. After, Kanye and his then fiancé Alexis Phifer split.

Before the death of Donda West, Kanye met soon to be up and coming artist Kid Cudi in a Virgin megastore with Kid Cudi introducing himself to Kanye and after Kanye turned down some of his music he claimed “we’ll be working together one day soon”.

Kid Cudi ran into Kanye again at a BAPE store. Kanye would later hear Cudi’s single “Day ‘n’ Nite”, soon after he would sign Cudi to his label “GOOD Music”.

The Making

While working on 808s, Kanye had two artists to help on the album as a whole, Scott “Kid Cudi” Mescudi and Faheem “T-Pain” Najm. Kanye wanted an album much like T-Pain’s first album “Rappa Ternt Sanga”, with Kanye listening to T-Pain’s first album and calling in T-Pain to make 808s sound more like it.

Kanye and Kid Cudi worked together on four tracks, “Heartless” being the chorus, “Welcome to Heartbreak” being featured, “Paranoid” being background vocals, and “RoboCop” in which he helped write.

Both Jeezy and Lil Wayne inspired Kanye with their use of auto-tune with both getting a feature on the album. Kanye’s sad and melodic lyrics took inspiration from his recent breakup with his ex-wife, with many lyrics talking about her and the whole song of “Heartless” being about her.

After The Album

The album would peak at the top spot of the Billboard 200 and sell 450,000 units in one day, being the worst selling Kanye album at that point.

Two months after the album came out it became a certified platinum selling 1,000,000 units. Now the album is a certified triple platinum selling over 3,000,000 units as of 2020. After 808s and Heartbreak

Kanye West would find himself in hot water during the 2009 VMA awards, after a drunk Kanye walked on stage and said that Beyonce deserved the award for Best Female Video over Taylor Swift.

Kanye would then go into a secluded state recording “never see me again” and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Kanye’s magnum opus. Most look back at the album now as the forefather of modern hip hop.

With many artists such as The Weeknd saying “[808s] is one of the most important bodies of work of my generation”.