808s & Heartbreak

Kanye West is the brightest star in the universe.

At least that's what a robot claimed on his last tour.

The Luis Vuitton Don won't hesitate to laud himself any chance he gets. A few weeks ago, he determined he was the 'voice of this generation'. Some call it arrogance. Some call it delusion. But if Kanye keeps producing albums like his latest, and most ambitious album, 808s & Heartbreak, he can say whatever he wants.

Just 15 months since dropping Graduation, Mr. West, Mr. West, Mr. Fresh, Mr. by-his-self-he-so impressed, has entered an artistic stratosphere that few have ventured.

808s is unlike anything Kanye, or any other musician has ever released. For someone who spent the early part of his career as a producer and a musician seemingly sticking to the exact same formula (you can't say that Dialated Peoples "This Way" and Talib Kweli's "Get By" aren't more or less the same song), that is quite the achievement,

This could come off like Styx's Kilroy Was Here. People will either get it, or they won't. Auto-Tune isn't for everyone.

From my highly biased state, I can honestly deem 808s as the most open and honest relationship album since Marvin's brilliant Here My Dear.

You won't find anything like "The New Workout Plan" or "Good Life"on this album. Kanye's in a dark place. "Paranoid" is an amped up Terminator Soundtrack cut that gets Rick Rolled - "All of the time he be up in my checking through my cell phone, baby no/You wanna kill the vibe on another night/ here's another fight, oh here we go". Sound familiar?

When Kanye sings "It's 4AM and I can't sleep/Her love is all that I can see", on "Coldest Winter", you know someone sliced open his chest with a scalpel, pulled it apart and yanked out his battered heart.

You might think Kanye should stick to rapping over what he's currently doing (he calls it 'pop art'). But regardless, he deserves respect for having the vision to take a chance on a true artistic gem.