How do you want it?
Because essentially, on 808s and
Heartbreak this is the question that Kanye asks his pundits as
he can give it to you two ways. Quintessential, classic synth/electropop from the late seventies or early eighties or his own interpretations as to how to push those sounds forward.
Definitively, as only a producer like Kanye would, he gives you both seperately and interchangeably in the same song.
It is up to you as a listener to know the difference and make that distinction.
Forget about the way that Kanye uses
heartbreak and tells the story of how his relationships fall apart and he finds closure, has existential experiences and is celebrated and demonized all at once. He merely does this in the same way that Marvin Gaye had on his later records, as any true artist would. It is the technical brilliance in which Kanye has done so that is the true story here.
The best that 50 Cent could offer is that this was a record that T-Pain would make, according to the New York Times review of this record. T-Pain only wishes that he were one fifth of the producer that Kanye is. Forget about the fact that T-Pain can actually sing or hold a tune; he has his own flavor of pop music and can do best whatever it is that he does just as Roger Troutman had back in the early eighties when he was doing his thing.
This is record not of accuracy, with respect to Auto Tune or any technical authenticity with respects to
production. No this isn't the production of The Neptunes from five years ago, nor it isn't anyones vain attempts to push the production ethos of Prince forward as so many of The Neptunes tracks were though it's arguable if West is not trying to do so with the pioneering work of early electropop artists.
Kanye West gave Jeezy and Lil' Wayne a platform in which to not just sound better, but to cause them to rise to the occasion as artists, not just rappers. They took and seized that opportunity, and recorded some of their best work ever. Kanye, only technically raps on one song. Brilliantly, the last song is a recording of a live performance which would mean nothing except to consider how such a choice fits in with the overall context of this record as it defies the tradition of hip-hop production to do so considering there is no intro, exit, or instintitials in the form of skits on the record. Does this record sound like a demo tape? Not at all; but, the record is more than synthpop or even elctropop, as he weaves in other variants of rock in as well, such as the mechanical and industrial variants which were revolutionary in the late eighties and early nineties. At times it is the fusion of what happens when people try to rap over New Wave; it is so many things.
In all of this Kanye West has created somewhat of an anomaly that is difficult to understand that may be everything to some reviewers, and nothing to others. An album that is if you understand and "get" him, you love him for. An album that, as with what happens to fashion designers who truly do what they want to do, in total defiance to the industry, people walk down the runway and the editors and critics truly do not forgive producers for. I never even checked the credits to see if the samples exist or which Kanye may have cleared, if any; personally, given the brilliance of what he has done lyrically, in spite of Auto Tune, I truly do not want to know. But I will say this; this album is more of an experience, than it is individual tracks, perhaps Kanye's best to date.
Thank Kanye for breaking traditional Black music out of it's mold, but for doing so in which he does not sound like an African-American producer that does not understand the music that he is paying homage to and creating a caricature of a sound. This is, at best, an anti-pop record that purists will love to hate and a defiant work that is both experimental and polished all at once that people will appreciate Kanye West for at least attempting, if it is not celebrated as being the best of his career, if not the best album of this year.