The clear and deliberate use of which hasn’t had much exposure in the UK, but it’s become increasingly common (and divisive) in mainstream US hip-hop recently. There’s two rapped verses on the whole record, both by guests, so vocally it’s almost completely sung, roboticised by the Auto-tune. Not only is 808s far sadder than any of Kanye‘s previous, it’s also not hip-hop in any real sense.
In the unrefined vocal of Pinocchio Story, when he’s stripped of all adornments, you can hear he’s genuinely hurt and suffering for all his history with sampling, this is the most soulful he’s ever been. Yes it’s self-indulgent whining, but that’s what heartbroken people do: they lose all perspective and complain about every little thing. How can he be personal to thousands of persons he doesn’t know? When he cries “do you really have the stamina, for everybody that sees you to say ‘where’s my camera?’” on a recording that could very well have been ripped from a fan’s camera phone, his point becomes a pertinent one. Why not a soundboard recording, or even a new studio version? In fact, the poor quality makes it incredibly effective at communicating the isolation he feels: the lower volume makes him sound distant, as if he’s had to retreat after doing the popstar thing for the first 11 songs and the audience reaction - baffled silence as Kanye pours his heart out with punctuated cheers for misheard positivity - reinforces the disconnect between him and his fans. Welcome To Heartbreak contains a verse so breathtakingly trivial - about not having a date to take to his god-sister’s wedding, and leaving before the cake is cut - that it actually strengthens the conviction of his sorrow: only someone utterly consumed by self-pity could be so upset by that as to use it in a song as a definition of heartbreak.īut it’s the final (and hidden) song that delivers the real pathos: it’s a live performance, a lo-fi audience recording of a freestyle he performed on-stage in Singapore, later titled Pinocchio Story (because he hates fame and just wants to be a real boy, obvs).
Opener Say You Will sets the scene with a melancholic choir aahing for three vocal-less minutes of an outro Street Lights ends with Kanye lifelessly concluding “life’s just not fair” and an almost tearful vocal in Bad News - “my face turned to stone when I heard the news” - takes on extra meaning given the context. Kanye might be known as a narcissist, but 808s’ self-indulgence comes from depression, not ego, and that’s the mood that pervades.
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