You gotta go through the process and heal. He wanted to get the project out, but some people were like, ‘Give Kanye time to heal.’ I’m like ‘Nah, man.’ You gotta heal through it. “And yeah he went deep inside himself and addressed those utterly dark, sick emotions that exist, the doubts, the fears, which makes for obviously a great tale. So him trying to go inside himself is difficult, because he could easily write from a place of stardom, of fame, of the industry.” Yusef said. “Him fighting his fear, fighting depression, kind of for real, for real thrown into the public eye.

“That was the first time that we knew exactly where he was emotionally.” -Tony Williams

For West’s closest confidantes, his early, raw and unfiltered recordings were the first time they heard how he was coping with the losses. Its creation was a long-winding and often rushed road, according to the seven artists who spoke to Rolling Stone about its inception.Īccording to its well-worn inception story, 808s & Heartbreak is part self-examination, part-exorcism of two tragic and life-defining moments for Kanye: the death of his mother, Donda West, on November 10, 2007, from cosmetic surgery complications and the dissolution of his 18-month engagement to Alexis Phifer. 808s’ influence, though, was never guaranteed. The precise, synthetic and attractive bass quirks of the Roland TR-808 became the heartbeat that fueled heartbreak. The untrained voices and unsung melodies of countless artists - mostly men and women of color - were let loose upon the world to rewrite the foundations of pop. The warbled and robotic voice once meant to denote distance and detachment has now been warmed over. Somehow, the Chicago artist’s most experimental and idiosyncratic work became his most seminal. Kanye West’s fourth studio album raised an entire generation: wide-eyed child actors, hardened Atlanta drug dealers, elusive bedroom producers. Its influence never really ceased reverberating, and its imprint still appears with some frequency across hip-hop (and pop music writ large). Ten years after its release, 808s & Heartbreak is an absolute. “It flowed the most effortlessly because we basically did it in three weeks.” “It was probably the easiest Kanye West record that ever got made,” he said. 808s & Heartbreak was their first collaboration, and likely the most memorable. The producer and songwriter Jeff Bhasker has worked on four albums with Kanye West.

Ye 808s and heartbreak