Let’s stop the charade right now. Just stop. Kanye West has revitalized hip-hop through his unique talent and vision, that much is sure. He made samples essential to production, flipped the image of a rapper on its head, and energized a dying industry with his fearless cross-genre blends.
But let’s stop pretending his latest creation, 808’s & Heartbreak, is anything revolutionary. Since Kanye announced the concept of his latest album (all autotuner, all the time), it’s been hailed as genius, inspired, and cutting-edge. Very few call it what it really is: capitalization.
There’s nothing new about the autotuner. T-Pain should sign his royalty checks over to the machine because it’s made his career. Lil’ Wayne somehow has himself sounding more like a gremlin by using it in Lollipop. Kanye is simply capitalizing on his past success and this year’s most popular sound.
And why not? Yeezy has America wrapped around his finger right now. He changed the game with his first two albums, creating classic hip-hop that appealed to both hip-hop heads and pre-teen white girls. No rapper commands such a diverse audience. Unlike Mims or most other artists, Kanye could make a mil saying nothin’ on the track.
So, in essence, that’s what he’s done. Love Lockdown, the album’s first single, is not hip-hop. It’s not pop, rock, or any combination of them. It’s a simple (yet dope) beat, with a synthesized hook put on repeat for the better half of five minutes.
It’s catchy, easy listening that sounds good at high volumes. If that’s all you need in music, that’s great, I’ll let you get back to your Miley Cyrus.
But everyone else, drop the act and admit that it’s not good music, it’s just catchy noise.
That being said, it’s not necessarily a bad thing. Not every song can be a heavy introspective on the meaning of life. Sometimes we just need a mindless beat to put on blast. But giving Love Lockdown anymore credit than that lets our rappers off the hook. The music community must always demand more, or risk losing the artistic aspects of hip-hop.
Heartless seems to not quite have the depth/character we have come to expect from Kanye. I still remain optimistic because stronger was not very indicative of how mature and thought out Graduation turned out to be. I hope Kanye has a few more tricks up his sleeves.