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Kanye's Heartbreak
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The rapper’s new album is the greatest breakup revenge record in 30 years.
Thirty years ago this month, Marvin Gaye released an album born of a divorce proceeding. He was dissolving his marriage to Anna Gordy (Berry's sister) and lacked the cash to pay alimony and child support. His lawyer proposed giving Anna half the royalties from his next album. Gaye went into the studio with ideas of recording a bad album, so that he wouldn’t have to cough up much money for Anna. But the album he ended up creating, Here, My Dear, is one of his best. He sings angrily and directly to Anna about his feelings, his despondency, his pain—“Why do I have to pay attorney fees?!”
You hear Marvin not trying to please or entertain, but just expressing himself, like a ‘50s jazzman less concerned with communicating directly with the audience than writing in his diary in public. And you hear a man brought to his knees by heartache, trudging through the bleak, dreary, hellish desert that is Life After You Break Up. 808s and Heartbreak is Kanye West’s Here, My Dear.
808s, released last week, is an impassioned, despondent, bellicose dumper’s response.
Kanye got engaged to his longtime girlfriend Alexis Phifer in 2006, but last April they called it off. 808s, released last week, is an impassioned, despondent, bellicose dumper’s response. This is Kanye’s moment to yell directly at the woman he loved but now feels emotionally betrayed him. Just as women are more open with their feelings than men, female singers have long given us tales of heartache. But how often do we hear a man singing about a broken heart?
In pop music singers are constantly saying you—I love you, I hate you, I’ll crush you like a jelly bean, etc., but it’s almost always a vague “you.” A floating, could be anyone, you. But when the you is known—say, in hip-hop battles or when Eminem is roaring at his ex-wife, Kim—it’s more immediate, more direct, and more titillatingly real. On 808s, we all know exactly who Kanye’s “you” is when he says, “Tell everybody that you know, that I don’t love you no more…” “You’re like the girl from Misery…” “You spoiled little LA girl…” and “How could you be so heartless?”
One gets the sense he feels this was all her fault.
This is Kanye’s album for himself, one that doesn’t seek to entertain and lacks the bright sounds and catchy hooks of his previous records. It's filled instead with dour, distorted, haunting electro-sounds. Sonically, it reminds me of There’s a Riot Goin' On, Sly and the Family Stone’s controversial, misunderstood masterpiece, with its cantankerous, brooding energy, and its edgy, burbling, electric experiments. Emotionally, it takes me back to Stevie Wonder’s Fulfillingness’ First Finale, a sad, mopey, bluesy soul album that I used to put on when I got depressed. That album is so melancholy that it somehow made me feel better. 808s does that, too.
Spiritually, it recalls this era, this computer and device-infested time when it's not unusual to wonder whether we have our little machines or if they have us. Kanye has crowded 808s with technology, letting computerized bleeps and slurps dominate the mix. He barely lets his voice be heard without distorting it with a vocoder, adding to the eerie, robot-cold feel of it all. It also increases the distance between Kanye and the audience, as if he were wearing a sonic mask. And it reminds us how he feels: discombobulated, out of sorts, distorted.
But 808s is so deeply drenched in the gloom and fury of love lost that it’s nothing less than a younger brother to Here, My Dear. After Marvin released that record, Anna considered suing him for invasion of privacy. Wonder if Alexis is retaining a lawyer.
RELATED: Touré on Kanye's Haunting New Love Song
Touré is the host of BET’s The Black Carpet and the host of Treasure HD’s I’ll Try Anything Once. He is the author of Never Drank the Kool-Aid, Soul City, and The Portable Promised Land. He was a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, was CNN’s first pop culture correspondent, and was the host of MTV2's Spoke N Heard. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker and The New York Times.
Editor's Note: This story originally named Anna Gordy as Berry Gordy's daughter; it has since been corrected because Anna is in fact Berry's sister.
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Touré is a columnist for The Daily Beast. He's also an NBC contributor and the author of Never Drank the Kool-Aid, Soul City, and The Portable Promised Land. He is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, was CNN's first pop culture correspondent, and was the host of MTV2's Spoke N Heard. His writing has appeared in the New Yorker and the New York Times.
A minor but important point: Anna Gordy is Berry Gordy's older sister. She is not Berry's daughter.
Based on the name '808s,' I think his heartbreak comes from deciding to become a Detroit techno artist. This is something I've thought about for a while; rap (at least in terms of production) is become much more electro, cold and mechanical. It's the perfect background for this 'f--- you' album.
(The vocoder is actually his way of expressing his undying love of T-Pain)
....and I thought I was the only one who had "Here My Dear."
Toure, Anna Gordy was Berry Gordy's sister. You need a fact checker.
Fascinating. I don't think the man gets enough credit for his intelligence. Far surpassing most of the men in this industry today.
Good god. To utter Kanye's name in the same breath as Marvin's is blasphemy, but to compare 808 Heartbreak to "Here, My Dear" in ANY way puts you in line for a beating. The maturity, sadness and unabashed exhibitionism of "My Dear" was a milestone of 70's sophistication, and Marvin was an artist's artist who won't ever be matched.
Kanye, meanwhile, is a gifted producer, sure, but he absolutely cannot sing, and all the autotuners in the world (not vocorders) won't change that. Nor is he a songwriter, perhaps as best evidenced by "Love Lockdown." Maybe he should call Pharell and ask him "what's a bridge"? Don't get me started on his amazing lyricism (see, e.g., "Robocop," with its amazing chorus of "Okay okay, okay okay . . .")
So yeah, both albums were written by black men in the wake of a break-up. So what? "Chinatown" and "Ace Ventura" are both about detectives, but to compare them is absurd.
Hmmm, interesting that the Beast would delete my comment critical of your article. At bottom, it boiled down to:
"Chinatown" and "Ace Ventura" are both about detectives, but to compare them is absurd.
And now it's back! LOL. Learned my lesson, cheeky beast comment bot . . .
Could someone please give Alexis the Ocarina download?
We'd like to hear from her, now.
Toure should widen his musical horizons. Kanye is overrated. He recently said he will be remembered as the voice of his generation. What about Beck, Eddie Vedder, and Maynard Keenan(or even Dre if you can't look beyond hip-hop for material).
I find most of Kanye West's music incredibly misogynistic. I think this writer has bought into Kanye's opinion of himself.
i loved the piece.
thanks for such a great review...and the album is brilliant!
I don't know Marvin Gaye very well. But these two songs here don't seem to compare with what I've heard of him.
Also, Kanye isn't really showing any signs of true introspection, only anger and disappointment. Time will tell I suppose. But do you think his breakup with his girl had anything to do with the death of his mother? The death of his mother, which was so preventable, and so unnecessary, is probably the true root of Kanye's darkness. When will he acknowledge that?
I love the giant women with glowing body paint though. Scary!
Kanye is overrated. He said he will be remembered as the voice of his generation. He's decent as far as music found in the mainstream, but the true poets of our generation are people like Beck, Eddie Veddar, and Maynard Keenan. I guess Toure is just speaking to his audience and I have nothing against keeping your audience entertained, but to say Kanye has the best recent relationship revenge record totally shows he hasn't listened to anything beyond hip-hop. There's a lot of really good music out there if you're willing to open your mind and the lyrics far surpass Kanye's.
Kanye is overrated. He said he will be remembered as the voice of his generation. He's decent as far as music found in the mainstream, but the true poets of our generation are people like Beck, Eddie Veddar, and Maynard Keenan. I guess Toure is just speaking to his audience and I have nothing against keeping your audience entertained, but to say Kanye has the best recent relationship revenge record totally shows he hasn't listened to anything beyond hip-hop. There's a lot of really good music out there if you're willing to open your mind and the lyrics far surpass Kanye's.
Good read. I think its been said that this album was just a side project and he will return to his "normal" style of rapping with the release of his new album in June (I believe). That said, I really like this album, if you listen to "Pinocchio Story" you really get a better sense of the pressures Kanye is under.
the album is just ok....not what i was waiting for...i like Kanye when he is in party mode.....
To the colonel: wow that detective movie analogy is amazingly spot on. Kanye is terrible, and terribly arrogant. I am a bit biased as I haven't had any respect for any mainstream hip-hop since probably the mid-90's. And Swick2730: Beck a poet? "i'm a loser baby" wow how moving. And Maynard? Take a survey and you'll find he lacks the popularity to be the voice of our generation. I'm a huge fan but he has little name recgonition and his band has good sales but only a cult-like hardcore following. My voices of the generation would be Kurt Cobain (far more of a poet than Vedder just with less of a library) and maybe Trent Reznor if you want someone from Maynard's (approximate) musical genre. And for hip-hop/rap Tupac is the most poetic well known rapper of the last 20 years or so.
The evidence of Kanye's greatness (and it is not him being a gifted producer, an amazing lyricist, or awful singer) is that he can elicit such responses across the board. He is a provocateur, plain and simple, as provoking people is the definitive modern art form (regardless of medium). Singers do not make a living singing. Rappers do not make one rapping. All of these people make a living by provoking people into noticing them and their ideas (however crude, stupid or exalted) and then selling the attention they generate to concert promoters, media networks and corporate branding. There is no "serious" art anymore, not since Warhol, because there is no longer a sacrosanct body of opinion to elevate certain forms of "art" above others. The only standard beside personal objection to the personality of the artist (rationally absurd) is the breadth and depth of impact of the artist's work which includes not just music but their antics.
Damn, Ghettosavant, that's a bummer. I guess under that formulation Britney--and Kanye--deserve all the adoration they recieve. Guess it also means that guys like Mark David Chapman and John Hinckley junior were on to something. If only they'd had better publicists, we could be talking about their new albums right now.
808s is a chilling and stirring album. I see nothing wrong with offering a comparison to Marvin Gaye. Kanye created a great album without all of his old tricks (profanity, party image, and talking about his bling). Kanye always had potential but too often fell into the trap of being just like everyone else. 808s stands out and so now does Kanye.
By the way what's wrong with Ace Ventura?
Catch 22: Cobain was a voice for the 90's and had he lived to see the world of today, I'm sure he would've protested the same way Maynard and Vedder have. Beck's newer stuff, Sea Change for example, is much heavier than the days when Loser came out. I agree that Maynard doesn't have the popularity neccessary to be recognized as the voice of this generation. I don't think current popularity should define the best artistic voice who places the most accurate portrayal of society. MC Hammer would've taken that role for about a year. Vedder has also progressed in his latest works if you haven't given them a listen. You might like it. I haven't been able to listen to much hip-hop since Outkast left the arena. Most of the stuff lately pales in comparison. Robot voice doesn't make your song better. People are so easily amused.
Toure, I like you, I even like Kanye (sometimes), but this "Love Lock Down" song is laughable. I heard it on the radio, had no idea who was "singing" and thought someone resurrected Timmy T. Moreover, I thought Timmy T sounded better. Doesn't the actual music matter anymore? Or is it all just widgets filed under the same category?
Takes too long for a comment to appear. Sorry about the extra posts. Kind of hard to discuss a subject if Dailybeast doesn't change whatever is delaying things.
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