Kanye West - “Cold Winter”
This pretty much sums up Kanye’s premise for 808s & Heartbreak: “Sorry, my mom died.” As long as he continues to deliver on the music end, I can’t complain.

Kanye West - “Robocop”
Marginally better than “Coldest Winter,” but equally emotional. This album should’ve been titled Yeezy’s Diary. I suspect it’ll have “Sorry, my girlfriend dumped me” written all over it as well.

Peep 808s & Heartbreak tracklist below. (more…)

Kanye working on 808s & Heartbreak

DJ Earworm - “Reckoner Lockdown”
“Reckoner Lockdown” (by DJ Earworm) marries Radiohead’s “Reckoner” with Kanye’s “Love Lockdown.” What I like about this remix is that he combined various elements — drums, vocals, 808s etc — from both songs, whereas most remixes simply merge vocals from Song A with the instrumental from Song B.

Bonus: See pictures of Kanye working on 808s & Heartbreak below.
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Kanye West - “Heartless”
Some more Auto-Tuned goodness from 808s & Heartbreak. Like “Love Lockdown,” Kanye’s 2nd second single spots a prominent 808 pattern and tribal drums. The photo above is from the 808s & Heartbreak listening party in LA, which featured 50 nekkid ladies.

[Via Ye's blog.]

I’ve gained more appreciation for “Love Lockdown,” but I still think Kanye has no business singing. With or without Auto-Tune.

“As an artist, you owe it to yourself to be free. You can’t just cater to the audience.” - Common

Well, Ladies and Gentlemen, it appears that Kanye will continue his tradition of setting trends by trading in his microphone for a vocoder on 808 & Heartbreaks. Word has it Kanyeezy is singing throughout the album.

Common says he likes what he’s heard from the album so far, but history has taught us to take anything said by crocheted pants-rocking artists with a gigantic grain of salt. As long as ‘Ye has a couple songs where he imitates Lil Wayne’s flow, I’m good.

My sincere apologies to Young Jeezy, but this will be the undisputed album of the year. I can’t wait.

Kanye and Jeezy working on 808s and Heartbreak?

Kanye says he will now release his 4th album, 808s and Heartbreak, in November instead of the previously promised December date. Although he claims to have moved up the album because he wants “y’all to hear it as soon as possible,” 50’s decision to drop his own album in December probably had something to do with it. Either way, we’re not complaining.

After seeing your outpour of criticism, Kanye has decided to re-record “Love Lockdown.”

Says Kanye on his blog:

Your prayers have been answered!! There’s a new version of love Love Lockdown coming. We used new taiko drums and I re-sung it… it’s being Mastered now….

In pure Kanye fashion, he added that those of us who griped about his excessive use of Auto-Tune can always tune out…well, not in those words. “Sidebar… if you don’t like autotune… too bad cause I love it and have been using it since the College Dropout!!!”

UPDATE: Here’s the new version.

Here’s Kanye getting gully on some shutterbug, which eventually led to his arrest.