Mongo Nation

An attempt to innovate by doing what everyone else is doing

By Steven Busch

I have never been much of a Kanye West fan. I have been a mild fan of some of his hit songs, but for the most part, he is obnoxious, and cocky, to a point where he is an annoying asshole.

With that being said, I still approached “808s And Heartbreak” with a clean slate, after all, this is not a typical Kanye West album. “808s” is Kanye’s attempt at singing. The only problem is, Kanye can’t sing. Kanye knows Kanye can’t sing… so what does Kanye do? He does what all rappers who wish they were singers do, they use Auto-Tune. Auto-Tune is a fantastic effect that is used to correct the pitch of a singer’s vocals. If you are flat, sharp, or just plain miss a note, Auto-Tune will come in and correct it for ya.

Kanye’s unjustifiably immense ego is made of cocaine and neon.

When you hear that (now generic) robotic sound on a rapper’s vocals, it’s the result of turning Auto-Tune up to full power, which has an electronic result. This has become rather popular in urban music lately. It’s ok every now and then, perhaps on a hook or as a double on some secondary song, but Kayne uses this effect on every song on the album, because he cannot sing, and it provides the illusion of a decent singing voice.

Kayne, I want to slam dunk a basketball, but you don’t see me trying out for the Lakers, showing up with a trampoline so I can jump high enough.

“Love Lockdown” has a good hook, where the Auto-Tune is a nice addition… though it is, of course, overpowered by the fact that the rest of the song uses the same effect. But on “Love Lockdown”, Kanye shows a prime example of what the effect is for: A big soaring hook, where his voice cant quite reach the note he is going after, so Auto-Tune gives him the boost.

Kanye performing with the Auto-Tune Orchestra.

“Paranoid” is total crap. The beat sounds like Kanye was on the shitter, and had a lightbulb over his head, and by the time he got to the studio, it has been reduced to a glowstick. The entire song is generic, and sounds like the drivel that a 14-year old kid churns out as his “first beat”, not what you’d expect from a dude who began his career as a producer for Roc-A-Fella. Don’t forget that Kayne is supposed to be a producer. He is supposed to hear crap, and turn around and say, “this is crap”. You can do better.

Well, who is telling Kanye he can do better? Kanye sure isn’t telling Kanye that. Hell, Kanye would probably definitely be a backstage groupie for Kanye if Kanye could.

Like I said, some of the songs are decent, if you listen to them separately. But you certainly cannot listen to the entire album in one sitting, unless you have a meager ear for music, and can listen to something just because the radio tells you that you are supposed to. If that is the case, Nickelback has a new album coming soon. I am sure you will enjoy that as well. It probably has overproduced vocals too.

Enjoy. Asshole.