Holistic Heartbreak
For this review, I went back to 2008 to rediscover Kanye's 808s & Heartbreak. Personally, I think this is Kanye's most human album to date. Kanye became iconic because of his ego and god-like tendencies, but this album as a whole reminds us that Kanye is still a human-- an egotistical human but still flesh and bones. Its a weird feeling, to say the least. One of today's biggest stars isn't bigger than us at all. He's actually just like us or worse and I love it and hate it all at the same goddamn time. This album was the baby of a ridiculously hard year in West's life. Cue, "Welcome to heartbreak." In November of 2007, Donda West passed away. A parent passing away is hard on anyone but Ye's bond was much more evident than your average Hollywood star. I'm not going to spend hours analyzing their relationship but Kanye was very close with his mom and she undoubtedly heavily influenced his music and his career. To add to the heartbreak, Kany