After the release of his third studio album 'Graduation' , West would struggle to adapt to the level of fame he had achieved, becoming the frequent subject to media scrutiny. Eventually it would all come crashing down with West experiencing severely affecting events in his personal life - the tragic death of his mother Donda West, followed months later by the end of his long term relationship with fiancé Alexis Phifer . These two events weighed heavily on Kanye, pushing him in a new direction. Instead of the previously announced follow up album “Good Ass Job”, we would see a major artistic departure from his previous rap records, with the release of '808s & Heartbreak'. Instead, West would convey his pain through performing vocals sung through an Auto-Tune processor against an electronic production palette. The 808 of the title is a reference to the Roland TR-808 drum machine, used heavily in the album. West felt that the 808 was a resourceful instrument that could be used to evoke emotion, this concept was introduced to him by Jon Brion who also co-produced Kanye’s second studio album 'Late Registration'. West utilized the sounds created by the 808 and manipulated its pitch to produce a distorted, electronic sound, an effect he referred to as "heartbreak". He felt the characteristic of the sound was representative of his state of mind.
Auto-tune pitch correction was ruling the charts in 2008, thanks to T-Pain, who had 12 Billboard Hot 100 top 10 hits, one being the track 'Good Life' from Ye’s 'Graduation' album. T-Pain said that West told him he had listened to his debut album 'Rappa Ternt Sanga' before making '808s & Heartbreak'. Frequent collaborator Mike Dean would also say West fell in love with auto-tune whilst working on Jeezy’s 'Put On' and a remix of Lil Wayne’s hit song 'Lollipop'.
This isn’t the first time a rapper has been vulnerable but Kanye takes it further with the whole album from start to finish having the tone of sadness and heartbreak. Singing throughout about significantly darker topics covering: grief, anxiety and depression. His real life would inspire the change in lyrics on the album exploring themes of his loss, alienated fame and heartache. Making it not only acceptable to be emotional and vulnerable in hip-hop, but downright essential.
'808s & Heartbreak' is amongst West's most influential records, making an immediate impact on hip hop, pop, and R&B music, as a new wave of rappers, singers, and producers adopted its stylistic and thematic elements. It has been credited for pioneering the emo rap and experimental R&B subgenres in particular.