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From Rap-up.com . . .
"The worlds of hip-hop and art collided when Kanye West threw a listening party for his newalbum 808s & Heartbreakon Tuesday nightin Los Angeles. The event, a collaboration between Kanye and Italian artist Vanessa Beecroft, was unlike anything we've experienced before. After sippingon Veuve Clicquot and Moët, several hundred guests, including Jay-Z, will.i.am, Mos Def, Rick Ross, L.A. Reid, actor Jonah Hill, Sa-Ra's Taz Arnold, anddirector Chris Robinson, were led upstairs into an open gallery space where 40-50 naked women stood against a blue light panel. At approximately 9:45 p.m., thelights went off and the spectacle began.
Blue, red, and yellow lights flashed across the giant panel as Kanye's fourth studio albumblasted through the speakers. Skinny, mixed race models, wearing nothing but black stiletto heels, posed through the entire 11 tracks. Some changed positionsfrom time to time, sitting down, stretching, and performing other body contortions. The no photography rule was strictly enforced.
After the last track off 808s & Heartbreak played, the lights came up and Kanyeappeared in a T-shirt and jeans. He went on to thank everyone for coming and expressed his gratitude to Beecroft for her hard work. He told the story of how hecontacted the artist a week before the event. She said she listened to 808s and the album touched her "personal life" in a few ways. Kanyeresponded by saying he also felt touched by her work, referencing the naked women, which drew a laugh from the audience. We hear that the models were hiredthrough an open casting call and reportedly paid $1000 each.
As rumored, the entire album is in Auto-Tune. Kanye launched into a speech about how much heloves using Auto-Tune and that lately the term has been associated with being "wack," much to his dismay. "Never lose your childhood," hetold the crowd, explaining how he wanted to go back to feeling like a child, overwhelmed and carefree. Auto-Tune reminded him of those early days. As a kid, hethought the color pink was cool until someone told him "it was gay." He then excitedly exclaimed, "Pink is better than blue!" 'Yeexpressed his admiration for T-Pain, saying "his light was so bright." He further explained his belief that society and culture steal confidence andself-esteem from you when you're a child. You're born with it, but society takes it away. If he was 8 years old, he would have walked into a recordingstudio and told the engineer, "Give me Auto-Tune!" He officially declared it "the funnest thing to use."
The album, which he completed over three weeks in Hawaii, is unlike anything Kanye has done.He happily classifies it as "pop" featuring heavy drums and pulsing electronic sounds. "People think pop is bad, but Michael Jackson was pop andwho can compare to him?" Kanye asked, adding that he wants to categorize the album under "pop" in iTunes. Even though it was hard to make outlyrics over the booming system, we believe we heard Lil Wayne and Young Jeezy rapping on two tracks. The raw and revealing album puts Kanye on another level ofartistry and a few strokes away from genius.
Responding to reviews, the Louis Vuitton Don said, "I don't give a @*!* if it'shot or not, it's from the heart… Would you judge a grandmother's love? Give it two-and-a-half mics out of five?" Kanye said that he went to theDef Jam label heads and expressed how important it was that this album was released this year. He didn't care if it wasn't on the schedule or if theywanted a holiday push. He mentioned that he does have another album coming in June and he may be singing or rapping.
As the evening came to a close, the Chi-Town MC declared, "I've always been a fan ofVanessa's work and strong imagery." He liked the "idea of nudity because society told us to wear clothes at a certain point." Thenight's most poignant moment came when the rapper said, "The irony for me… I've talked about so many labels, Louis Vuitton this, Benz that… For meto lose the most important person to Hollywood." He explained that the album's closing track, "Coldest Winter," is about his late mother,Donda West. According to him, the first ten tracks are about someone else who was close in his personal life, most likely ex-fiance Alexis Phifer.
"I don't know if you noticed, but I don't talk about any of that stuff on thealbum-no stuntin', no flashin', just real things." And for one night, Kanye West bared all.
Here is a tracklisting for 808s & Heartbreak based off what we could make out. Noofficial titles were announced so take this for what it is.
1. "Welcome to Heartbreak"
2. "Heartless"
3. "Love Lockdown"
4. "Robocop"
5. "The Wrong Thing"
6. "In the Streets"
7. Title unknown
• Alternating heavy drum and beeping sounds
• More singing, loud wailing noises
• Long extended instrumental ending with "ahhs" whispering over it
8. "Real Bad News"
9. "So Amazing" featuring Young Jeezy
• Uptempo
• "I'm a monster, I'm a killer."
• Loud animal screams and howls like "Love Lockdown"
10. "That You Know" or "Tell Everybody" featuring Lil Wayne
• Harder rock vibe
• "Tell everybody that you know, that I don't love you no mo'"
• "I'm back up on my grind."
• Wayne's verse: "*$%* stink 'cause it's pee-eww"
11. "Coldest Winter"
• "Goodbye my friends, will I ever love again?"
• "It's pouring…it's pouring."
"The worlds of hip-hop and art collided when Kanye West threw a listening party for his newalbum 808s & Heartbreakon Tuesday nightin Los Angeles. The event, a collaboration between Kanye and Italian artist Vanessa Beecroft, was unlike anything we've experienced before. After sippingon Veuve Clicquot and Moët, several hundred guests, including Jay-Z, will.i.am, Mos Def, Rick Ross, L.A. Reid, actor Jonah Hill, Sa-Ra's Taz Arnold, anddirector Chris Robinson, were led upstairs into an open gallery space where 40-50 naked women stood against a blue light panel. At approximately 9:45 p.m., thelights went off and the spectacle began.
Blue, red, and yellow lights flashed across the giant panel as Kanye's fourth studio albumblasted through the speakers. Skinny, mixed race models, wearing nothing but black stiletto heels, posed through the entire 11 tracks. Some changed positionsfrom time to time, sitting down, stretching, and performing other body contortions. The no photography rule was strictly enforced.
After the last track off 808s & Heartbreak played, the lights came up and Kanyeappeared in a T-shirt and jeans. He went on to thank everyone for coming and expressed his gratitude to Beecroft for her hard work. He told the story of how hecontacted the artist a week before the event. She said she listened to 808s and the album touched her "personal life" in a few ways. Kanyeresponded by saying he also felt touched by her work, referencing the naked women, which drew a laugh from the audience. We hear that the models were hiredthrough an open casting call and reportedly paid $1000 each.
As rumored, the entire album is in Auto-Tune. Kanye launched into a speech about how much heloves using Auto-Tune and that lately the term has been associated with being "wack," much to his dismay. "Never lose your childhood," hetold the crowd, explaining how he wanted to go back to feeling like a child, overwhelmed and carefree. Auto-Tune reminded him of those early days. As a kid, hethought the color pink was cool until someone told him "it was gay." He then excitedly exclaimed, "Pink is better than blue!" 'Yeexpressed his admiration for T-Pain, saying "his light was so bright." He further explained his belief that society and culture steal confidence andself-esteem from you when you're a child. You're born with it, but society takes it away. If he was 8 years old, he would have walked into a recordingstudio and told the engineer, "Give me Auto-Tune!" He officially declared it "the funnest thing to use."
The album, which he completed over three weeks in Hawaii, is unlike anything Kanye has done.He happily classifies it as "pop" featuring heavy drums and pulsing electronic sounds. "People think pop is bad, but Michael Jackson was pop andwho can compare to him?" Kanye asked, adding that he wants to categorize the album under "pop" in iTunes. Even though it was hard to make outlyrics over the booming system, we believe we heard Lil Wayne and Young Jeezy rapping on two tracks. The raw and revealing album puts Kanye on another level ofartistry and a few strokes away from genius.
Responding to reviews, the Louis Vuitton Don said, "I don't give a @*!* if it'shot or not, it's from the heart… Would you judge a grandmother's love? Give it two-and-a-half mics out of five?" Kanye said that he went to theDef Jam label heads and expressed how important it was that this album was released this year. He didn't care if it wasn't on the schedule or if theywanted a holiday push. He mentioned that he does have another album coming in June and he may be singing or rapping.
As the evening came to a close, the Chi-Town MC declared, "I've always been a fan ofVanessa's work and strong imagery." He liked the "idea of nudity because society told us to wear clothes at a certain point." Thenight's most poignant moment came when the rapper said, "The irony for me… I've talked about so many labels, Louis Vuitton this, Benz that… For meto lose the most important person to Hollywood." He explained that the album's closing track, "Coldest Winter," is about his late mother,Donda West. According to him, the first ten tracks are about someone else who was close in his personal life, most likely ex-fiance Alexis Phifer.
"I don't know if you noticed, but I don't talk about any of that stuff on thealbum-no stuntin', no flashin', just real things." And for one night, Kanye West bared all.
Here is a tracklisting for 808s & Heartbreak based off what we could make out. Noofficial titles were announced so take this for what it is.
1. "Welcome to Heartbreak"
2. "Heartless"
3. "Love Lockdown"
4. "Robocop"
5. "The Wrong Thing"
6. "In the Streets"
7. Title unknown
• Alternating heavy drum and beeping sounds
• More singing, loud wailing noises
• Long extended instrumental ending with "ahhs" whispering over it
8. "Real Bad News"
9. "So Amazing" featuring Young Jeezy
• Uptempo
• "I'm a monster, I'm a killer."
• Loud animal screams and howls like "Love Lockdown"
10. "That You Know" or "Tell Everybody" featuring Lil Wayne
• Harder rock vibe
• "Tell everybody that you know, that I don't love you no mo'"
• "I'm back up on my grind."
• Wayne's verse: "*$%* stink 'cause it's pee-eww"
11. "Coldest Winter"
• "Goodbye my friends, will I ever love again?"
• "It's pouring…it's pouring."
