“The main things that triggered the idea of 808s was when we were doing the Glow in the Dark tour, and there was the ‘Good Life’ part of the show, and he said, ‘I want to do the T-Pain part in the show.’ So we put the Auto-Tune on so he could do it live, and when he had that, it was like Christmas, you know? Because now all of a sudden he could play an instrument.”īy April of the tour’s first month, Kanye had solidified the idea for his singing album, his first departure from rap. Jeff Bhasker - a keyboardist and producer who was part of West’s live band and would end up producing and writing on nearly half of the album - witnessed the project taking shape as West began trying new things in his performances. The space opera via stadium tour found West experimenting more live, especially with his singing voice. The genesis of 808s & Heartbreak began on 2008’s The Glow In the Dark Tour. You gotta go through the process and heal. He wanted to get the project out, but some people were like, ‘Give Kanye time to heal.’ I’m like ‘Nah, man.’ You gotta heal through it. “And yeah he went deep inside himself and addressed those utterly dark, sick emotions that exist, the doubts, the fears, which makes for obviously a great tale. So him trying to go inside himself is difficult, because he could easily write from a place of stardom, of fame, of the industry.” Yusef said. “Him fighting his fear, fighting depression, kind of for real, for real thrown into the public eye. “That was the first time that we knew exactly where he was emotionally.” -Tony Williams The achievements of 2007’s Graduation - beating 50 Cent in a highly publicized first-week sales battle, selling 957,000 copies in the first week, the crossover success of “Stronger” and “Good Life” - turned West into what Yusef describes as “not just rap fame, superstardom.” Malik Yusef, one of Kanye’s oldest writing partners, remembers an inflection point between the tragedy of West’s personal life and his ascension to a new level of fame. “A lot of it was not ever voiced verbally to us in those situations.”
“I think because he doesn’t wear his emotions on his sleeve a lot of time that a lot of us that are very close to him in his inner circle, that was the first time that we knew exactly where he was emotionally,” Tony Williams, Kanye’s cousin and frequent collaborator said. For West’s closest confidantes, his early, raw and unfiltered recordings were the first time they heard how he was coping with the losses. According to its well-worn inception story, 808s & Heartbreak is part self-examination, part-exorcism of two tragic and life-defining moments for Kanye: the death of his mother, Donda West, on November 10, 2007, from cosmetic surgery complications and the dissolution of his 18-month engagement to Alexis Phifer.
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