"Oct 15 2008 5:37 PM EDT
Kanye West's 808s & Heartbreak Album Preview: More Drums, More Singing, 'No Typical Hip-Hop Beats'
'Ye laid out stringent requirements for the new LP, which the press heard Tuesday.
By Shaheem Reid, with reporting by Kim Stolz and Yasmine Richard.
Kanye West had some very simple rules when making 808s & Heartbreak, according to veteran producer Mike Dean (Scarface, UGK, Juvenile), one of the people mixing the LP. First rule: No dummies allowed in the lab.
"He has no tolerance for stupidity, people who don't know what they're doing," Dean told MTV News in a Burbank studio. "He's cool to me in the studio though."
West also had some other laws he enforced in the three weeks of recording in Hawaii. "Every song has got to have an 808 [drum pattern] in it," added Dean, who met Kanye years ago while 'Ye was working with Scarface. "A keyboard part, no typical hip-hop beats. They've gotta be tribal drums. They're all singing."
On Tuesday night in Los Angeles, Kanye held a listening session for music journalists, as well celebrities Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Q-Tip, Jimmy Kimmel, Mike Rapaport and others. (Head over to the Newsroom blog for a report on Kanye's 808s & Heartbreak listening party, which featured 50 naked women — no kidding!)
People there definitely heard the Auto-Tune effect throughout the album. "We were working on the remixes for [ Lil Wayne's 'Lollipop' and Young Jeezy's 'Put On,'] and he fell in love with the Auto-Tune," Dean explained.
Undisputed Auto-Tune King T-Pain spoke to MTV News a few weeks ago about his involvement in the LP. "I co-sign his whole album," T-Pain said. "I just flew in last night from Hawaii, working. His whole album is crazy, and it's definitely a different kind of Kanye. I mean, as far as 'Love Lockdown' goes, he did that whole thing himself. He just had me in mind. 808s is really all Kanye. I'm just here to keep it from [sounding] adult contemporary."
Common also praised the project recently. "I love it," Common said. "Let me tell you, as an artist, you wanna be free. You gotta do what you feel. You can't just cater to the audience. You gotta say, 'Hey, y'all, this is where I'm at.' For him to do an album called 808s & Heartbreak, you know that's where he is at this moment. I heard some songs, and I think it's fresh. I think the people are ready for it."
At the listening party, "Amazing" with Young Jeezy was a hit with the audience, as was "Tell Everybody You Know," featuring Lil Wayne."
808s & Heartbreak Tracklisting:
1. “Welcome to Heartbreak”
2. “Heartless”
3. “Love Lockdown”
4. “Robocop”
5. “Anyway”
6. “Streetlights”
7. “Say You Will”
8. “Bad News”
9. “Amazing” featuring Young Jeezy
10. “Tell Everybody That You Know” featuring Lil Wayne
11. “Coldest Winter”
Read The Full Story Here: MTV.Com
CHRIS LIVE AKA SHAKER SAYS: In spite of Kanye West's terribly annoying penchant for trying too hard to be "different", whining acting like a brat when people don't validate his ever so delicate SHEmotions and having the gall to actually say that Ralph Lauren was "boring" before he wore him (YES, this nigga needs a quick Brooklyn style lesson), I generally really DO fuck with this man's music.
Now, I don't know what all this autotune sing-songy sap sucker shit will sound like, but I am willing to give the homie a chance, afterall, each of his previous albums have been classic or near classic material. More as this story develops. Let's get it!
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