For West’s closest confidantes, his early, raw and unfiltered recordings were the first time they heard how he was coping with the losses. “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. “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.
“Him fighting his fear, fighting depression, kind of for real, for real thrown into the public eye. 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. “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. 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. You gotta go through the process and heal. The genesis of 808s & Heartbreak began on 2008’s The Glow In the Dark Tour. The space opera via stadium tour found West experimenting more live, especially with his singing voice. 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 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.
Esthero, the Canadian singer-songwriter who voiced Jane the spaceship on The Glow In the Dark Tour, remembers the Chicago artist telling her his plans for his next career move after the L.A. “Scott Storch was down the street having a party and so ‘Ye and I decided to go and check it out,” Esthero said.
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