TODAYonline

Kanye don’t play that

christopher toh

christophertoh@mediacorp.com.sg

KANYE West prides himself in being a trendsetter, a person who likes pushing theenvelope to see how far he can take things.

And he plans to set new milestones with his new album 808 and Heartbreak. FYI: The title comes from the two core elements found on the album — the former is the Roland TR-808 drum that’s used throughout the recording and the latter comes from “the life experiences” he’s been through the past year.

Already the buzz is that this new album will set new standards for West while changing the way people see hip-hop music.

Not only does he not rap on this album at all; the album is replete with tribal rhythms and organic percussion sounds — a complete turnaround from his previous albums like Graduation or College Dropout, where most of the beats and rhythms were machine-generated.

“It’s a completely new (approach) that I’m trying out,” said West at a press conference at the Intercontinental Singapore last month, when the media was given a sneak listen of the album.

“I think Registration and Graduation are kind of both extensions of College Dropout, and this new album is a new beginning.”

Funnily enough, making a non-rap album wasn’t that hard at all, said the 31-year-old.

“I guess the challenging thing could be just preparing myself for people to accept that I’m doing a different style from what they’re used to, but also understanding what I liked as a little kid — I made the album off what I felt I wanted to hear.”

And the album does need some getting used to. For example, the opening track, Say You Will, is seven minutes long and sparse on lyrical content — about half the song features nothing but a couple of beats and two chords — and may test those who suffer from attention deficit disorder.

The rest of the album will either fascinate or alienate, with Robocop, a hip-hop-infused number, being the only thing vaguely reminiscent of Kanye West.

“I just kind of do what I’ve always done, and what I’ve wanted to do,” explained West. “That’s why Say You Will is the first song. I’m like, man, that’s the best song on the album, I want to start with that song and I don’t care if it’s seven minutes long. Then it’s like, well, what else do I like?”

And no, just because he’s singing about love and life doesn’t mean he’s gone all soft.

“I think this is a harder side to me,” he said.

“There’s no R&B-get-on-your-knees-and-beg-a-girl type bulls*** — it’s still guy music, with a swagger.”

So confident is West in his new direction that he’s even created a new musical category for what he’s done. “The genre of the sound is called ‘pop art’. And the only other thing that I think can go in that category is, uh, Pink Floyd!”

“A lot of rap music is really throwaway, anyway, like it’s only hot for the year, but I’m trying to make records that will last,” said West.

“I’m trying to make these songs ... classic songs — withreally good production over it.”

808 and Heartbreak will be out Nov 24 at all good CD shops.