Why I Loved Kanye West's 808s & Heartbreak

There are rappers. There are singers. Generally, they should stick to doing just one, unless you are named TQ and you sing a song called "Westside."

There have been some disastrous results when rappers try and sing, P. Diddy's (then Puff Daddy's) singing in "Come with Me" from the Godzilla soundtrack comes to mind, among other disasters from wordsmiths that should keep the hook singing to people like Ja Rule (kidding).

Come With Me - Puff Daddy feat. Jimmy Page

And while many will say that Kanye West's 808s & Heartbreak was a ridiculous album filled with atrocious singing, I am on the other side of the tracks, saying that I think it was Mr. West's best album so far in a career that might be put on hold for fashion. I have to say that I'm not Kanye's biggest fan in the world, though I did love his first album and think that he is a great producer, but I don't think that everything he does deserves to be gold. 808s & Heartbreak, however? It deserves to be treated as such.

Kanye West is not a good singer. He has to know he's not a good singer. Regardless, he puts his voice through that good ole' Akon/T-Pain/Britney Spears machine and he decides to sing anyways. Why? Because he's Kanye West and he doesn't care.

Kanye West might not be a good singer, but he is a really, really good producer. Kanye puts together some of the best sample-riffic beats of our hip-hop generation and he proves it by putting together an album that is high on production value, but low on vocals. The production of each of the tracks on 808s is so disgustingly good that you forget how you cringed the first time that you heard "Heartless," as you rock out to "Robocop" or the more mellow "Street Lights."

I'll admit, the singing is ridiculous - about as ridiculous as a horse wearing two pairs of UGGs. But the fact that a few listens of the album will have you singing along to the roboticized voice of Kanye West, completely forgetting the fact that he's not a very good singer and that the lyrical value of the album pains compared to what he's delivered in the past, shows just how much Kanye has been able to deliver one of the best hip hop albums this side of Lil Wayne this past year.

No, he can't sing. But he can still make good music.