On September 11th, 2007 the Hip-Hop world received a shot of adrenaline when rap’s number one bully, 50 Cent went up against the most confident man in Hip-Hop, (or in the world for that matter) Kanye West—as they dueled it out for first week sales bragging rights. When the smoked cleared, Graduation took Curtis to school by a score of 957,000 to 691,000. But the celebration would be a short-lived one, because two months later in November, his mother Dr. Donda West would die due to complications of plastic surgery.

From that point, many doubted if he could cement a comeback, and return to his usual “Kanye” self. Those questions were quickly answered when he took home the Grammy award for best Hip-Hop album of the year that following February. Notorious for his award show antics, he called out the producers of the show on live television, and told them shut off the music, and to stop rushing him off the podium while he accepted the award on behalf of his mother with the word “Mama” shaved into his head.

Most of the time when he has an award show breakdown, the crowd turns the other cheek, but this time around they actually applauded him for speaking his mind, and not caring about the consequences or repercussions of his actions. After that, the outspoken comments he made a few months earlier on a disoriented and p op-bellied Britney Spears stumbling across the stage and struggling to keep her balance in hooker stiletto boots at the MTV Video Music Awards back in September came to light. After publicly blasting the music channel that rarely plays music anymore on their “Britney debacle,” they handed him an olive branch and let him close out the 2008 VMA’s (and probably to avoid being thrown under the bus again).

Which now brings us to the present. Once more, fans and bloggers alike were glued to their television sets waiting for another less-than-stellar installment of the VMA’s to end so they could hear a new Kanye West track. Would it be along the lines of ‘Through The Wire,’ ‘Jesus Walks,’ ‘Touch The Sky,’ ‘Gold Digger,’ ‘Stronger,’ ‘Champion,’ or ‘Can’t Tell Me Nothing,’? No, none of the above. It was a song called ‘Love Lockdown,’ a composition featuring Auto-Tune with his quirky metaphors being replaced by singing instead of rapping. That move alone that took everybody surprise including his colleagues, and even the former foe he defeated, 50 Cent poked fun at the song.

Nonetheless, Kanye Omari West arrives at the threshold of music’s doorstep one more time with his fourth studio album in four years 808s & Heartbreaks. The album is a complete strip down of what his listeners are accustomed to hearing from him, as he adopts the Auto-Tune technology throughout the project with the help of drums patterns courtesy of the TR-808 Rhythm Composer. Besides the assistance of his mentor No I.D. on two tracks, (‘Love Lockdown’ and ‘Heartless’) the rest of the album is handled by Kanye himself, with a handful of artists dropping in like Lil Wayne, Young Jeezy, and G.O.O.D. Music’s newly signed Kid Cudi.

With that said, the album starts off with ‘Welcome To Heartbreak,’ featuring Kid Cudi. With Auto-Tune cued up, Kanye weighs his life of extravagance against those who have far less, and then realizes that he’s actually the one who has nothing, “My friend showed me pictures of his kids/and I can show him was pictures of my cribs/he said his daughter got a brand new report card/and I all got was a brand new sports car/dad cracked a joke, all the kids laughed/but I couldn’t hear him all the way in first class/look back on my life, and my life gone/where did I go wrong.”

Actual rapping on 808s & Heartbreaks is few and far between, but Young Jeezy helps out a little on ‘Amazing’ behind tribal drums and wild animal adlibs, “I’m amazing, yeah I’m all that/if I ain’t on my grind, then what you call that/victorious, yeah we warriors/we make history, strive off victories.” A synthesizer joins the fray on ‘Paranoid,’ which is the only song on the album that shows Kanye rhyming a little more while switching back and forth from his real voice to Auto-Tune, as he tries to calm down his worrywart of a girlfriend.

Some of Kanye’s heartbreak comes in on ‘Bad News,’ and the track itself is probably the closest thing to his previous material that you’ll find on the CD with him belting out a quick verse, and then allowing the production to be its own feature by letting it ride out for over two minutes. Lil Wayne and Kanye have an Auto-Tune war brewing on ‘Tell Everybody That You Know,’ as they both broadcast their breakups to anyone within ear’s reach. Kanye continues to sulk on ‘Coldest Winter’ as he contemplates on if he’ll have another attempt at finding love again. The son of Chi-town pours the rest of his emotions into the remaining songs like ‘Say You Will,’ ‘Streetlight,’ and ‘Pinocchio Story’ (Live in Singapore).

Always one to wear his feelings on his sleeve like it was an accessory to compliment his flashy style and designer duds, Kanye West treats 808s & Heartbreaks as if it were a psychiatrist absorbing all of the pain that he talks about so freely. Sonically this album is easily his darkest one to date, and comparing it to his past work is utterly impossible because, the soundscape itself puts the listener in a place that’s light years away from songs like ‘Good Life,’ and ‘Flashing Lights.’ As an artist, it’s clear that the most self-assured man this side of the galaxy is evolving, and isn’t scared to take on new forms of music just as André 3000 did on his side of the Speakerboxxx/The Love Below album.

Even though he [Kanye West] can’t be credited for resurrecting Auto-Tune (that honor distinctly goes to T-Pain), he can give himself a nice pat on the back for having the courage to incorporate the technique and utilize it for an entire album, while completely going away from what first established him—and from what people have grown to love from him. Gone are the unique drum breaks, braggadocio attitude, and perfect sampling, but what replaces that is an individual who humbles himself and admits to some of his faults by using this album as a confession of sorts, while still keeping you entertained in only the way he can.