10 Albums That You Need To Listen To More Than Once

After the sales figures of Graduation came in, there was no stopping Kanye West for a second. He had been put up in a David vs Goliath battle with 50 Cent and managed to beat this gangsta rap sound into the ground with his last record, bringing the sounds of hip hop into the stadiums. Within weeks of the record being out though, Ye would start to crumble, and the rest of the world didn’t know what to do with his next record.

Needing to let out his grief over losing his mother and his marriage falling apart, 808s & Heartbreak almost exists outside of the world of hip hop, with Ye drenching himself in Autotune and singing through most of the tracks on here. And while most hip hop heads were absolutely furious at this new direction, it ended up being one of the most influential albums of the past decade.

If you go back and listen to songs like Say You Will and Love Lockdown, you can hear the seeds of what we’re hearing in mainstream hip hop and R&B today, birthing the careers of both Drake and the Weeknd without even trying. With the help of Kid Cudi’s otherworldly sound as well, this feels like we’re finally taking a look behind the curtain at the man that was behind the slick talk in songs like Gold Digger and Jesus Walks. This guy is human just like the rest of us, and it makes for one of the best listening experiences where you actually hear this man bleed on record.