Kanye West: All 6 Albums Ranked From Worst To Best

5. 808s & Heartbreak

It could easily be argued that 808s & Heartbreak is Kanye's most divisive album. It certainly was up until the release of Yeezus, anyway. If "Graduation" had shown the vocalist/producer's intention to move away from the melodic sounds of his incredibly popular first two releases, 808s & Heartbreak took that schism to a whole new level. Less sample-heavy than his earlier releases, 808s... began to break apart the conventions of mainstream hip-hop at the time with a largely synth/808-led and autotune-saturated sound. Critics compared it to post-punk and Radiohead's groundbreaking Kid A on its release, noting its melancholy lyrics and the prevalence of electronic instruments on the record. Yet the overwhelming initial response was one of confusion - was this really a hip-hop record? History has absolutely justified Kanye's decisions to release such a trailblazing selection of tracks. The exaggerated use of autotune has become ubiquitous in contemporary popular music, with Kanye's cyborg-like experiments on 808s... effectively laying the framework for most of the R&B and hip-hop that followed. Tracks like RoboCop and Paranoid, dark and depressing in the extreme, are nonetheless stunning works of electronic pop. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfrenkSar8Y&list=PLZRHc733aTIkrfEYU40v84IQ1kg8V5D3s Incredibly, the record is at its best when at its most experimental. The tracks that most evoke Kanye's earlier work - Amazing, for instance - disrupt the melancholic flow and feel somewhat out of place. For that reason, the album doesn't feature quite as high on this list as the two experimental records that succeeded it. However, Kanye the experimentalist started here, and as such 808s & Heartbreaks is undoubtedly a worthwhile album in his discography.