Kanye West was born in Atlanta, Georgia on June 8, 1977, to a photojournalist father and college professor mother. His parents split up when he was only 3 and he went to live with his mother, Donda West, in Chicago’s middle-class South Shore neighborhood. It was here that he first fell in love with music and the Chicago hip hop scene.
Kanye West (pictured left) with his mother Donda
Young, Alex. “Kanye West and Donda West”. Consequence Sound, 12 Jul. 2020, https://consequence.net/2020/07/kanye-donda-song/.
In the years since its release, 808s and Heartbreak has become one of the most influential music albums of the new millennium. The album’s stripped vocals, haunting lyrics, and raw emotional expression were unlike anything that had come before it in the hip hop or rap genres and its influences can still be felt reverberating in these genres to this day. Sadly, it took great tragedy and loss to motivate Kanye to create the project taking a toll on his already unstable mental and emotional health. West and his mother were extremely close which only made her untimely death from complications during cosmetic surgery on November 10, 2007, that much harder to cope with for West (Holmes 2018). West blamed himself for her death in an interview explaining that if he had never become rich and famous his mother would have never gotten the surgery in the first place (The Most Unruly 2017).
Donda West kissing her son Kanye on the cheek
Bond, Nick. “It’s been 13 years since Kanye West’s beloved mother died – but the bizarre circumstances surrounding her passing still haunt him. Photo / Getty Images”. NZ Herald. 23 Jul. 2020, https://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/donda-wests-death-the-bizarre-tragedy-kanye-west-never-got-over/Q2SZSDNPMSH3Q22M4YPW6KRP2U/.
His mother’s death, coupled with his then-undiagnosed bipolar disorder, plunged Kanye into a deep depression concerning many that were close to him for his safety. This depression affected all aspects of West’s life, especially his 18-month engagement to Alexis Phifer which they were forced to call off after the pair listed a deterioration in their relationship as the main reason (Holmes 2018). Feeling overwhelmed, Kanye decided to break away from everything. He took a plane to Hawaii to isolate himself while he coped with these tragic losses and begin his healing process. While there, he was inspired to begin writing his passion project, 808s and Heartbreak, to express all the emotion that had been building up inside him in the only way he knew how—through hip hop.
Kanye immediately went to work at Avex Studios in Hawaii, recruiting producer and songwriter Jeff Bhasker to help with the project (The Most Unruly 2017). The pair had previously worked on four albums together, but according to Bhasker, 808s was unlike anything the pair had ever worked on. The music was “flowing so effortlessly” as Kanye kicked aside all of his normal perfectionist tendencies during the production process. West deviated from his normal standard of perfection for this album because was because it was a “passion project”—he wanted to reflect this with the stripped-down approach.
According to West’s cousin Tony Williams, 808s was the first time anyone close to him had heard from West following the tragic events and put many of them at ease because they understood that this was his way of coping (Holmes 2018).