Remember that album where Kanye West went full-blown auto-tune and his critics didn’t know what the hell to think?
Yeah that one, 808s & Heartbreak. Since its off-putting inception in 2008, the album has circled around to being a revered body of work. Now, Rolling Stone is among those to retrace their steps with West’s fourth studio album, naming it one of their “40 Most Groundbreaking Albums of All Time.” The magazine now credits Yeezy’s emotional opus with proving a blueprint for his hip-hop successors.
“Its core aesthetic was like nothing in hip-hop: freshly butchered feelings enumerated in detail, but masked by digital processing; beds of spare synths used to balance a mix of singing and rapping,” West’s entry reads. “However, over time it served as a new template for up-and-comers in hip-hop and R&B.”
SEE ALSO: The 23 Most Emo Lines On Kanye West’s ‘808s & Heartbreak’
Joining Mary J. Blige’s What’s The 411?, Dr. Dre’s The Chronic and Michael Jackson’s Thriller, 808s & Heartbreak is an addition to West’s notable accolades. But interestingly enough, even Rolling Stone was once a non-believer in the album:
“This noble failure of an album might easily have been a noble success if he had tweaked the Fun-o-Meter just a bit,” the magazine’s 2008 review of the album read. “A slight pitch correction could have done the trick.”
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