With the blues, Black men could be complex, emotional The stark differences between the Blues and hip hop. In fact, the beef over this Kanye album underscores That classic since my baby left meblues music. In many ways, 808's and heartbreak is a blues album. It was then that I realized that the only acceptable emotionįor Black men to publicly express and still retain their

Is a no no for men, and antithetical to Black manhood. That he was being both vulnerable and in pain and in our culture that Post break up slug penetrate moments, I came to realize Listening to the album and hearing him describe those Other than the loss of someone, when are you really vulnerable? In fact, Marvin Gaye's Here my Dear, Erykah's Mamas Gun are some Whereas, 808's and Heartbreak, helped me with being inīesides, listening to the beat and not the lyrics has been a troublingīreak up albums allow an artist to lay it on the line. Said anything that made me think about nothing. To say that he 'sounds like' T-Pain misses the point by lookingĪt just the sound, but ignoring the content. The more I listened to the album, the more I realized that thisĬat was in a lot of pain, and trying to articulate it. I also knew that given the loss that he experienced in the last yearĪnd the fact that he is a Gemini, he was going to go all out on the album. I figured if that many people were hating on it, then I should giveīesides, I typically rock for the underdog.

Until I saw folks at The Smoking Section speak and I read the comments

I came to it through the back door as I wasn't really tripping off of it

It is an album that needs to be played loudly, in your trunk, on your I listened to 808 and Heartbreaks last week for about two days straight.

T pain 808s and heartbreak