The Love Below is the Father of 808's & Heartbreak

As i was attentively listening to The Love Below it hit me that this was 808's & Heartbreaks before Kanye even thought of it. As much as people love Yeezy's 808, Andre 3000 was vastly ahead of the curve and im convinced that Kanye molded his album after 3000.

I remember being in college, multi-tasking between homework, television, and music; as i waited for BET's All Access featuring Big Boi's "The Way You Move" video. But that's not the headline of the story, Andre 3000's video was a secret and the viewing of that was going to take place right after Big Boi's behind the scenes coverage. This was a big deal for a few reasons: Outkast was essentially releasing two individual albums, and although we didn't know it at the time Dre took a step outside the box and took the singing route, in a funk kind of way.

Andre 3000 had gotten a bit uninspired by a lot of hip hop music at the time and he wanted to create music that he had internally been fond of but hadn't quite shared with the public. He modestly crooned his way to the top of the charts with no R&B falsetto's, just medium range verses and bass driven choruses. Also one of the most impressive parts (to me) is that he produced his album as well with the exception of one song i believe. And see, we have to remember people...this was 2003, Kanye hadn't even dropped his first album yet, he is now four albums in. When Dre dropped The Love Below some people didn't get it, some went back to the rhetoric that Dre was slightly off his rocker, and some didn't want to hear him sing, but none of those people honestly gave this album a solid listen. You have to remember nobody was singing at this time, there was no auto-tune to smooth out everyones vocal imperfections and turn everyone into an R&B half breed. So this was major!

Kanye dropped his joint with 12 tracks and Dre put up 18. As remarkable as Kanye did it, he can only Kobe (im using his name as an adjective) Andre's Jordan. Kanye's got 4 rings to Andre's 6, and he JUST got the fourth. Kanye did his album with the grain and Andre took the lumps on the chin, he didn't have the popularity of auto-tune to vouch for him. I don't know the official numbers but I know The Love Below went at least three times platinum and last i check 808's went one time. The point of my typing is to pretty much make sure we pay homage to one of the best to ever do it (my man Hump would say THE best). If you think Kanye has a beautiful mind, make sure you check out 3000's.