808’s and Heartbreak better than THRILLER?!

Its 1982. Reagan is president, the book The Color Purple is published, the movie E.T. debuts, The San Francisco 49ers won the Superbowl, unemployment was 9.7%, and I was not yet born. Rest in peace Satchel Paige. In the music industry if you had not heard of The Rolling Stones, Teddy Pendergrass, Marvin Gaye, The Beatles, or Stevie Wonder, you were either living under a rock or dead ( in which you would be living under thousands of rocks).Ozzy Osborne was biting the head off live bats at concerts. Some parts of Asia also began to use compacts disc to distribute music. In the United States, however, moving units was becoming more difficult than finding a black man at a bar mitzvah. Then out the night that covered him black as a pit from pole to pole, Michael Jackson thanked whatever gods may be for his unconquerable soul.

On November 30, 1982 Epic Records released Michael Jackson’s sixth studio album, Thriller. Even though Thriller went on to sell 27 million copies and remain in the top ten of the Billboard 200 for 80 consecutive weeks, initially it received mixed reviews. Before the album had seen packaging and promotion, Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones debated heavily about the direction Michael wanted to pursue musically. There was even talk about not even releasing the album. No one had tried Rock &Roll influenced production and pulled it off. No one had done a song with a black man and a white man arguing over a girl, civilly. No one had constructed music videos are art. None the less, Thriller was the first of its kind. An African-American artist’s videos had never been aired on MTV let alone TWICE AN HOUR. No other artist at the time had released seven singles from one studio release. Not that it was an esteemed privilege, but he even got to meet President Reagan. There were singers and then there was Michael Jackson.

It’s 2008. Gas is $1,240,932,200 a gallon. George W. Bush is still the dumbest man in America the Northern Hemisphere. February had 29 days. United States troops are still in Iraq. AIDS is an epidemic pandemic. Unemployment is 99.9%! 50 Cent has had a reality show. Barack Huessin Obama becomes the 1st African-American to be elected President of the United States. The music industry can’t sell more CD’s than a foreclosed bank. With iTunes castrating the music industry’s ability to obtain royalties, artists continued to watch The Boondocks for album gimmicks and music video treatments. Then on September 7, it was premiered. Kanye West premiered “Love Lockdown” on the MTV Video Music Awards.

The next day the internet began to buzz in a frenzy that reminds Midwest residents of those pesky cicadas. Questions flooded every blog, website, and Facebook status: “What’s wrong with his hair? Is he doing an R&B album? Why are his pants so tight? Was he really wearing his heart on his sleeve?” A month later when Rocafella Records/Island Def Jam released his fourth album, 808’s & Heartbreak, the chatter did not stop. The public loved and hated the album. He hated the auto tuner. She loved the emotion. He loved the creativity. She hated the absence of rapping. It seemed that slumber than music industry had been interrupted by Kanye’s cries on the cd’s opening track “Say you will.”

Music was sleeping walking, in a trance, before 808’s and Heartbreak and released. It caught everyone by surprise, and they became angry, disgruntled, and HOPEFULLY motivated. Boundaries had not been explored before the conception of Thriller. It opened doors, closed gaps, and reached for the stars. Both albums were courageous, showing no regard for the social implications that could and would be attached. Creativity and innovation do not exist in time, they are infinite entities that people cannot stereotype and categorize with their degrading astigmatisms. The most beautiful art is usually appreciated in retrospect because unlike creativity and innovation, logic lacks foresight.

Which album is better? I think you know the answer to that question…

Or do you?

Until next time. Find your swank. think insane. be Urbane.