For as entertaining as Kanye West is to listen to, he is even better to write about. Hell, just in the last six weeks, between all the fun that has come with the forthcoming 808’s & Heartbreak and the paparrazi beatdowns, Kanye has provided enough material to fill a book.

And to think, we’re still a month away from the release of the Chicago native’s fourth full-length endeavor and just now are starting to get some of the long-awaited specifics. For one, after stopping by Jimmy Kimmel Live on Tuesday night (see video below), Kanye hosted an 808’s & Heartbreak listening event in downtown L.A., where he offered the few lucky attendees, including The Fader, the first tastes of the finished product.

After waiting in a loading area with an open bar and a DJ, we walked up a driveway illuminated by florescent lights to a darkened room where approximately forty nude women, most of them wearing face-obscuring masks seemingly made of faux lamb’s wool, stood in the middle—black girls in the front, white girls in the back. Then the entire album played without introduction or explanation. The women were backlit by glowing lights—mostly red and purple, sometimes strobing, often pulsing and sporadically illuminating. When “Love Lockdown” played three songs in, some of the models started sitting down on the floor, others going so far as to fully recline by the end of the album…

MTV was there as well and descried the album as particularly emotion driven, backed by a mix of rock, hip-hop, R&B, and pop.

He said this album is very personal to him and that it comes from the heart. He recalled working with T-Pain on the record, saying what great energy he has, and also defended the use of the Auto-Tune that’s a hallmark of so many of T-Pain’s records. He also mentioned that when the first single off the album “Love Lockdown” hit iTunes, he was asked if it should be filed “rap” or “pop” — he opted for the latter, saying if it’s popular music, why does it have to be labeled “rap”?

But ultimately, the most revealing part of the evening was the fact that we finally have a tracklist for 808’s & Heartbreak. Well, either that, or Kanye’s comments that he’s already looking ahead to album #5, ” I told Jay, LA Reid and everyone at my label that I needed to put this out right now, I’ll have another album in June, but this has to come out right now…”

My head is now officially spinning. Thankfully, we have a few more weeks before November 25th. But for the impatient ones, more early reviews of the album - based on last night’s listening session - are already starting to pop up.

Morning Update: Of course there is more Kanye news. Why wouldn’t there be? In the wake of all the aforementioned, West has officially unveiled 808’s & Heartbreak’s second single, “Heartless”, courtesy of his personal blog. Check it out here or download it below.

Check Out: (courtesy of Mr. West himself)
“Heartless”

808’s & Heartbreak Tracklist (Unconfirmed):
01. Welcome to HeartBreak
02. Heartless
03. Love Lockdown
04. Robocop
05. Anyway
06. Streetlights
07. Say You Will
08. Bad News
09. Amazing (feat. Young Jeezy)
10.Tell Everybody That You Know (feat. Lil Wayne)
11. Coldest Winter

Categories: News, Watch
Tags: Kanye West