808s & Heartbreak is the fourth studio album by American recording artist Kanye West, released on November 24, 2008, by Roc-A-Fella Records. It was recorded during September and October 2008 at Glenwood Studios in Burbank, California and Avex Recording Studio in Honolulu, Hawaii, with the help of producers such as No I.D., and Jeff Bhasker.
Conceived in the wake of a series of distressing personal events, 808s & Heartbreak marked a major musical departure for West from his previous hip hop records. It featured electropop and R&B music and lyrics about personal loss, alienated fame, and heartache, sung by West using an Auto-Tune vocal processor. For the album's production, he eschewed conventional hip hop sounds in favor of a minimalist sonic palette, which included prominent use of Auto-Tune and the titular Roland TR-808 drum machine to create a distorted, electronic sound.