Okay, I know some of you Kanye West fans are extremely unhappy in his decision to rely on his vocal chords rather than his rhyme book but his '808's and Heartbreak' despite its unique music style is now a platinum selling album according to a December 28th Sound Scan report.

Yes even with his first week sales which to some standards are excellent selling almost 500,000 records, they still paled in comparison to his 'Graduation' album where he sold 957,000 in the first week it was released.
Forecasts for the album were somewhat negative but this year's holiday season saved Kanye West boosting his sales over the 1,000,000 sold mark. So even with rap fans uneasiness some of them still seemed to get out there and buy the album.

So just remember, by buying this record we have pretty much given Kanye West the license to do whatever he wants musically. I am not trying to say the album wasn't good because personally I enjoyed hearing him talk about pain in his life rather than his usual ego filled rhymes for  a change, but I hope he's doesn't take the change in style too seriously and never go back to rapping.

Anyway Hip Hop certainly still needs Kanye West. Plans for his next album have been released revealing its name '4 Seasons' and that it will be divided into 4 separate sections 'Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall'. I don't know what kind of music it will be but he seems to have left his 'College Dropout' theme behind which leaves us curious to see if that means he's leaving rhyming behind also.

Kanye West seems to be successful in most of the things he does. Tell me what you thought of 808's and Heartbreak' and if you think he should rap or sing in the future.