>i think i can trace my waning interest in new, popular black
>music back to this album's release/leak date.. and i don't
>hate kanye for it.. it was daring, i respect him as an artist
>for doing it, but the album was unlistenable and somehow
>influenced a lot more folks to make unlistenable music.. yuck.

I've never thought about it like that .... but now that you mention it and I've given it some thought, I actually think this was the exact time I started to fall off the wagon, too. I can think of multiple albums per year that I bought and liked every single year before this album dropped. Since then, I can count on one hand per year how many albums I've bought and enjoyed from new artists or new sounds in hip-hop. I always just thought it was cause I was getting old, and maybe that's still part of it. But --- yea. That type of sound on 808s influenced a lot of hip-hop/urban music that came afterward and I just CANNOT get into it at all.

This was really eye opening for me. Thanks. Haha.