You get a sample, loop it, ask somebody to shout "throw your hands up in the sky" over the top and "that's 80 per cent of it right there". Kanye West no longer finds making hip-hop challenging, he told a gathering of hacks at an Argentinian steakhouse in the O2 Arena last night, so he's moved on; moved so far, in fact, that he's been forced to create a new musical genre.
The genre is called "pop art" and Kanye is its only practitioner (we asked Andy Warhol for comment on this nominal development, but he was, sadly, dead). It's the sound showcased on his forthcoming fourth album, 808s & Heartbreak. Brought forward for release at the end of this month, 808s got its debut UK play last night and ... hip-hop it ain't.
