Love Lockdown

"Love Lockdown" is a song by American hip hop artist Kanye West, released September 18, 2008 as the lead single of his studio album 808s & Heartbreak. Written and produced by West and musician Jeff Bhasker, it was premiered by West at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards prior to its release as a single. Primarily a minimal pop song, "Love Lockdown" contains elements of synthpop and electronic music, and is characterized by the Roland TR-808 drum machine and auto-tune vocals sung by West.

Despite being a drastic departure from his previous work, the song was well received by critics, and was frequently cited as a highlight of the album. Time magazine critic Josh Tyrangiel named "Love Lockdown" the best song of 2008. The single was also successful commercially, as it managed to debut at number three on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and has since sold over three million copies in the United States.

Background

Kanye West debuted "Love Lockdown" on September 7, 2008, as the closing performance of the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards. On September 18, he released it as the lead single of 808s & Heartbreak. After announcing it as the album's first single, West posted free copies of the song on his blog for fans to download. A week later, he also posted six downloadable stems, each featuring isolated song portions of "Love Lockdown", on his blog, with the intention of enabling fans to freely remix the song for themselves. These portions include an a cappella, distorted background vocals, 808, percussion, piano, and the outro synth-beat. The song is featured in the first episode edition of Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned on the in-game contemporary hip-hop radio station, The Beat 102.7 hosted by DJ Green Lantern.

Soulsonic Force

Soulsonic Force (also referred to as Afrika Bambaataa & Soulsonic Force) are an American electro-funk and hip hop ensemble led by Afrika Bambaataa who helped establish hip-hop in the early 1980s with songs such as "Planet Rock". They were also influential in the birth of the electro movement in America and helped pave the way for modern dance music styles such as electro-funk as well as the entire Miami bass scene.

In 1982, Soulsonic Force and Afrika Bambaataa released a single called "Planet Rock". The song borrowed musical motifs from German electro-pop, British rock and African-American disco rap. All the different elements and musical styles were blended together; and in doing so, offered hip hop as a new vision for global harmony. The song became an immediate hit and stormed the music charts worldwide.

Their most well-known songs are "Planet Rock", "Looking for the Perfect Beat" and "Renegades of Funk" (which is one of the earliest political-conscious rap songs, alongside Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five's "The Message").