Kanye sings!

On '808s & Heartbreak,' the hip-hop star joins a legion of fellow rappers bursting into song - and the result isn't music to our ears

(Mike Marsland/Getty Images)

Kanye West recently proclaimed that he will go down as "the voice of this generation."

But the Chicago MC isn't content to have his legacy rest solely on his rapping skills. West has decided what he really needs to do is sing. And his new album, "808s & Heartbreak," out today, features the rapper-producer-professional-awards-show boycotter trying to unveil his inner Justin Timberlake.

On a scale of one to 10, with one being the chorus to Biz Markie's "Just a Friend" and 10 being Queen Latifah's "Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars," West's vocal abilities hover at about a four. And he only scores that high because of Auto-Tune, the now-ubiquitous pitch-correction technology well loved by "808s" guest T-Pain, which elevates the sound of even the most mediocre of singers.

West is not alone in his quest to belt out a tune. Fellow "808s" contributor Lil Wayne has dabbled in the computer-assisted arena, including tracks like "Lollipop." Snoop Dogg used the vocal-tweaker on his slinky single "Sensual Seduction." Plenty of other rappers - 50 Cent, Eminem, ODB, Ja Rule, and Jay-Z - have bravely gone melodic (sort of) with little to no modern masking. Some even proved they can truly carry a tune: Latifah, of course, and Lauryn Hill - who started as a singer - as well as Andre 3000 of Outkast, Cee-Lo of Gnarls Barkley, and the dudes from Bone Thugs-N-Harmony.

Why the desire to add singing to the repertoire?

The same reason Cindy Crawford turned to acting and Mike Ditka tried his hand at making wine. Everybody has a dream. And even though rappers are at the top of the street-cred food chain, singing is a way both to be taken more seriously and to extend their notoriously short shelf life.

"Rappers want to be singers to cash in, but it's the same way they want to be movie stars and fashion designers," says Emil Wilbekin, editor-in-chief of urban lifestyle magazine Giant. Even blinged-out rappers might be feeling the economic pinch, he points out, and it's probably cheaper to sing your own hook than to hire Rihanna.

Whatever the reason, it works, says Chris Tyler, program director at JAM'N 94.5. In fact, two singles from "808s" are in the Billboard top 20. "Because they're some of the biggest artists in the format, they have the luxury to get away with certain things," says Tyler. In West's case, his broader legacy may also be a part of it. "He doesn't want to be labeled just a rapper," Tyler says. "He wants to be the biggest artist of all time."

Wilbekin argues that not all rappers who sing are trying to sound good, per se. "I do think that part of the point is that it's off-key and sounds horrible, so it doesn't jeopardize their hip-hop credibility," he says. "I think the point is this masculine bravado of 'I can't really sing but this is how a regular dude would sound if he sang a love song.' . . . They're about trying new things and breaking the rules, and this is totally breaking the rules."

Some rules, perhaps, weren't meant to be broken.

Sarah Rodman can be reached at srodman @globe.com.