Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer is a drum machine manufactured by Roland Corporation between 1980 and 1983. It generates sounds using analog synthesis rather than recorded samples, and was one of the first drum machines to let users program their own rhythms rather than using preset patterns.
The TR-808 was a commercial failure because electronic music had yet to become mainstream and most musicians and producers wanted more realistic-sounding drum machines. Fewer than 12,000 units were sold before Roland discontinued the machine in 1983, partly because the faulty transistors essential to its sound became impossible to restock.
Marvin Gaye's 1982 single "Sexual Healing" was the first US hit to feature the 808. That same year, Afrika Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Force released "Planet Rock", which used the 808 to create futuristic percussion and influenced the development of Miami bass, Detroit techno, and hip-hop.
The 808's sounds are produced through analog synthesis using transistors rather than recorded samples. Ikutaro Kakehashi deliberately purchased faulty transistors to create the machine's characteristic sizzling quality. Its bass drum is built from a sine oscillator, low-pass filter, and voltage-controlled amplifier, producing low frequencies that flatten slightly over time.
The 808 became foundational to hip-hop through artists including Run-DMC, LL Cool J, Public Enemy, and later Kanye West, who used it on every track of his 2008 album 808s & Heartbreak. Hank Shocklee of the Bomb Squad production group stated that without the 808 bass drum sound, it is not hip-hop.
Roland released the TR-08 miniaturized recreation in 2017 and its first official software emulations in 2018. Behringer released the analog RD-8 Rhythm Designer in 2019. Propellerhead Software included 808 sounds in its ReBirth RB-338 software, which Roland retired in 2017 on intellectual property grounds. In 2025, Roland released the TR-1000, its first drum machine to use analog synthesis in 40 years.