essay on my beautiful dark twisted fantasy

The cultural impact of Kanye West’s ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’ a decade later

November marks the 10th anniversary of what many consider to be Kanye West’s magnum opus and the greatest hip-hop album ever produced — “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” (MBDTF). Ever since, Kanye has gone on to perfect his musical craft by experimenting with the harsh drums and tones of “Yeezus,” the critically acclaimed psychedelic, out-of-this-world vibe of “Kids See Ghosts” and even gospel music in his most recent project, “Jesus Is King.” 

But enough about the new Kanye. Let’s talk about the old Kanye — the dark, twisted and introspective Kanye. 

The album’s cover immediately catches the eye, with its lewd depiction of Kanye entangled with a winged woman. Artist George Condo designed five different covers, but Kanye eventually had to censor the first cover so streaming services didn’t find it as offensive and provocative. 

Upon first listen, a few things will immediately stand out about MBDTF — the maximalist production, the samples, the features and, most important, the narrative. MBDTF is peak Kanye storytelling, where he meshes together some of the most prominent voices in hip-hop to address some of the pressing issues on his mind. 

In the hedonistic “Dark Fantasy,” he addresses celebrity worship and the complacency plaguing society with the advent of technology.  

“Beyond the truest, hey, teacher, teacher/ Tell me how do you respond to students?/ And refresh the page and restart the memory?/ Re-spark the soul and rebuild the energy,” he says.

In the very next track, “Gorgeous,” Kanye asks, “Is hip-hop just a euphemism for a new religion?” The messaging behind this seemingly shallow metaphor is significant — Kanye himself is using hip-hop as a tool to speak to and inspire the Black youth. Since hip-hop’s inception, the genre has been a powerful platform for evocative expression by Black artists on social issues ranging from police brutality to stigmas around mental illnesses. 

The album takes a more personal turn with “Blame Game,” where Kanye raps about his split with ex-girlfriend Amber Rose and the arguments they had. In the sketch featuring Chris Rock and Salma Kenas at the end of the song, Salma Kenas’s character butt-dials him and Kanye is forced to listen as his imaginary girlfriend flirts with another man. 

Throughout the rest of the album, Kanye’s trademark versatility and confidence in himself is in full display — every track is a masterpiece, with seamless transitions and no song left feeling like unnecessary filler. From the club hit “All Of The Lights,” to melodic rap in “Lost In The World,” Kanye refuses to let MBDTF be defined by a single style.

Highlights and fan favorites throughout the album include the iconic and succinct staccato of a piano on “Runaway,” Mike Dean’s legendary guitar solo in “Devil In A New Dress” and Nicki Minaj’s hard-hitting verse on “Monster” that propelled her to stardom. 

However impressive the artistic elements of MBDTF may be, the album’s cultural significance and impact is unparalleled by any other contemporary artwork.

To Kanye, MBDTF was more than just a throwaway album — it was a career-defining moment that would either solidify his legendary status or cast him away into the abyss of forgotten names in hip-hop.

The stakes couldn’t have been higher. In 2009, Kanye came under heavy fire from the media and the public for his infamous interruption of Taylor Swift’s BET award for Best Music Video. 

“Yo, Taylor, I’m really happy for you. I’mma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time,” he said. 

Seeking refuge from the glaring eye of the media, Kanye self-exiled for months in Honolulu’s Avex Recording Studio to produce MBDTF. He flew dozens of notable artists and producers down to Hawaii to work on the album. The artists’ daily routine was grueling, with up to 12 hours spent in the studio a day, along with charitable community work and recreational time. 

“They get up every morning to eat breakfast,” producer RZA said in an interview with the Red Bull Music Academy . “They talk about yesterday and the next day and the day of and the present. They plan. Over breakfast, they sit there, they talk about what they want to do, what they did and how to make their music better.”

In addition to the album’s already impressive tracklist, Kanye’s music label GOOD Music had a promotional series of free music releases every Friday throughout the production of the album called GOOD Fridays. Four singles from GOOD Fridays would become tracks on the album, including “Power,” “Monster,” “Devil In a New Dress” and “So Appalled.”

Kanye also directed and starred in a 35-minute long music film titled “Runaway,” which incorporated all of the songs in the album with stunning ivory-themed visuals and garish scenes that bring his music to life. 

Upon release, MBDTF was an instant hit, selling 496,000 copies in its first week and debuting at #1 on the Billboard 200. The album went on to win the 2012 Grammy for Best Rap Album and received rave reviews by many critics, including a 94/100 rating from Metacritic based on 45 critic reviews from a range of publications. Billboard also named it the greatest album of the decade .

All in all, MBDTF changed the meta of production hip-hop for the decade that followed. Artists such as J. Cole , Travis Scott and Alicia Keys have sampled his album more than hundreds of times, and notable artists like Kendrick Lamar have cited MBDTF as an artistic inspiration. 

On the 10th anniversary of the album’s release, hopefully you can spare an hour and eight minutes out of your day to listen to MBDTF from start to finish, working from Nicki Minaj’s intro narration to Gil Scott-Heron’s sample in an emotional, up-tempo “Who Will Survive In America.”

Contact Ian Park at ianpark3918 ‘at’ gmail.com.

Ian Park is a high schooler writing as part of The Daily's 2020 Summer Workshop. He was also a high school intern for The Daily in summer 2019.

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My beautiful dark twisted fantasy: a sonic analysis of kanye west’s magnum opus.

Celebrating the 10th anniversary of the grandiose hip-hop epic.

Ten years ago, Kanye West’s fifth full-length album, the My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,  was released unto the world.

Pieced together alongside a wildly diverse team of creatives over the span of 18 months after West was shunned by the public due to his infamous Taylor Swift stage invasion at the 2009 MTV Awards, is universally regarded as one of the most significant releases of all time, with the record’s highbrow production, intricate narrative, decadent aesthetics and eclectic array of features helping to break down boundaries for the hip-hop and even transcending genre to go down as one of the decade’s most influential releases.

Like any Kanye West project,  My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy  is densely layered and thematically complex, and this couldn’t be any more apt when approaching the production of the record. While stylistically coherent, each track on  My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy  is drastically different in tone and timbre, due in part to both the instrumental contributions of West’s key collaborators as well as the enigmatic array of samples utilised across the album.

From obscure prog-rock through to indie-folk and abstract electronica, West and his team dug through crates far and wide to source the samples heard across  My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,  re-contextualising to paint a grandiose, if not slightly deranged, portrait of Kanye West: not just as an artist, but a man caught within the trappings of fortune and fame, who upon reaching the apex of the American dream, is now desperately questioning whether it was all worth it at all.

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of one of the most significant musical releases of the modern era, we’re turning our critical eyes and ears to every single sample used to thread the record together ,  analysing the record through its production to explore the dark twisted fantasy of the one and only Kanye West.

‘Dark Fantasy’  

Samples used: ‘In High Places’ – Mike Oldfield feat. Jon Anderson

It’d be difficult to name an opening refrain more iconic than ‘Can we get much higher?’. With a single sample, West sets the tone for the sheer decadence of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, snatching the vocal from Mike Oldfield and Jon Anderson’s 1983 track ‘In High Places’ to use as a precursor for Teyana Taylor’s hook before launching into a classic boom-bap beat cooked up by West, No I.D. and the RZA.  

Of course, it’d be criminal to mention ‘Dark Fantasy’ without making note of Nicki Minaj’s spoken word intro, which interpolates a poem from Roald Dahl’s Rotten Rhymes to assist in establishing the long-winding, twisted narrative to come.

‘Gorgeous’  

Samples used: ‘You Showed Me’ – Enoch Light and the Glittering Guitars

As illustrious of an opener as ‘Dark Fantasy’ might be, it’s on ‘Gorgeous’ where My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy really starts to show that this isn’t your average rap album. For this track, Kanye flips an Enoch Light and the Glittering Guitars cover of ‘You Showed Me’ (originally written by ‘60s rockers The Turtles), pitching its fuzzy guitar loop down a semitone to form the bedrock of the instrumental.  

While Kanye’s verses throughout this track are undoubtedly some of the best he’s ever laid down in his career, it’s producer Mike Dean who steals the spotlight in ‘Gorgeous’. Over Raekwon’s final verse, Dean layers angelic synth pads and a screaming guitar solo to take the song to soaring heights, laying the foundation for the eponymous ‘Mike Dean Outro’ that’s become known to be one of his trademark tricks.  

Samples used: ‘21st Century Schizoid Man’ – King Crimson; ‘It’s Your Thing’ – Cold Grits; ‘Afromerica’ – Continent Number 6

Not many songs employ the use of samples quite like ‘Power’ does – but then again, not many artists produce like Kanye West does. With the assistance of S1, Mike Dean, Jeff Bhasker and Andrew Dawson, Kanye takes three wildly different samples and re-contextualises them into one of the most epic hip-hop instrumentals in modern memory.

‘Power’ opens with a pitched-up sample from Continent Number 6’s 1978 disco track ‘Afromerica’ , with Kanye using the song’s chanting vocals and hand claps as the foundation to build the song atop of. The song’s drums come courtesy of a breakbeat from ‘It’s Your Thing’ by Cold Grits, and of course, there’s that King Crimson sample to open each new section of the track.  

Supposedly, Kanye put thousands of hours of work into producing ‘Power’ to ensure the track would surmount to the immense expectations bestowed upon him, and when it dropped as the album’s lead single in May of 2010, it was clear that My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was gearing up to be an album unlike any other.  

‘All Of The Lights (Interlude)’ + ’All Of The Lights’

Okay, so ‘All Of The Lights’ mightn’t feature any samples – but how can you skip over this track? After being opened by a beautiful piano intro (delicately played by Elton John himself), Kanye launches into a bombastic, star-studded rap cut driven by relentless percussion, triumphant horns and buzzy synths, creating a track that sounds way ahead of its time even ten years since its release.  

‘Monster’  

Once again, ‘Monster’ is one of the few tracks on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy to not feature any samples in its production, but that doesn’t mean it’s unworthy of a mention. Sure, Jay-Z’s verse on this cut isn’t one of his finest – in fact, it’s probably one of his worst, but we won’t go there – but Rick Ross and Kanye each turn up in fine form for their own respective moments on the mic, and Nicki Minaj’s show-stopping verse in the second half might just be one of the greatest of the 2010s. Plus, how about that Bon Iver feature?  What a voice!

‘So Appalled’  

Samples used: ‘You Are-I Am’ – Manfred Mann’s Earth Band; ‘Think (About It) – Lyn Collins

Featuring Kanye, Jay-Z (who more than redeems himself from the shoddy bars of the last track), Pusha-T and Cyhi The Prince as well as additional contributions from Swizz Beats and the RZA, ‘So Appalled’ forms the lyrical crux of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy , with each rapper turning in verses jam-packed with clever wordplay and double entendres to round out yet another seminal posse cut.

While the bars are the man focus over the course of this track, ‘So Appalled’ doesn’t skimp lightly on the instrumental front. Here, Kanye flips a woozy synth motif from ‘70s UK rock outfit Manfred Mann’s ‘You Are-I Am’ and layers it in dense reverb and distortion to underscore the track’s dense orchestral arrangement during each verse, while a vocal chop from Lyn Collin’s ‘Think (About It)’ also pops to accent the offbeat of every fourth count.  

‘Devil In A New Dress’

Samples used: ‘Will You Love Me Tomorrow?’ – Smokey Robinson  

In the decade since its release, ‘Devil In A New Dress’ has been reappraised by many listeners as one of the best tracks on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, and there’s a myriad of reasons as to why. Firstly, the beat is sensational, with producer Bink! chopping up a Smokey Robinson sample in a similar vein to Kanye’s earliest works to make for one of the album’s most hypnotic instrumentals.  

However, it’s in the second half where ‘Devil In A New Dress’ really takes flight, and there’s only one man to talk about here: Mike Dean. Here, Dean creates an instrumental interlude from layers of piano, strings and bass, before coming in with a searing guitar solo that peaks as the drums make their return in the mix.  

As Rick Ross seals the deal for ‘Devil In A New Dress’ with an exceptional verse of his own, Dean’s guitar returns to close out the track, making for one of the most euphoric moments on the entire record.

‘Runaway’  

Samples used: ‘Mary Jane (Live)’ – Rick James; ‘Expo ’83’ – The Backyard Heavies; ‘Introduction to Star Time’ – James Brown  

If My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is indeed Kanye West’s magnum opus, then surely, ‘Runaway’ must be the centrepiece of the record. Across nine minutes, West takes the listener on a trip through his own psyche in the wake of the public backlash he faced after the 2009 MTV Awards fiasco with Taylor Swift, offering a ‘toast to the douchebags’ and lamenting on his past antics.  

After beginning with a lone repeating piano motif, ‘Runaway’ immediately springs to life with a breakbeat ripped from ‘Expo ’83’ by The Backyard Heavies , with an added kick drum and reverberated hand clap helping to punch out the drums for a heavy-hitting effect. Elsewhere, Kanye whips out his MPC to interject the track with a Rick James vocal sample (‘Look at ya!’) from a 1981 live performance of ‘Mary Jane’, with a snippet of James Brown’s ‘Introduction to Star Time’ also being heard at the start of the track.  

As Pusha-T delivers a wordy verse and the song seems to draw to a close, Kanye once again pulls another trick out of the hat to close ‘Runaway’ out in tremendous fashion, wrapping his vocals in a heavily distorted Auto-Tune effect and pouring his soul out all the way to the finish line. It’s a moment that’ll never cease to amaze even the most casual of listers, and given just how many tracks have employed similar vocal processing in the years to follow, could very well be the most important moment on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.  

‘Hell Of A Life’

Samples used: ‘She’s My Baby’ – The Mojo Men; ‘Iron Man’ – Black Sabbath; ‘Stud Spider’ – Tony-Joe White

Straight after the soulful, tear-jerker epic of ‘Runaway’, Kanye lets us look into a strikingly different side of his psyche with ‘Hell Of A Life’: a grimy ode to sex, drugs and religion that also features some of the best sampling on the record. Of course, the most obvious sample here at play can be heard in the chorus, with Kanye interpolating Tony Iommi’s iconic ‘Iron Man’ riff as part of the song’s dirty-minded refrain.  

As cool as the Sabbath sample may be, it’s actually the other two samples peppered throughout ‘Hell Of A Life’ that really give it its edge. As subtle as it may be, the song’s drum loop is ripped from a Tony-Joe White song by the name of ‘Stud Spider’ (listen closely throughout various moments of the track, and you can hear White’s uttering of ‘Stud’ faintly in the background), while the track’s main riff is derived from a guitar part from The Mojo Men’s ‘She’s My Baby’ – replayed on a dirty Moog bass synth by Mike Dean.  

‘Blame Game’  

Samples used: ‘Avril 14th’ – Aphex Twin

Recorded in the wake of his breakup with Amber Rose, ‘Blame Game’ sees Kanye at his most pensive and harrowing, with the song’s cleverly-panned and pitched vocals in the second verse creating a disorienting effect to replicate the torrid self-doubt felt during the dissolution of a relationship.

To backdrop ‘Blame Game’s’ narrative arc of heartache and insecurity, West lifts a melancholic piano melody from Aphex Twin’s ‘Avril 14th’ , with the motif being replayed by a member of his team to give it a bit more clarity and detail. Supposedly, Aphex Twin attempted to contact West in order to perform a polished version of the sample himself, yet claims he was coldly shut down by the rapper’s team upon reaching out, who even tried to get away with not paying Aphex Twin clearance for the sample.

‘Lost In The World’ + ‘Who Will Survive In America’

Samples used: ‘Woods’ – Bon Iver; ‘Soul Makossa’ – Manu Dibango; ‘Think (About It) – Lynn Collins; ‘Comment No. 1’ – Gil Scott-Heron  

On the album’s epic two-part closer, Kanye calls again on the vocals of Justin Vernon, this time sampling his incredible Bon Iver cut ‘Woods’ for the auto-tuned introduction and interpolating its melody at various points throughout the track.  

West also uses the same Lyn Collins vocal chop heard in ‘So Appalled’ as another accent over the course of the track, as well as interpolating the ‘makossa’ refrain of Cameroonian saxophonist Manu Dibango’s ‘Soul Makossa’ – just as Michael Jackson once did on Thriller opener ‘Wanna Be Startin’ Something’.  

As ‘Lost In The World’ gives way to the final track of the album, one of the most poignant samples of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy enters the fray: ‘Comment No.1’, a spoken word piece by legendary Chicago jazz poet Gil Scott-Heron.

While the relentless drums bring the album to a close, Gil Scott-Heron’s scathing social commentary acts as an antithesis to the euphoric opening refrain of ‘Dark Fantasy’, painting a portrait of a nation simultaneously fuelled and plagued by the trappings of fame – with Kanye West sitting smack bang in the midst of it all.

Rediscover  six of the best samples used across Kanye’s 2007 stadium rap triumph  Graduation.

Kanye West’s Graduation 10 Years On: Six Of The Best Samples

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Critic’s Notebook

An Album and Its Buzz

By Jon Caramanica

• Jan. 2, 2011

Welcome to 2011, a year that — once the last of the snow is scraped away — will bring new hope, the promise of renewal, a chance to wake up in a world in which Kanye West’s “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” is not the consensus pick for album of the year.

Its reign has been tyrannical — surprisingly, less because of Mr. West’s maniacal and loud sense of self-importance than because of the unimaginative group-think the album has spawned. In the waning weeks of last year it was hard to read about music without being assured that this album, Mr. West’s fifth, was a world beater. It topped lists. It received perfect scores. It got “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy repealed. (That was Lady Gaga actually.) It secured passage of the Dream Act. (Actually, not even this album was powerful; maybe his “Late Registration” could have done it.)

Lack of superpowers aside, “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” (Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam) remains, six weeks after its release, a phenomenal album, third on my own year-end list, textured enough to still be revealing new crannies upon repeated listens, and alluring enough still to warrant those repeated listens.

But consensus is less a measure of greatness than of social climate. And when the year-end lists of several prominent outlets with different demographics and agendas — the magazines Rolling Stone, Vibe and Spin; the Web sites Pitchfork and Stereogum — share the same winner, it almost certainly indicates intangibles at play. Blessedly there was no consensus on No. 2: the Black Keys, Rick Ross, Deerhunter, LCD Soundsystem and Arcade Fire each got a nod. But that reflected a lack of other widely agreed upon ambitious albums; maybe Mr. West was a titan in an off year.

More vexing were some of the ratings, with outlets falling over themselves to grant Mr. West a top score: a rare 10.0 at Pitchfork, a slightly less rare 5 stars at Rolling Stone (which also gave that rating to his second album, “Late Registration”), an A from Entertainment Weekly (in fairness, a not infrequent grade at that magazine). And so such reviews are bones dropped for approval by tail-wagging puppies.

These ratings and rankings make a statement about not only the presumed quality of the album, but also about institutional decisions regarding an artist’s worthiness, and about those institutions’ desire to be seen acknowledging an artist’s worthiness. Enjoying an album is a private, micro affair; certainly not everyone on the staffs of those publications felt that Mr. West’s album was the best. But advocating for it is a macro decision, carrying the weight of many — and by extension, all, not one.

Mr. West received these simultaneous accolades for several reasons. There’s the recent egalitarian streak in pop criticism — the death of nongeneralists — even if this specific embrace of Mr. West is merely a case of exceptionalism masking as democracy. “Twisted Fantasy” is a hip-hop album accessible to both insiders and outsiders, arriving in a moment in which other genres are as open-armed as ever. Since his debut album Mr. West has boldly asserted his primacy, demanding that others — critics, award shows, other artists — fall in line. By asking to be judged at a higher level Mr. West implicitly allows for it by creating the language for that acclaim. And maybe in some way fear plays a role, with institutions worried that history will not smile on dissenters.

Mr. West also spent months doing things critics like: using the Internet to reveal his inner self, which, it turned out, was pretty much the same as his outer self; giving away music; and providing a peek into his methods in the process.

Finally, and most boringly, year-end lists often favor late-year releases, when the sense of anticipation fulfilled is still fresh. In this regard music critics are no better than Oscar voters. The last thing they remember as they fill out their ballots is the triumph of Mr. West’s album, or reading about someone else’s insistent perspective on the triumph of Mr. West’s album, or assuming — rightly, at it happens — that for the next few weeks before the actual year’s end, nothing they or anyone else will do will detract from that triumph, or perception of triumph.

Having such strict agreement among critics is a bit like letting the blind judge a beauty pageant: the results are sometimes unreliable, and even less translatable to the world at large.

On the most recent Billboard album chart “Twisted Fantasy” is No. 19; the majority of albums above it had been commercially available as long or longer. (The same is true even when the chart’s three holiday albums are excluded.) More tellingly, Mr. West has no song in the Top 75 pop singles — “Runaway” is No. 76, and “Monster” is No. 100. “Twisted Fantasy” may become Mr. West’s first album without a Top 10 pop single. Perhaps all the critical love has turned it into a cult album.

“My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” may or may not have been the best album of 2010. Believe what you will. Either way it’s not even the best Kanye West album. So now what — turn it up to 11.0? Plead for extra credit? Develop a new ranking system?

Mr. West’s next album can only be a disappointment, a step down from the perfect ratings and universal acclaim he’s been openly craving since the beginning of his career and has finally wrested from the last constituency most people look to for approbation: critics.

Now that the ballots have been counted and the legal challenges purged from the court system, Mr. West is free to misstep — or, rather, to misstep egregiously in a way that can’t be written off as part of his eccentric, sometimes galling genius. He made a terrific album, but mainly he avoided doing things that critics wouldn’t like. (Nonetheless there was still the occasional churlish dismissal of the music based on the absurdity of the man.)

Late last week an unfinished cut of the video for “Monster,” one of the most lauded tracks from “Twisted Fantasy,” leaked online. It opens with a woman, dangling by her neck from a chain, lifeless down to her peep-toe pumps. Later Mr. West raps, in bed, next to a pair of limp women. It’s a grotesquerie, far beyond the slaughter for sport one might expect of a horror film, the obvious touchstone. (The video may be the antithesis of his collaboration with the artist Vanessa Beecroft two years ago for the release of “808’s & Heartbreak.”)

It’s hard not to think of lynchings, of sexual violence. It’s hard not to feel a little nauseous, and a lot sad. The video is empty provocation and clumsy art, the move of someone who, in a climate of unchecked glorification, has been given too much rope to play with. Maybe not enough for a backlash, but had this video been released four weeks ago, certainly enough to get some people to change their votes.

And yet for all intents and purposes it’s a 2011 problem, likely to be forgotten by December. No one will place an asterisk next to Mr. West’s 2010 wins. History is his.

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My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

A modern day Samuel Johnson or a blustering fool who has no internal filter? There are few figures in modern music as divisive as Kanye West, but fewer still who have contributed so much to popular culture. West comes across like some contemporary, Twitter-literate version of Sartre’s famous Autodidact, a man on an endless but futile quest to know everything, devouring the modern world from A to Z. But where Sartre’s creation is a self-deluding, vacuous dilettante West comes across as genuine, flawed, endearing: a man more than aware of his own foibles, constantly examining himself whilst throwing verbal barbs and bolts at those around him.

By anyone’s account, the last few years haven’t been easy. There was a stage where West seemed all ready to implode, indulging in a very public self-flagellation stemming from the death of a beloved mother and the shattering of a bloated ego. Run-ins with Taylor Swift and George Bush made West persona non grata in some quarters, and the tepid reception afforded to the criminally underrated 808’s & Heartbreak signalled for some the beginning of a terminal decline for a man once hailed as the saviour of hip-hop. Stung by the criticism, and wanting to rehabilitate himself away from the searing public gaze, West stepped out of the spotlight, relocated to Hawaii and set about creating what was to become My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy .

Fantasy , in its sprawling, no-stone-unturned scope, its audacity, its braveness, its sheer magnitude, comes across as the work of a man with nothing to lose. The work of a man who threw every last ounce of himself into something, creating in the process not only his defining work but a work which redefines the genre in which it stands, as well as the benchmark for the concept of the album in general. There have been several great albums where artists have bared their soul – stripped themselves naked and given up everything for the sake of their art – and Fantasy stands toe-to-toe with every last one of them. It is a work of quite unique brilliance, an album that puts West’s peers so far in the shade that they might as well not be there at all.

As any follower of his recent G.O.O.D. Friday series might have worked out, the roll-call of guests on Fantasy is stupendous. To mention a few: Jay-Z, John Legend, La Roux, Elton John, Pusha T, Bon Iver, Rick Ross, Swizz Beatz, The RZA, Nicki Minaj, Raekwon, Kid Cudi, Rihanna, Alicia Keys, Fergie, The-Dream, Charlie Wilson and Chris Rock. It’s to West’s credit, though, that none of these talents, not to mention their roaring egos, overshadow an album that is very much the work of one man. As stellar as some of the contributions are, and there is some fine work here, they are very much guests in Kanye’s world.

Nicki Minaj tops a fine year (mostly through guest-spots and not through a slightly disappointing album, it must be said) with a blistering, typically demented verse-of-the-year contender on the speaker-rattling, thoroughly old-school party jam ‘Monster’, no mean feat when the same track features an unhinged contribution from Rick Ross, a man who, it seems, exists entirely on his own planet these days. Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon becomes a brilliantly unlikely foil to West on several tracks, anchoring some of the more grandiose moments with perfectly orchestrated, heavily auto-tuned restraint. His falsetto, right up at its in-the-red peak, bookends ‘Monster’ nicely, but it’s his reprisal of a vocal from last year’s ‘Blood Bank’ on the outstanding, heartbreaking ‘Lost in the World’ which works best – segueing into Gil Scott-Heron’s ‘Comment #1’, Vernon’s other-worldly voice becomes the blanket in which West’s demons are wrapped, the aural representation of a man casting bad spirits behind and rising onwards and upwards towards greater things. A contribution which at first raised more than a few eyebrows, Vernon’s presence here feels essential: it’s a beautiful moment, and one expertly judged. It’s the album in microcosm, in fact: small moments underpinning much grander ones; the foundations on which something great is laid.

It’s an immensely satisfying album, a work of multiple layers, each listen throwing up a new line or a pitch-perfect sample (the use of King Crimson’s ’21st Century Schizoid Man’ on ‘Power’ for example, or the Aphex Twin sample on ‘Blame Game’) to deconstruct. Its hit count and sheer creativity (see the epic, accompanying mega-video Runaway for confirmation), too, are staggering. That West has left off the likes of ‘Mama’s Boyfriend’ and the fantastic, Beyonce-featuring, early-Kanye sounding ‘See Me Now’ (both readily available online) speaks for itself.

Listening to Fantasy is a gratifying experience: it’s obviously an album of immense endeavour, but it never feels like a slog. Indeed, it feels and sounds much like it must have been to make: joyous, liberating, revelatory – a new standard bearer for a genre in danger of becoming stale (albeit one which had a fine 2010, thanks in major part to this and Big Boi’s outstanding Sir Lucious Left Foot ). It’s all the more remarkable given the troubles the album has risen out of. West’s recent obsession with phoenix mythology might seem like a lumpen, dead-handed metaphor but this is a rise to new peaks, and one which firmly leaves the ghosts of the past far behind.

One gets the sense that with this West is finally comfortable opening up that dichotomy between the man and the myth. Sure, he’s still self-aggrandising and hyperbolic, but, for all the bluster that surrounds him, Fantasy is an album of immense humility. It’s a deeply human record – open, self aware, revelling in its creators’ myriad contradictions. There has been no man in recent memory who has bared his soul so publicly as West has in recent years (be it through awards shows, blog posts, twitter rants or chat show sofas) and there’s a definite element of catharsis at play throughout the album. There are times when it seems that West’s most hated figure is himself: the "the plan was to drink until the pain was over" line on the opening ‘Dark Fantasy’, the heartbroken, plaintive musings on ‘Runaway’, or the biting, self-mocking verses that run throughout ‘Monster’ all point to a man unsure of his place in the world, looking for a love that’s always eluding him.

Whether or not he’ll ever find his place, what West has achieved right here and now with Fantasy is nothing short of remarkable: it’s an album which not only firmly cements his place in the rap pantheon, but one on which he has overcome his ego, his doubts, his loves and his losses to create a work which will live long in the memory and which, crucially, once again brims with life. It’s a record simmering with musical flair, the sound of man once more embracing the spotlight with open arms. It’s nothing less than a gargantuan success, a maniacally inspired work of both bravado and humility – a portrait of vanity, pathos, love and rebirth bought to life as only West knows how. It’s a record of towering ambition pulled off with what seems like outrageous ease. God knows how he’ll ever top this, but if West were to retire now his legacy would be assured. Poignant, maximalist to the point of ridiculousness, and deeply fascinating, Fantasy goes to show that there’s one subject Kanye West knows better than any other: himself.

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Kanye west’s ‘my beautiful dark twisted fantasy’ is a narrative album: part 1.

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LOS ANGELES, CA - JUNE 27: Musician Kanye West performs onstage during the 2010 BET Awards held at ... [+] the Shrine Auditorium on June 27, 2010 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/WireImage)

Today marks nine years since Kanye West released what many consider to be his magnum opus: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy . While many albums are praised right away then forgotten, or ignored into cult-status before an eventual admission of greatness, Twisted Fantasy has maintained a consistency of recognition.

For example, Billboard released “Best Albums of the 2010s” lists in 2015 and 2019 , at the midpoint and closing of the decade. Twisted Fantasy was #1 on both. Pitchfork did the same but in 2014 and 2019 . The results were almost identical, with MBDTF taking #1 and #2, respectively. In 2018, it was reported the Kanye’s lovely nightmare had crossed the 1 billion plays threshold on Spotify.

Despite the public and critical acclaim, one aspect of the album’s artistry is consistently missing from the conversation— My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is a concept album, a narrative album. And it’s time we get on the same page about that, otherwise it’s legacy will forever be incomplete.

This is part 1 in a series of articles that will lay out the narrative of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy .

Structure: overview

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Turning point:

• All of the Lights (Interlude)

Fantasy Life:

• All of the Lights
• So Appalled

Fantasy Love:

• Devil in a New Dress
• Hell of a Life
• Lost in the World
• Who Will Survive in America

Background: Part 1

Songs are like movies

Fade to Black is the documentary of the making of Jay-Z’s 2003 project, The Black Album. At one point in the documentary, we see Kanye in the studio with Jay. West says: “When I did the Twista song [“Slow Jamz”], I was making that shit like it was a sitcom itself. Or like a piece of a movie or something. Like say, like, if The Black Album was The Black Movie or something. So the songs—the soundtracks are like scores to scenes that’s going on in the movie.”

After a brief commentary, we cut to Kanye continuing his thought, “This record ain’t a record. It’s a movie and shit. Like a scene from a movie.”

Even in 2003, months before the release of his debut album, The College Dropout , and seven years prior to Twisted Fantasy , West saw albums as a movie, and songs as scenes in a movie.

This may not surprise long-time fans of Kanye, as his love of cinema has been well-documented and is the stuff of lore. One of his early, unreleased songs, pre-dating Dropout , was called “ Livin’ in a Movie ” that included the chorus: “And I’m livin’ the movies, not livin by rules/It’s just a movie, don’t lose your cool/Sit back and enjoy the show.”

The first “movie”

West would put this “movie approach” into practice with The College Dropout , as there’s a very clear three-act structure, with each song progressing the character and plot just like scenes do in a movie.

For Dropout , act 1 is Kanye living his life in Chicago, commenting on the people around him and his hustle to get a chance in the music industry. With “Jesus Walks” and “Never Let Me Down,” we see our hero transition from the life he had known to having a real opportunity in the rap game.

Act 2 is the character’s early struggles in the music industry, too focused on what will make him popular with people. He’s tries to get them to put their hands in the air, offers snake-oil secrets to women wanting to get ahead, slows down the music because that’s what girls say they want to dance to, then concludes with making “more of that bullshit ice rap.” The line that best summarizes act 2: “Always said if I rapped I’d say somethin’ significant/But now I’m rappin’ but money, hoes, and rims again.” Ironically, the title of act’s final track, “Breathe In, Breathe Out,” is a dumbed-down play on the conscious and thoughtful “Respiration” by Talib Kweli and Mos Def (performing as Blackstar). That’s why West includes the line, “I got to ‘pologize to Mos and Kweli.”

Act 3 finds West being infused with “school spirit” and rediscovering his voice, getting back to saying things that are significant like he did in act 1 on “We Don’t Care” and “All Falls Down.” You get the fire and thoughtfulness of “Two Words,” “Through the Wire,” and “Family Business.” Kanye crowns the album with “Last Call,” where, over 11-minutes, he explains the real-life events Dropout has dramatized.

In 2007, Kanye released his third album and second narrative album: Graduation . It also has a three-act structure and tells a coming-of-age story, otherwise known as a Bildungsroman, a tale of education. Some famous examples include books like Great Expectations , A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man , To Kill a Mockingbird , and Harry Potter . Or movies like: The Land Before Time , The Sandlot , Juno , and Almost Famous .

Typically, the coming-of-age story involves a child, teen, or young adult who is still innocent about some aspect of the world. Whether that’s the ugliness of people, violence, financial struggles, etc. On Graduation , the innocence relates to fame.

One of Graduation ’s final tracks is “Homecoming.” The lyrics detail West’s relationship with a girl he’s known since he was three-years-old, experiences they’ve had over the years, and how he ultimately left her to pursue his dreams. At the end, it’s revealed the girl is actually Chicago. This fake-out is an allusion to West’s fellow Chicago-artist, Common. Specifically, Common’s hit song, “I Used to Love H.E.R.”

“I Used to Love H.E.R.” is Common commenting on the way hip hop has changed since he was a kid. Going from something pure to something commercial and ugly. But he doesn’t just say that. Instead, he tells a story.

At the beginning it’s “I met this girl when I was ten years old/And what I loved most, she had so much soul.” But we eventually wind up with “Now she’s a gangsta rollin’ with gangsta bitches/Always smoking’ blunts and gettin’ drunk/...Stressin’ how hardcore and real shit is/She was really the realest, before she got into showbiz.”

The impressive thing isn’t that Kanye has a song about him and Chicago that’s a re-telling of “I Used to Love H.E.R.” The impressive thing is that Kanye has an album about him and Chicago that’s a re-telling of “I Used to Love H.E.R.” That’s what Graduation is, the story of Kanye going from someone with so much soul and potential, to someone ruined by showbiz, by fame.

Each of the three verses on “I Used to Love H.E.R.” is an act. We’re introduced to “her.” Then get the relationship Common had with “her.” Then watch the tragedy of how “her” went wrong.

A similar three-acts play out on Graduation . We’re introduced to a character who is ready to achieve big things, his whole future ahead of him. After his first taste of the limelight, of the indulgences fame has to offer, he has to decide if he leaves behind everything he’s known—friends, family, and Chicago—to pursue his dream? Does he break up with his old life to pursue a new one?

The second act details the character’s relationship with fame and how fame changes him. Pointedly, the first song of the second act is “Good Life,” which finds him traveling city to city, partying and indulging. He name drops Atlanta, L.A., Miami, and New York. Houston, Philly, D.C., and San Francisco. It’s clear he has put Chicago in the rearview.

The next several songs detail the rise of an ego that’s uncaring about what others think. “Can’t Tell Me Nothing,” “Barry Bonds,” “Drunk and Hot Girls,” “Flashing Lights,” and “Everything I Am” all describe the actions and mindset of an incredibly arrogant and selfish person. “But my head’s so big,” Kanye raps, “you can’t sit behind me.”

The second act concludes with “The Glory.” There, the character finally achieves what he had hoped for on “Champion” and “I Wonder”: the glory of being the best in the game. The character flexes his artistry, his success, his possessions. At one point he says, “Yeah that tuxedo might have been a little guido/But with my ego/I can stand there in a Speedo/And be looked at like a fucking hero.” This is definitely the climax of the surging bravado.

We then head into the third and final act, which is brief, in comparison. Just two songs: “Homecoming” and “Big Brother.” On the first, the character attempts to return to Chicago to celebrate his obtaining such glory. Only to discover he can’t come home. That he dashed his old life when he left, and nothing can be the same again.

“Big Brother” breaks us out of the dramatization, of the fiction, similar to “Last Call.” It’s Kanye straight-up describing his relationship with Jay-Z over the years. From being an adoring fan with only dreams of being a musician like Jay, to getting a chance to work on The Blueprint, to becoming an artist on Jay’s level, to competing with Jay. The twist is that “Big Brother” is an apology. There had been drama between the two, as West had been complaining about Jay behind Jay’s back.

Instead of the album ending on a high, it ends with West essentially whimpering about the cost of fame and how ego can cause you to harm relationships that are incredibly important to you. The innocence he had is gone. He’s been indoctrinated into the reality of things. That’s there’s a cost to what you say, do, and pursue.

We see this kind of re-telling occur in all narrative fields. James Joyce’s book Ulysses was based on Homer’s The Odyssey . The Black Swan starring Natalie Portman was inspired by the 1948 movie The Red Shoes . The tv show It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia has many episodes that adapt famous books or movies, presenting familiar elements with unique Always Sunny flavor.

That Kanye adapted a song into an album isn’t astoundingly unique, but it is important to understanding My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy .

Click here for Part 2 , as we dive into the beautiful, dark, and twisted aspects of Kanye’s time leading up to his 2010 album.

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It took a decade to see how dark Kanye’s Fantasy was

In 10 For The ’10s , The A.V. Club looks back at the decade that was: 10 essays about the media that defined the 2010s, one for every year from 2010 to 2019. First up: 2010 and Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy .

The only thing to do when My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy dropped was to give it a perfect score and get out of its way. It announced itself, immediately, as Kanye West’s masterpiece: the baroque apex of a decade of restless innovation, assimilation, ambition, and self-destruction. This last part is key. After the three-album ascendancy narrative charted out by The College Dropout , Late Registration , and Graduation , each release an exponential expansion of West’s artistic vision and pop appeal, he planned to conclude the tetralogy with an album called Good Ass Job . Instead, he collapsed into himself. In 2007, his mom died, and he went through a prolonged breakup with a long-time girlfriend. Rapping, never his strong suit, failed him; he started singing over bleak ambient tones. In 2009, the Taylor Swift thing happened, and the Hov-quoting president that Jeezy foretold declared him a jackass. South Park got him, and it got to him. West went into exile, and he went through yet another breakup , this one more public than the last.

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And so he holed up in a studio in Hawaii and flew in a murderers’ row of hip-hop heavyweights. The result was a storied burst of creativity , chaotic but mannered, the ghost of which Kanye has been chasing ever since . Where previous LPs saw him subsuming influences from far outside hip-hop’s normal orbit—Jon Brion, Coldplay, Daft Punk, Can—realizing his Fantasy demanded neck-snapping drums. What he needed was Pete Rock, No I.D., DJ Premier, the RZA, and Q-Tip to keep it grounded to the asphalt. He needed a low end so solid he could send Nicki Minaj and Pusha T snarling out of the speakers, a structure sturdy enough to support string interludes and elegiac choirs, Bon Iver wailing—all the opulent sonic signifiers of an artist going for broke. While there, he bounced between three separate studios, cycling input from Alicia Keys and Rihanna and Drake into some vision that only made sense in his head. He got Elton John for a hook and Big Sean for a zillion Big Sean verses. He would sleep a couple hours per night, often in the studio, then eat breakfast with the team and start again. He hung up a sign that read, “What would Mobb Deep do?” to keep everyone attuned to the wavelength.

The result sounded nothing like the infamous Queensbridge duo, but it shared with them an indomitable sense of will, a vision of hip-hop at once grimy and gilded. In late May 2010, Kanye released “Power,” a Thanos-sized fist of a song, not so much a comeback as a counteroffensive. But it was only an opening salvo. For three months before My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy ’s release, Kanye leaked a track per week — singles , remixes , sketchwork , long-lost collaborations , full-blown masterpieces never to see the light of day again, even a Dipset Christmas carol . Again, you just had to get out of its way: a new Blueprint for a new decade. You could hear it screaming over the horizon. Kanye had already proven his megalomania to be, if not correct, at least rooted in reality, presiding over a decade-long sea change in sample-based production. After 808s And Heartbreak , he found his voice as a rapper, too, his sensitivities and insecurities and frankly preposterous horniness coalescing into a run of head-turning guest verses . But his Fantasy came true when he gave up the ghost of being loved in return for this talent. He was the monster who fucked the angel , bottle in hand, leering at the viewer. Pusha had to rewrite his show-stopping verse on “Runaway” four times because Kanye kept demanding “more douchebag.”

It’s not the only time on Fantasy that Kanye speaks through a collaborator; it’s Jay, after all, who admits his Achilles heel is a never-ending thirst for love. Kanye’s ever-expanding big-tent hip-hop had long been an attempt to fill the same need, but after turning insular on 808s , he does something remarkable on Fantasy . He expands the tent and the popular conception of hip-hop to a galactic scale while simultaneously disdaining his own need to do so. “I fantasized about this back in Chicago,” he says on the album’s opening line, then proceeds to dismantle the hollowness of celebrity for 70 minutes. He’s appalled at its excesses, gazing over champagne wishes and five-star dishes and feeling nothing. It’s an old story, and he can’t believe he fell for it. He fucks porn stars with an almost nihilistic detachment. The rush of “All Of The Lights” is tempered by a howl of pain for the recently deceased King Of Pop. There’s an MJ-like aspect to the album title, and to the way Kanye conceives of his talent as something separate and childlike, in need of protection against the corrupting powers of fame, the media, even his own temptations. The outlook is not good. He repeatedly fantasizes about killing himself on the album—a one-way ticket out of the famous life, albeit, paradoxically, not out of fame itself.

On “Blame Game,” he says it most plainly: “Somebody help.” Beneath all that excess is the realization that his fantasies from back in Chicago were hollow, that talent, fame, and love are not equivalently connected but perhaps directly opposed. “Runaway” gives in, fusing his best qualities with his worst, his talent for perfectionism with his capacity for self-destruction. “I’m so gifted,” he sings, with characteristic bravado, “at finding what I don’t like the most.” There’s always been a smallness to Kanye that fans intuit to his music. After Fantasy , subsequent albums adopted a sort of cackling disdain toward those very listeners; even the vibrant Life Of Pablo contains a quick schoolyard taunt toward those who want the “old Kanye.” My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy can often feel like a turning point, in this sense. If you want to hear the old Kanye, you go to Late Registration ; if you want to hear the new Kanye, you go to Yeezus . If you want to hear both at the same time, overlapping, two self-images at odds with each other empowering an artist to raze grief, regret, shame, and what must have felt like near-universal antipathy—including from the standing president of the United States—you go to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy .

At least, theoretically. Make no mistake: All those Kanyes, new and old, big and small, angry and hurting, are, well, a lot. An album this maximal lingers in the memory for its most extreme moments: Nicki Minaj’s British accent, Chris Rock wailing about pussy, endless aquatic warbling about Kim Kardashian. One cannot experience “All Of The Lights” passively. But put it on again, even today, after everything , and something alchemical happens. The pieces reassemble, the cathedral comes back together, the spires become a part of the foundation. Oh yeah , you think, as delighted today as you were in 2010, a Raekwon verse . That really is just an old Pete Rock loop on “Runaway.” Kanye is funny, scabrously so , throughout; it’s the best he’s ever rapped . Like Graduation , it’s full of arena-rock incantations to wave your hands and sing along. You become a part of its power, toasting the other douchebags, drunk out of your gourd. Verses tumble over each other, one after the next, everyone goaded into their best work. What would Mobb Deep do? They’d make every hi-hat and snare clap matter, and then they’d rap their fucking brains out over it.

Despite the new new Kanye’s claims that he’s going to “George Lucas” his older albums , My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is still all of ours. If it’s about fame, then it’s about us. But it’s the final album on which Kanye conceived a unified audience. We have seen, in the past two years, his ugliest and least interesting work —a populist hell-bent on polarization. He may still return to old form, or at least find his footing on whatever transformations still ensue. But it seems likely that we will always look at My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy as his high point, if only because it is so entirely designed as such. Kanye’s primary contribution to pop music is his conception of hip-hop as its final form, capable of swallowing and assimilating anything in its path, and when mapped to the terror and ambition of Fantasy he created something unprecedented. Pop music this big is rare; the list of albums that reach as wide as this one does and succeed includes Rumours , Thriller , Purple Rain , Nevermind , and not much else—all albums about fame, and all tragedies, in their way, on a long enough timeline. The tragedy is not that Kanye became the person that he has become. It’s that he knew he would—that it is the nature of fame in America, a fantasy he yearned for and a disease no one survives.

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Seclusion in Hawaii, Elton John, and Musical ‘Survivor’: Inside the Making of ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’

On the inaugural episode of ‘The Ringer Music Show,’ Charles Holmes speaks to the people involved in crafting Kanye West’s classic album, 10 years later

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Share All sharing options for: Seclusion in Hawaii, Elton John, and Musical ‘Survivor’: Inside the Making of ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’

Welcome to The Ringer Music Show , the most notorious new podcast in the industry. Each week, The Ringer ’s Charles Holmes and cohost Grace Spelman will bring you the latest news, hottest takes, and deepest reporting about the wild world of music and the chaotic industry that creates it. Below is an excerpt from Episode 1, “Inside the Making of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy , ” a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Kanye West’s classic album, released 10 years ago this week.

Unbeknownst to many, Pete Wentz, Tracy Morgan, and Joe Jackson are all part of a brotherhood. On September 13, 2009, they were all accosted at Radio City Music Hall by a man on a mission. Most people know that someone dressed in a black shirt and matching Timbs carrying a bottle of Hennessy is up to no good. But then again, Kanye West isn’t your average person, and the MTV Video Music Awards isn’t your average night. Traditionally, the VMAs are a nonsense award show where MTV hands out little moon people to anyone who agrees to show up, but nevertheless Mr. West was undeterred.

We’ll never know whether Wentz, Morgan, or the father of the Jackson 5 shared a shot with West, but we do know what happened next. Hours later, with a massive chip on his shoulder and the peoples’ brandy swirling in his bloodstream, West stormed the VMA stage while a video of a tranquil city skyline played in the background.

The reason for Kanye’s anger? Taylor Swift was accepting an award for Best Video by a Female Artist, which West thought Beyoncé should’ve won for “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It).” Backstage, Taylor cried—and so did Beyoncé. Kanye was asked to leave the building. What was unknown to him then, but was clear to everyone at home was a simple truth: We had just watched a man torch his career in real time.

Late 2009 was a time of little compassion. Kanye wasn’t even two years removed from the unexpected death of his mother, Donda West. His 2008 album 808s & Heartbreak might’ve been a creative reckoning with that loss, but it was far from a fix-all. A day after the VMAs, Kanye appeared on The Jay Leno Show , where the late night host decided to take a cheap shot in what many saw as a bid for ratings.

Kanye had become the most hated man in America, and his downfall coincided with the rise of social media. Celebrity culture was now a collective experience buoyed by Facebook and Twitter. Public perception was no longer this amorphous concept. Now there were multiple platforms where sentiment about anything or anyone could be condensed into a trending topic. It’s something Kanye’s collaborator and G.O.O.D. Music artist, Consequence, saw firsthand.

“That situation with Taylor Swift, he was going through a lot of shit, social media was brand new at that time,” Consequence says today. “So he was getting death threats on Twitter, and Lady Gaga had pulled out of doing a tour with him at the time.”

In retrospect, it’s hard not to see Kanye West’s VMA moment as a preview of what was about to unfold over the next decade. The country’s first Black president was sworn in nine months prior to the 2009 VMAs. If Barack Obama was a symbol of racial progress then someone needed to be an easy vehicle and target for a growing disdain. When the Kanye incident occurred, Malik Yusef wasn’t thrilled at the message it sent to the world.

“I didn’t want to harp too much on how wrong he was for the optic that he provided a country like America, who is racist,” says Yusef, a Chicago poet and musician who has worked on every Kanye album. “And at the time he still was understanding racism … I was like, ‘Yo you can’t provide these optics for America, no matter what was in your heart. And also, you didn’t need to protect Beyoncé. Beyoncé has a momma, a daddy, a powerful husband who’s probably the king of America, a label, management. She’s fine.’”

By the end of the year, Kanye would flee. No matter how much he apologized on his blog or late night TV, it didn’t matter. So he heeds the words of Mos Def and decides to leave America and settles for the life of an intern in Milan. Yes, one of the most commercially successful artists of his generation decided to become a coffee runner at Fendi for $500 a month . But if there’s one thing Kanye West is terrible at, it’s retreating from the spotlight. Eventually, if he was truly considering the idea of making a comeback, he’d need to return to the site of 808s & Heartbreak : AVEX Studios in Honolulu.

“We had been there previously many times,” says Anthony Kilhoffer, an engineer and producer who had been working with Kanye since The College Dropout. “We did 808s and Heartbreak there. Even before 808s and Heartbreak , Common had found that studio and he liked it just to be away and excluded. Because it’s hard when you’re in L.A. or New York. People, they’ll pop in the studio, say hello. And they’re not uninvited guests, but it’ll break the whole workflow. So that’s the whole deal with Hawaii. It wasn’t about being fancy, exclusiveness. It was about isolation, really.”

Kilhoffer and the assembled crew would work in 12-hour shifts from noon to midnight. The daily routine began with Kanye waking up at 6 or 7 in the morning and Kilhoffer playing any new verses, beats, or hooks recorded the previous night. On any given day, it could be something new from RZA or Kid Cudi.

But at the center of this creative storm was Kanye. For years, critics and fans forgave Kanye’s weaknesses as a rapper, because his gifts as a producer were so immaculate. But My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy would need him to elevate both. For example, take his first verse on “Gorgeous.”

Traditionally, Kanye verses are laden with punch lines that age like avocados in the sun. But on “Gorgeous,” he’s dipping in and out of internal rhyme and forgoing similes and easy pop culture references for something that’s more poetic. Kanye’s ghostwriters, from Rhymefest to Malik Yusef, are massaging ideas about race into a song that fuses a blog-era star like Cudi with the legendary Raekwon. And according to Chicago rapper and Kanye confidant Consequence, this was all by design.

“That’s the one project where he just was very meticulous about everything,” Consequence says today. “I remember he was even saying to me, ‘I don’t even want to put half any something and something.’ He was just very meticulous about the rap approach and the use of punch lines and the rewrites of verses.”

Musicians from any era and genre were clocking into their shifts like coal miners. Everyone from RZA to Rick Ross, Pete Rock to Pusha T, would arrive at the compound, be briefed on the situation, and get to work. Even Elton John showed up. But according to Malik, adding him to the proceedings was a fraught topic of conversation.

“People laughed at me when I brought Elton John in,” Yusef recalls. “They’re like, ‘Elton John ain’t hip-hop, Malik.’ I’m like, ‘Y’all, this is music, motherfuckers.’”

As the story goes, Elton John’s partner wasn’t thrilled to be watching his husband slave over a Kanye album while they were in the midst of trying to celebrate a birthday. As Malik recalls him saying: “Yeah, that’s what I want to do on my husband’s birthday. Spend it with the rappers.” The moment put even more pressure on him and Elton to get the job done.

“I said, ‘Your husband was saying that birthday celebrations are in order and he wants to get out of here, I guess,’” Yusef recalls. “He’s like, ‘Did he say that?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘Lock the door.’ So I locked the door and he just went at it.”

Kanye and the assembled group had to re-ingratiate themselves to two distinct demographics. From 2007 to 2008, Kanye had become an arena-touring pop star. Early singles like “Jesus Walks” and “Gold Digger” had introduced West to pop culture. Then “Stronger,” “Good Life,” and “Heartless” catapulted him to pop radio. So by 2010, West’s white audience was just as sizable as the die-hard hip-hop fans who knew him as the soul-sampling backpacker who supplied late-stage Roc-A-Fella with a slew of hits.

In Hawaii, there was a sense that Kanye collected some of the best minds in pop culture for this specific moment. At the end of the day, the only thing that was important were the ideas. It would take more than one person to bridge the gap between who Kanye was and who he’d need to become.

“It was musical Survivor ,” Kilhoffer says. “You come out with some stupid-ass ideas, you get that plane ticket home the next morning. Trust me.”

But the collaborators who stuck around helped shape the direction of the project in many ways.

“This is when RZA was kind of like an elder statesman, right?” Kilhoffer says. “He had more knowledge than he would have had to help advise this direction if it would’ve been 2004 or 2006. I think it was just a great coincidence of circumstances that led to this greatness. And then also at the same time the Taylor incident and having to achieve and make sure this is a super, beyond-unimpeachable, successful product.”

So how do you make something that’s unimpeachable? For that, Kanye would need a young, undiscovered producer from Dallas.

To hear the full episode of The Ringer Music Show , click here . Subscribe and follow here for new episodes out every Tuesday. This excerpt has been edited for length and clarity.

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The Complete Sample Breakdown of Kanye West's 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy'

July 22, 2024

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Sample Breakdown: Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

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The Best Records to Sample for Making a My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Beat

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Watch our dear friend Verysickbeats break down the techniques and workflows used to create this iconic album. From how you find the rights samples, to which effects to use, to song structure tips.

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Faces & Places Behind Kanye West's 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy'

Commemorating the 10th anniversary of Kanye's magnum opus, this overview shines a light on the people and recording locations behind the album.

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Analysis Of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is a critically acclaimed album released by American rapper and producer Kanye West in 2010. This essay will delve into the artistic genius behind the album, exploring its themes, musicality, and impact on the music industry.

The album opens with the song "Dark Fantasy," setting the tone for the entire project. It combines elements of rap, R&B, and soul, creating a unique and immersive sound. The production on the album is lush and grandiose, with layers of instrumentation and samples that showcase Kanye West's exceptional attention to detail.

One of the standout tracks on the album is "Power," which features a sample of the song "21st Century Schizoid Man" by King Crimson. The lyrics of "Power" reflect Kanye's struggle with fame and the pressures that come with it. The song's dark and brooding tone resonates with listeners, capturing the complex emotions that Kanye explores throughout the album.

Another noteworthy track is "Runaway," a nearly ten-minute-long epic that showcases Kanye's vulnerability and self-awareness. The song is a confession of his flaws and mistakes, with heartfelt lyrics and an emotional piano melody. "Runaway" is a testament to Kanye's ability to create deeply introspective and introspective music that resonates with listeners on a personal level.

In addition to its musical brilliance, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is also known for its bold and controversial themes. The album explores topics such as fame, love, mental health, and racial identity. Kanye's lyrics are unfiltered and honest, addressing his own personal struggles and societal issues. This rawness and authenticity contribute to the album's impact and make it a standout in the rap genre.

The album's impact on the music industry cannot be overstated. Upon its release, it received widespread critical acclaim and topped numerous "best album of the year" lists. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy pushed the boundaries of what rap music could be, incorporating diverse genres and experimental production techniques. It also paved the way for other artists to explore similar artistic directions, contributing to the evolution of hip-hop as a genre.

In conclusion, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is a masterpiece of modern music. Its intricate production, thought-provoking lyrics, and boundary-pushing themes make it a standout album in Kanye West's discography and in the music industry as a whole. This essay has explored the album's artistic genius, highlighting its themes, musicality, and impact. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is a testament to Kanye West's talent and his ability to create groundbreaking music that resonates with listeners.

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Analysis Of The Movie Heart Of Darkness "Heart of Darkness," directed by Francis Ford Coppola, is a cinematic masterpiece that delves into the depths of human nature, exploring themes of imperialism, morality, and the darkness that resides within every individual. Set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War, the film reimagines Joseph Conrad's classic novella and transports viewers on a mesmerizing journey into the heart of Africa, both literally and metaphorically. One of the most striking aspects of the movie is its portrayal of the conflict between civilization and savagery. As the protagonist, Captain Benjamin Willard, navigates the treacherous waters of the Nung River in search of the enigmatic Colonel Kurtz, he confronts the brutal realities of war and the moral ambiguity that accompanies it. Coppola masterfully captures the chaos and brutality of the Vietnam War, highlighting the destructive effects of imperialism and the dehumanization of both the colonizers and the colonized. At the center of the film is Colonel Kurtz, brilliantly portrayed by Marlon Brando, whose descent into madness serves as a chilling reflection of the darkness that lurks within the human psyche. Kurtz embodies the ultimate manifestation of power and corruption, wielding his authority with ruthless efficiency while succumbing to the primal instincts that consume him. Through Kurtz, Coppola exposes the inherent brutality of imperialism and the moral ambiguity of the so-called civilized world. The cinematography of "Heart of Darkness" is nothing short of breathtaking, with Coppola employing a variety of visual techniques to immerse viewers in the heart of the jungle. The use of shadow and light creates a sense of foreboding, while the lush landscapes and eerie silence evoke a feeling of unease. The juxtaposition of the natural beauty of the jungle with the horrors of war serves to underscore the film's central themes, emphasizing the contrast between civilization and savagery. In conclusion, "Heart of Darkness" is a powerful exploration of the human condition, offering a haunting glimpse into the darkness that resides within us all. Through its captivating narrative, compelling characters, and stunning visuals, the film challenges viewers to confront the complexities of morality, imperialism, and the true nature of humanity. As the journey into the heart of darkness unfolds, it becomes increasingly clear that the line between civilization and savagery is far more tenuous than we may care to admit....

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