Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (Review)
What up one & all. Sky Bento here on the check-in once again. Big Bento Energy is most definitely in full effect. Hope you & yours are doing good & well. Drinking water, protecting your mental health, knowing the vibes & all.
Speaking of mental health, let’s talk about the greatest living artist. Yeah, this is gonna be one of those types of reviews. But instead of telling you to click away if you’re not a Kanye fan, I encourage you to stay. Obviously because I’m going to try to convince you but come on. It’s been 11 years. I’m sure you’ve already heard somebody crown this as Kanye West’s magnum opus at some point. So check it out, I’m going to break down why. Mind-blowing, I know. I mean we all know the story. Kanye Kanye’d Taylor Swift. The media media’d Kanye. Kanye disappeared, went through another break up, and Kanye’d harder than Kanye had ever Kanye’d before. So without further ado, let’s dissect what the hell any of that even means. Let’s dissect the implications of the situation. Let’s dissect America itself. This is my review of Kanye West’s 2010 masterpiece, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.
As always, these are just MY opinions and do not reflect the views of TDN as a staff, brand or a m***********g crew. Feel free to crucify me on Twitter @plzsaythebento. Iight, let’s get to it.
01. Dark Fantasy (featuring Nicki Minaj, Justin Vernon & Teyana Taylor) - SON. Let me start off with some quick maths if nobody’s broken this down to you yet. This sh*t is an opera. “The watered down one, the one you know, was made up centuries ago.” Facts. This album really shook things up back in 2010 and still stands so markedly different from most other rap albums. The Nicki intro is incredible, she doesn’t even rap. She just does her Roman thing and adds some theatricality to start things off proper. Then we get a choir asking a very simple yet loaded question. Can we get much higher might be the illest way ever thought of to say “we on top”. Then we get basically a Wu-Tang type beat that Kanye (at his most confident, nonetheless) tears up with equal parts bravado and social commentary. I unfortunately heard the millions of freestyles to this beat before the actual song, and the loop rappers were using in the DatPiff era just didn’t have the same gravity to it. Something about the Teyana ad libs on the hook and the chord progression-changing bassline… It just feels so grand. So dark. So fantastic. “I fantasized about this back in Chicago” just to remind you who you’re listening to. Humble beginnings indeed. He’s come so far, and still keeping it hip-hop.
02. Gorgeous (featuring Kid Cudi & Raekwon) - Kanye once famously said “WE THE NEW ROCKSTARS, AND I’M THE BIGGEST OF ALL OF ‘EM”. Records like this make it hard to disagree. This the new punk rock. This is “disrupt the establishment” music with the matured focus that comes from real life experience. He’s not some whiny teenager talking about how life is unfair, this is a grown man viewing the big picture was such a sour disdain. This the real world, homie. School’s finished. This is the very natural evolution of the man with the balls to say the president doesn’t care about Black people on a nationally televised telethon (who just so happens to at this point be one of the most famous person alive). It sounds like a king looking down from the clouds disappointed at what mortals are concerning themselves with, except he brings up very good points and even packs a bit of empathy for the problems of us peasants. “I don’t really give a f•ck about it at all”. Damn right. Of course he would later go on to say some pretty ridiculous things to TMZ. He really doesn’t care. He wants to see people do better in the coldest way possible. He’s setting up how ridiculous the system is, which also sets up how strong-minded you have to be to break out of it. Not for nothing, he’s foreseen it, as Cudi says on the hook. He’s been talking about this, it’s not new. But he focused on himself and rose above these trivial public issues. Regardless, that hopelessness scars a man. He is forever shaped, scarred even, by the world being against him the way it is. Raekwon comes on in at the tail end to the motivate the brothers with some luxury boom bap bars. Keep shinin’.
03. Power (featuring Dwele) - This probably my favorite Kanye single from this initial run of Kanye albums. This is rap rock at its highest peak, production-wise. It sounds like a man standing in flames, unscathed. He’s yelling, but he’s not. The guitars just give it an epic feel, while the vocal sample sounds like he’s being supported by his loyal subjects. Musically, this is a masterpiece. Lyrically, it’s a publicity stunt. A very technically impressive publicity stunt. “Screams from the haters got a nice ring to it/ I guess every superhero needs his theme music”? Give CyHi a raise. It’s an ego trip from start to finish. The very thing the public had hated him for, being flaunted in all of its brilliance. They said he was the abomination of Obama’s nation. But he knew damn well he was killing this sh•t. Despite the system being rigged against him, he rose to be one of the most powerful stars in the entertainment industry. He couldn’t be canceled because he’s too talented. Someone somewhere would love his art enough to wonder what was going on with him, even with no media coverage. It’d be a beautiful death to go out on top like this, which it feels like the old humbler (slightly) version of himself has. He never meant to hurt nobody, he just did what he felt he had to do. It’s the American way, even, no, especially if you are Black.
04. All Of The Lights [Interlude] - In memory of the old Kanye, we get a symphony of opulence. Never mind the skits, this the greatest non-song track on any Kanye album. It’s magnificent. It feels like an origin story, like when Peter Parker got bit by a radioactive spider or when Bruce Wayne first built the Bat Cave. It’s such a beautiful flex, but it’s also just the dramatic departure we need to bring us to the next stretch of songs.
05. All Of The Lights (featuring Rihanna, Kid Cudi, Tony Williams, The-Dream, Charlie Wilson, John Legend, Elly Jackson, Alicia Keys, Elton John, Fergie, Ryan Leslie, Drake, Alvin Fields, Ken Lewis, Santa Claus, The Easter Bunny, The Energizer Bunny, Count Chocula, The Chicken that Peter Fights In Family Guy, Tyrone Biggums, one of the little boys Tyrone Biggums talked to at that school & Plank) - The stunt of getting everybody on this one hook. The real stunt is putting your family (Rihanna & Kid Cudi) first when you send this to radio and MTV. Sonically, let’s be honest this record pretty much birthed Travis Scott. The apocolyptic trap vibe is contagious I guess. This is a masterclass in composition. But y’all don’t care about that. The horns give this that HBCU homecoming feel, which is to say, they give you nostalgia, confidence and soul all it once. Perfect for this album. This is Kanye admitting his flaws, freezing like a deer in headlights. Cop lights, flash lights, all of them got Kanye cold as hell. You feel like you have to lash back when all these imperfections are pretty much the entire narrative against you. The whole joint just dipped in excess. There’s even some Drake background vocals. BACKGROUND VOCALS. The Kanye verses ain’t crazy. The lyrics are simple yet memorable. This is an obvious single and it’s incredible for it. How can you have all of these features and not push it to radio? I remember when this leaked as “Ghetto University” with a horrible Drake verse. Humble beginnings indeed.
06. Monster (featuring Rick Ross, JAY Z, Nicki Minaj & Justin Vernon) - Rick Ross exists for a second before Kanye spits the hook. And it doesn’t feel like the track could’ve started any other way. Kanye is cold and confident (notice a pattern?). The sex with a pharoah is 2013 Lil Wayne as hell. Ye really ahead of his time. I even like Hov’s verse (at least his opening lines). But we all know why this song still gets talked about to this day: the Bon Iver outro! But that Nicki verse that precedes it is nothing short of legendary. Lyrically, it’s not her best. Pretty middle of the road, honestly. But the delivery, breath control, and other little details that separate the MC’s from the rappers…. easily one of her greatest moments. She gave us four bars and then goes “first things first”. She don’t give a single flying f•ck. Is the Tonka white? Willy Wonka is white, Nicki. Anyways, the fact that Kanye was outrapped by a woman doesn’t feel like a coincidence, given how much of a breakup album this is on the low.. She even asks for a menage a trois with Amber. Uhh… about Amber.
07. So Appalled (featuring Swizz Beats, JAY Z, Pusha T, CyHi Da Prynce & RZA) - F*** Donald Trump. Yeah n**** f*** Donald Trump. And a lot of people think Kanye got this from Tyga, so f*** Tyga too. But this monster of a post 808’s Wu-Tang type beat is incredible from the first thump. The sample is so brooding and powerful. Hov has a much better showing on this record, but the verses really get better and better as this joint crawls along. Push got my favorite verse on this one, but we all remember CyHi’s “she found about April so she chose to March” setup. This whole record just shows the power of hip-hop. No melodies in any of the verses whatsoever. It’s just a bar fest as the epic beat slugs along. Sparse yet dense. You’ve got to love it. This is the culture. Strength in numbers. We got our boy Kanye’s back. We’re elite. All that is said and more, without even being explicitly mentioned. F****** ridiculous.
08. Devil In A New Dress (featuring Rick Ross) - Bink snapped with this loop. Kanye sounds deceptively happy on this one, or at least content. It’s that “don’t make me send you back to the hood” kind of energy that Drake parades around. Only it’s “the magic hour”. He loves where he’s gotten himself to. He knows it’s amazing, so you better act accordingly. Let’s just enjoy this moment. But it’s tinged with the arrogance we know and love from Kanye. “Hard to be humble when you stunting on a jumbotron”. To love Kanye, is to love all of Kanye. You’ve got to accept who he is. Or at least, that’s how he feels. I don’t know anybody that loves all of Kanye. But then again, I don’t know anybody that knows Kanye. Then we get an epic breakdown and one of Ross’ best verse ever. It’s truly scene-stealing. Excess is just his character, just like Kanye. Black and lavender. Not only that. He actually had cyphers with Yeezy before his mouth-wired, meaning he’s seen what the accident did to him. Yet he still running signs like he’s invincible. He’s gonna do him regardless what the world tells him. This is honestly a perfect feature if ever there was one (sorry Nicki, you came close). Then we get to some beautiful distorted electric guitar before…
09. Runaway (featuring Pusha T) - This shouldn’t be the best song on the album. Aside from Pusha T, it really doesn’t do much lyrically. But it’s that very simplicity that reveals the layers of emotion hidden in plain sight. Like the deceptively simple single note intro before it all comes in to hit you in the face. That might be the most famous piano note of all time. This is of course the emotional centerpiece of the record. He reveals of his flaws, with very little autotune to humanize it. The slight tuning actually highlights the imperfections of his own humanity, as it did on his previous album. His lack of a good singing voice is supplemented by the fact that’s he’s not alone in this. A choir of douchebags, assholes and jerkoffs join him in the hook. Even the samples come in like Kanye’s psyche. “Look at ya! Look at ya!” It’s really haunting. Look what you’ve become. He’s on the world stage, for better and worse. Then Pusha comes in to affirm the bravado and stroke his ego while he stunts on his girl. He makes it sound so luxurious, it makes Kanye’s inability to be romantic all the more tantalizing. Why not be closed off? It sounds so cool. Then we get some strings, before nothing but the single piano key appears to be ready to close the record out. Instead, we get one of my favorite moments in music history. My conspiracy theory is that autotune was actually invented for this single moment. Kanye becomes a not-quite-gently weeping electric guitar. The distortion and autotune make him nearly unrecognizable but it gets more and more humanizing as it goes along. Easier to make out. Easier to understand. Easier to sympathize with. He reaches into his upper register to show off his imperfections a little bit, before finally really letting it all go. It’s grossly satisfying. It’s ugly and beautiful at the same time. You have to love it.
10. Hell Of A Life - Kanye then grabs a guitar sample that sounds eerily similar to the autotune solo and let’s all of his sins fly free. Definitely not nearly as good as ANY of the songs before it, but damn is this one cathartic in it’s own way. This album really paint Kanye’s flaws so inhumanely that it circles back around to being pure and beautiful. In the way a child who says something out of pocket unknowingly is simulatenously the most disrespectful and adorable thing in the world. How dare you be an indivudal, different from I. Kanye’s sex addiction is on full display. P**** and religion is all he needs. I guess those two do go hand in hand when you put it like that. Two different forms of heaven for a Black man who can’t seem to escape his sins. He’s imperfect on a grand stage, where he can be torn apart for all to see. He can’t find love, but he can find sex. Next best thing I guess. It’s no wonder this album is called MBDTF.
11. Blame Game (featuring John Legend & Chris Rock) - The intimate beauty of this record cannot be understated. The piano sample feels like a cold winter evening. It feels big and small at the same time. “I’d rather argue with you than to be with someone else.” There’s no weakness or wimpering, just matter-of-fact acceptance and disdain. He’s imperfect and he knows it, but you lucky to be with him and he knows that too. He hates having to explain it, you just got to deal with it. But underneath it all, you feel that he wishes it all were different. Kanye drops some spoken word poetry and attempts some singing (which isn’t that far off from John Legend’s, honestly). “I can’t love you this much” is an admittance of shame and inadequacy to her as much as it is an admittance of fear to him. Then we get the infamous Chris Rock voicemail on the outro. I don’t know about you, but I still reference the “Yeezy taught me” meme to this day.
12. Lost In The World (featuring Bon Iver) - It has since come out that Kanye wrote at least the beginning of his verse as a love poem to future wife Kim Kardashian. And that makes this such a great outro, if you consider this album a breakup with Amber Rose. But coupled with the outro “Who Will Survive In America” it feels like him stating the importance of love. He needs to start a family, he’s all by himself in the new world of ultra-celebrity. America has consistently chewed him up and spit him out. All of his flaws have been laid out in front of us for our own amusement. As if he’s not a human himself and can’t make his own mistakes. Has he become what the media says he is? He’s lost. He needs to adjust, and a new love came help him find his footing back. We get a thumping house-esque beat to bring us back to Chicago, only this time it’s so grand that the pulse feels like a heartbeat in a horror movie. Even the background vocals (courtesy of Bon Iver) feel distinctly un-human and otherworldly. It’s not the world he once thought it was, it’s much more complex than that. He has everything he wanted, and still feels like he has nothing at all. What is there left to gain in this world? There’s plenty to lose. Plenty has been lost, including the person he believed himself to be. He just needs an anchor. Something to ground him and bring him back. Or maybe he’s so high up at this point he doesn’t even know which way is up anymore, he’s just blindly following his instincts. Who knows. Musically, better than Hell Of A Life, not better than anything else. But symbolically, genius outro.
13. Who Will Survive In America - This may be the most telling track in the whole sequence. It retroactively gives a greater subtext to the whole project, while also harkening back to the message of those first couple joints. To remind us that he is human. Who are we to judge? Soul is deeper than just always saying the right things or making people happy. Kanye appears to want real change, or at least shows great disdain by including this sample as the outro. This basically defends his position as an egotistical Black man. A damaged one. One that’s hard to love. Our culture as always emphasized bravado and masculinity. It needed to, we had to outgrow our past. We are not slaves anymore, but not yet kings. Except for those of us fortunate enough to live the life that Kanye West does. Love it or hate it, America made it.
Over the years since its release, I’ve grown to love this album more and more. This culminated around 2015 when it basically became my faovirte album of all time and warrants an annual spin (or seven). It really transports me back to college when I was taking psychology and philosophy classes. This album always was to me a great look at both humanity and American culture in general. So in recent years I’ve almost been scared to take a more critical look at it with modern ears (looking at you, Fantano). But you know what? Upon revisiting it for this review, I realized just what it is that makes this album so incredible. It’s not the production, or the lyrics, or that catchiness. No, it’s the complex emotion on display at all times. The contradictions, the conflicting themes. This is Kanye’s best album because it is the best marriage of all of this different sides of him together. At the time it released, it just felt like a total mashup of every style Kanye had shown us up until that point. You have the backpack boom bap and soul samples of The College Dropout, the symphonic strings of Late Registration, the stadium status feel of Graduation, and the cold, tribal drums and T-Pain-isms of 808s & Heartbreak. It’s all brought together in harmony under a progressive rock coat of paint with the presentation of an opera. It is the greatest pedestal Kanye would ever place himself on, because he succeeded and lived up to even the peaks of his own hype. The n**** even made a short film out of the record.
Considering the direction culture would go in over the course of the 2010’s, I’d say this is at least the best album of the decade, and pretty easily too. Celebrity worship is at an all time high, and the pendulum that is swinging back against it is cancel culture. We either love you, or we hate you. That’s just how things are nowadays. Nothing is allowed to be more complex than “pick a side”. We’ve forgotten just what it means to be human. We make mistakes, we bump our heads. Different circumstances in our lives pull us in different directions. We even change. The confidence on display as Kanye shows you each and every side of him is masterful. There isn’t a wasted feature in sight, everybody comes together to play their role in Kanye’s vision and delivers standout career-defining performances (as long as their name isn’t JAY Z or John Legend). This album is a must-play for me every winter. When it’s icy and isolating, sometimes you need to just rap along to your favorite rapper tell you exactly why he’s so great. Rap it out loud though. You’ll start to feel it too. Don’t worship the voice you hear, worship the voice you make. It’s all you’ve got in America.