Kanye West My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

Kanye Westward - My Beautiful Night Twisted Fantasy (Review)

What upwardly one & all. Sky Bento here on the cheque-in once once more. Big Bento Energy is most definitely in total issue. Promise you & yours are doing good & well. Drinking water, protecting your mental wellness, knowing the vibes & all.

Speaking of mental health, permit's talk nigh the greatest living artist. Yeah, this is gonna be 1 of those types of reviews. Simply instead of telling you lot to click away if y'all're not a Kanye fan, I encourage yous to stay. Obviously because I'm going to endeavour to convince you but come up on. Information technology's been 11 years. I'm sure you've already heard somebody crown this as Kanye West's magnum opus at some betoken. So check it out, I'yard going to break downwards why. Listen-blowing, I know. I mean we all know the story. Kanye Kanye'd Taylor Swift. The media media'd Kanye. Kanye disappeared, went through some other pause up, and Kanye'd harder than Kanye had always Kanye'd before. So without further ado, let'south dissect what the hell any of that even ways. Permit's dissect the implications of the situation. Let's dissect America itself. This is my review of Kanye Westward's 2010 masterpiece, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.

As ever, these are just MY opinions and do not reverberate the views of TDN as a staff, brand or a m***********g crew. Experience free to excruciate me on Twitter @plzsaythebento. Iight, let's become to information technology.

01. Dark Fantasy (featuring Nicki Minaj, Justin Vernon & Teyana Taylor) - SON. Permit me starting time off with some quick maths if nobody's cleaved this down to you withal. This sh*t is an opera. "The watered downwardly 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 fifty-fifty rap. She only does her Roman thing and adds some theatricality to outset things off proper. Then we get a choir asking a very simple all the same loaded question. Tin 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, however) tears up with equal parts blowing and social commentary. I unfortunately heard the millions of freestyles to this shell before the actual vocal, and the loop rappers were using in the DatPiff era just didn't have the same gravity to it. Something about the Teyana advertizing libs on the hook and the chord progression-irresolute bassline… It just feels so thousand. So dark. So fantastic. "I fantasized about this back in Chicago" just to remind you who you're listening to. Humble ancestry indeed. He's come up so far, and withal keeping it hip-hop.

02. Gorgeous (featuring Kid Cudi & Raekwon) - Kanye once famously said "WE THE NEW ROCKSTARS, AND I'Yard 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 moving-picture show was such a sour disdain. This the existent world, homie. School'southward finished. This is the very natural evolution of the human 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 betoken be 1 of the most famous person alive). Information technology sounds like a king looking downward from the clouds disappointed at what mortals are concerning themselves with, except he brings upwards very good points and even packs a chip of empathy for the issues of the states peasants. "I don't actually give a f•ck most it at all". Damn right. Of course he would later proceed to say some pretty ridiculous things to TMZ. He really doesn't care. He wants to see people exercise better in the coldest way possible. He'southward setting up how ridiculous the system is, which likewise 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'southward been talking well-nigh this, it's not new. But he focused on himself and rose higher up these trivial public issues. Regardless, that hopelessness scars a man. He is forever shaped, scarred even, by the globe existence confronting him the way it is. Raekwon comes on in at the tail end to the motivate the brothers with some luxury smash bap confined. Continue shinin'.

03. Power (featuring Dwele) - This probably my favorite Kanye single from this initial run of Kanye albums. This is rap stone at its highest peak, production-wise. It sounds similar a man standing in flames, unscathed. He's yelling, but he's not. The guitars just give it an ballsy feel, while the vocal sample sounds like he'southward 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 prissy ring to it/ I guess every superhero needs his theme music"? Give CyHi a heighten. It'due south an ego trip from showtime to terminate. 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 i of the most powerful stars in the entertainment manufacture. He couldn't be canceled because he'south too talented. Someone somewhere would love his art enough to wonder what was going on with him, fifty-fifty with no media coverage. Information technology'd exist a beautiful decease to get out on meridian like this, which it feels similar the former humbler (slightly) version of himself has. He never meant to hurt nobody, he just did what he felt he had to practise. Information technology's the American style, even, no, peculiarly if you are Black.

04. All Of The Lights [Interlude] - In retentivity of the quondam Kanye, nosotros get a symphony of opulence. Never mind the skits, this the greatest non-song rail on any Kanye album. It's magnificent. It feels similar an origin story, like when Peter Parker got chip by a radioactive spider or when Bruce Wayne first congenital the Bat Cavern. It's such a beautiful flex, but it'due south also just the dramatic difference nosotros need to bring united states of america 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, ane 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) offset when you ship this to radio and MTV. Sonically, let'south be honest this record pretty much birthed Travis Scott. The apocolyptic trap vibe is contagious I guess. This is a masterclass in composition. Only y'all don't care about that. The horns give this that HBCU homecoming feel, which is to say, they give you lot nostalgia, confidence and soul all it once. Perfect for this album. This is Kanye admitting his flaws, freezing similar a deer in headlights. Cop lights, flash lights, all of them got Kanye cold equally hell. You experience similar you have to lash dorsum when all these imperfections are pretty much the unabridged narrative against y'all. The whole articulation only dipped in excess. There's fifty-fifty some Drake background vocals. Groundwork VOCALS. The Kanye verses ain't crazy. The lyrics are elementary 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 every bit "Ghetto University" with a horrible Drake poetry. Humble beginnings indeed.

06. Monster (featuring Rick Ross, JAY Z, Nicki Minaj & Justin Vernon) - Rick Ross exists for a second before Kanye spits the claw. And it doesn't feel like the runway could've started whatever other way. Kanye is common cold and confident (notice a pattern?). The sex with a pharoah is 2013 Lil Wayne as hell. Ye really alee of his time. I even like Hov's poesy (at least his opening lines). But nosotros all know why this song still gets talked about to this twenty-four hour period: the Bon Iver outro! But that Nicki verse that precedes it is nothing short of legendary. Lyrically, it'southward not her best. Pretty middle of the road, honestly. But the delivery, breath control, and other petty details that split the MC'due south from the rappers…. hands 1 of her greatest moments. She gave us four bars and and then goes "offset things first". She don't give a unmarried 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 similar a coincidence, given how much of a breakup album this is on the low.. She fifty-fifty asks for a menage a trois with Amber. Uhh… most Amber.

07. Then 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 besides. Merely this monster of a mail 808'south Wu-Tang blazon vanquish is incredible from the offset thump. The sample is so heart-searching and powerful. Hov has a much better showing on this record, but the verses really get improve and better as this joint crawls along. Push got my favorite verse on this one, but we all remember CyHi's "she plant about April so she chose to March" setup. This whole record simply shows the ability of hip-hop. No melodies in any of the verses whatsoever. It's but a bar fest as the epic beat out slugs along. Thin yet dense. Yous've got to love it. This is the civilisation. Strength in numbers. We got our male child Kanye's back. We're elite. All that is said and more, without fifty-fifty being explicitly mentioned. F****** ridiculous.

08. Devil In A New Apparel (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 ship you dorsum to the hood" kind of energy that Drake parades effectually. 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'due south just enjoy this moment. Simply it's tinged with the airs we know and love from Kanye. "Hard to be humble when you stunting on a jumbotron". To dearest Kanye, is to dear all of Kanye. You've got to have who he is. Or at least, that's how he feels. I don't know anybody that loves all of Kanye. Merely then again, I don't know everyone that knows Kanye. Then we get an ballsy breakdown and one of Ross' all-time verse ever. It's truly scene-stealing. Excess is merely his character, just similar Kanye. Black and lavender. Non just that. He actually had cyphers with Yeezy before his mouth-wired, meaning he's seen what the blow did to him. Withal he still running signs similar he'southward invincible. He's gonna do him regardless what the earth tells him. This is honestly a perfect feature if ever there was one (sorry Nicki, you came shut). Then nosotros get to some beautiful distorted electrical guitar before…

09. Runaway (featuring Pusha T) - This shouldn't exist the best vocal on the album. Aside from Pusha T, it really doesn't do much lyrically. Only it's that very simplicity that reveals the layers of emotion hidden in manifestly sight. Similar the deceptively unproblematic single annotation intro before it all comes in to hit you lot in the face. That might exist the most famous piano note of all time. This is of grade 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 ain humanity, every bit it did on his previous album. His lack of a good singing voice is supplemented by the fact that's he's not lone in this. A choir of douchebags, assholes and jerkoffs join him in the hook. Even the samples come up in similar Kanye's psyche. "Expect at ya! Look at ya!" It's really haunting. Look what you lot've become. He'southward on the world phase, for better and worse. And then Pusha comes in to affirm the blowing and stroke his ego while he stunts on his girl. He makes it sound then luxurious, it makes Kanye's inability to exist romantic all the more than tantalizing. Why not be airtight off? It sounds so absurd. And so we go some strings, earlier nothing simply the unmarried piano key appears to be prepare to close the record out. Instead, we become 1 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 brand him nearly unrecognizable just it gets more than and more humanizing equally it goes forth. Easier to make out. Easier to understand. Easier to sympathize with. He reaches into his upper register to bear witness off his imperfections a little fleck, before finally really letting it all go. It's grossly satisfying. It's ugly and cute at the same fourth dimension. 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 allow'southward all of his sins fly complimentary. Definitely non nigh as proficient equally ANY of the songs earlier it, but damn is this 1 cathartic in it's ain 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 nigh disrespectful and ambrosial affair in the globe. How dare you lot be an indivudal, unlike from I. Kanye's sex addiction is on full display. P**** and religion is all he needs. I judge those two practice become mitt in mitt when you lot put it like that. Ii 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 observe dear, only he tin find sex. Next all-time thing I approximate. It's no wonder this album is called MBDTF.

11. Blame Game (featuring John Legend & Chris Stone) - The intimate beauty of this tape cannot be understated. The piano sample feels like a cold winter evening. It feels big and small-scale at the aforementioned time. "I'd rather argue with yous 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, only you lucky to be with him and he knows that too. He hates having to explicate it, y'all but got to bargain with it. Only underneath it all, you lot feel that he wishes information technology all were dissimilar. Kanye drops some spoken word poetry and attempts some singing (which isn't that far off from John Legend's, honestly). "I tin can't love you this much" is an admittance of shame and inadequacy to her every bit much as information technology is an admittance of fearfulness to him. And so we get the infamous Chris Rock voicemail on the outro. I don't know nigh you, just I however reference the "Yeezy taught me" meme to this day.

12. Lost In The Globe (featuring Bon Iver) - It has since come out that Kanye wrote at least the kickoff of his verse as a love poem to hereafter married woman Kim Kardashian. And that makes this such a bully outro, if you consider this album a breakdown with Bister Rose. But coupled with the outro "Who Volition Survive In America" it feels similar him stating the importance of love. He needs to offset a family, he's all by himself in the new world of ultra-glory. America has consistently chewed him upwards and spit him out. All of his flaws accept been laid out in front of us for our own amusement. As if he'due south not a homo himself and tin can't brand his own mistakes. Has he go what the media says he is? He's lost. He needs to adjust, and a new beloved came help him find his footing back. We get a thumping house-esque crush to bring u.s.a. back to Chicago, only this time it's so 1000 that the pulse feels like a heartbeat in a horror picture. Even the background vocals (courtesy of Bon Iver) feel distinctly un-human and otherworldly. It's not the world he one time idea information technology 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 exist. He just needs an ballast. Something to ground him and bring him back. Or perchance he'due south so high up at this point he doesn't even know which style is up anymore, he's just blindly post-obit his instincts. Who knows. Musically, better than Hell Of A Life, not better than annihilation else. Only symbolically, genius outro.

13. Who Will Survive In America - This may exist the most telling track in the whole sequence. It retroactively gives a greater subtext to the whole projection, while also harkening dorsum to the message of those offset couple joints. To remind u.s.a. 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 swell disdain by including this sample as the outro. This basically defends his position every bit an egotistical Black man. A damaged one. One that'southward hard to love. Our culture as always emphasized bravado and masculinity. Information technology needed to, we had to outgrow our by. We are not slaves anymore, but not even so kings. Except for those of us fortunate enough to alive the life that Kanye West does. Dearest it or hate it, America made it.

Over the years since its release, I've grown to dearest this album more and more. This culminated around 2015 when it basically became my faovirte anthology of all fourth dimension and warrants an annual spin (or seven). It really transports me back to higher when I was taking psychology and philosophy classes. This album always was to me a great look at both humanity and American civilization in general. So in recent years I've almost been scared to accept a more critical expect at it with mod ears (looking at you, Fantano). Merely yous know what? Upon revisiting information technology for this review, I realized only what it is that makes this album so incredible. Information technology'southward non the production, or the lyrics, or that catchiness. No, it'due south the complex emotion on display at all times. The contradictions, the alien themes. This is Kanye'south best anthology because it is the all-time marriage of all of this different sides of him together. At the time information technology released, it just felt like a full mashup of every style Kanye had shown united states of america up until that signal. You lot take the backpack nail 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. Information technology's all brought together in harmony nether a progressive stone glaze of pigment with the presentation of an opera. It is the greatest pedestal Kanye would e'er place himself on, because he succeeded and lived up to even the peaks of his ain hype. The north**** even made a short movie out of the record.

Considering the direction culture would go in over the class 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 confronting it is cancel culture. We either dear you, or we detest yous. That's only how things are nowadays. Nothing is allowed to be more than complex than "option a side". We've forgotten but what it ways to be homo. Nosotros make mistakes, we crash-land our heads. Different circumstances in our lives pull us in unlike directions. We fifty-fifty alter. The confidence on brandish as Kanye shows you each and every side of him is masterful. There isn't a wasted characteristic in sight, everybody comes together to play their function in Kanye's vision and delivers standout career-defining performances (as long equally their proper noun isn't JAY Z or John Fable). This anthology is a must-play for me every winter. When it's icy and isolating, sometimes you demand to just rap along to your favorite rapper tell you exactly why he'due south and so swell. Rap information technology out loud though. You'll showtime to feel it too. Don't worship the vocalization you hear, worship the voice you make. It'south all you've got in America.