Kanye has succeeded in creating a masterpiece which surpasses the classic College Dropout and transcends the genre of Hip Hop: ‘Ye wanted us to open our minds, that didn’t happen, so he did it for us by shoving his dark, twisted fantasy in our faces – and we are glad he did.Say and think what you will about Kanye West - about his ego and politics and mental health and indefensible public statements and all the rest of it - but he actually is a musical genius, at least by the contemporary definition of the term.Īs a songwriter, lyricist and rapper, he’s excellent - but as a producer and conceptualist and creator of exciting and emotionally moving music (in both positive and negative ways), he’s brilliant.
He has also stretched every song out to introduce the theme of excess into his fantasy. And finally, he turns Bon Iver’s haunting “Woods” into an uplifting celebration about being “Lost In The World”.Īnother aspect which makes this album so great is that Kanye cleverly mastered all the tracks so that any previously heard song would still sound brand new – and they do: every time you listen to them you find something new to like. The John Legend-assisted “Blame Game” sees Kanye’s sentimental side detailing the push-pull relationships we go through over a beautifully interpolated Aphex Twin sample, complete with the most schizophrenic verse I have ever heard from a rapper.
Kanye also indulges in self-deprecating stadium hip hop with the humorous “Runaway”, which stretches out into a nine minute extravaganza, ending with him messing around with his beloved auto-tune.Ĭontinuing on, the synth-heavy “Hell Of A Life” tells the story of a bi-polar Mr West living the bohemian lifestyle – one of his most vivid tracks to date. He recruits some of Hip Hop’s heavy hitters for ‘Monster’ and ‘So Appalled’, and pours his soul into “Devil In A New Dress”. He creates a serene atmosphere with a beautiful prelude to the epic “All Of The Lights”, before taking us into one of his most ambitious songs to date. ‘Ye alternates between “tripping off the power” and “tripping off the powder” in his ode to superhero theme-music “Power”. To prove that point even further, he draws on many themes and styles throughout this album, bringing them all together in perfect harmony to make every track an epic adventure into the frantic mind of Kanye West. We are bounced between an uplifting choir melody and a bitter Mr West as he broods over an ambitious hip-hop track with witticisms to remind us why we should take him seriously as both a rapper and a producer. Take every single judgement you could possibly associate with Kanye West and destroy it – time for the real music.įollowing Minaj’s suggestion, we are immediately confronted with Kanye’s ‘dark fantasy’, a juxtaposition of light and dark. Drop the label of ‘Hip Hop’ and everything you associate with it, whether it is positive or negative. The words of Nicki Minaj (sporting a terrible fake-British accent) serve both as the opener to Kanye West’s latest offering My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and suggestion to the listener: drop what you know about Kanye West, both as just another unstable celebrity in the public eye, and as an artist. You might think you’ve peeped the scene – you haven’t
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