"Single Ladies" would have deserved to win. Grammy Song of the Year, deservedly so. But that video would have deserved to win. I didn't even know the MTV Music Video Awards existed before Kanye made that scene. The boy comes from a very difficult personal moment, his mother died a few years earlier and in the same period the engagement with his girlfriend ended, two events that heavily afflict the Chicago artist's already shaky mind. Now he's working everyday on creating his own music in order to please everyone and churning out one hit after another and one great album after another, and the result is just constant physical and mental fatigue. When Kanye West sees that Beyoncé's iconic hit didn't win video of the year at that awards show, he's not in his greatest moment of lucidity, he loses his head and snatches the microphone from Taylor Swift to reiterate that "Singles Ladies" is one of the best videos ever: his scene gets a national resonance and unleashes a gigantic wave of controversy that overwhelms him, West is also criticized by President Obama. Close to mental breakdown, he then decides to take a break from music and devote himself to fashion, even canceling a tour with Lady Gaga, only to go into exile on Oahu, Hawaii, in order to record new music. After calling friends and colleagues to create the album, West finishes it in studios in Burbank and New York, spending more than three million dollars to record the project.
The working title of his new album is "Good Ass Job", then it becomes "Dark Twisted Fantasy", to then change again and find the current name. Kanye West brings together a highly respected team of producers to build the musical canvas on this record hailed from every corner of the globe as a genius masterpiece, the finest album from Kanye West and one of the best albums ever, every genre. Alongside him, who is already one of the best producers of his period, there are also DJ Premier (whose beats are discarded, in the end), Madlib, Q-Tip, RZA and Pete Rock, as well as No ID, Bink, Mike Dean, DJ Frank E, S1, Jeff Bhasker, Plain Pat, Emile Hayner and Mike Caren. There's also Statik Selektah, who quits after playing a beat for Kanye, who claims that "jazz is dead", although this album of Kanye is also heavily rooted in jazz sounds and is one of the reasons why it's so appreciated. Numerous artists participate in the recording sessions. Guests credited on the album's definitive tracks are Beyoncé, Raekwon and RZA of Wu-Tang Clan, Jay-Z, Kid Cudi, Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj, Bon Iver, Pusha T, Swizz Beatz, Cyhi the Prince, John Legend, Charlie Wilson and Big Sean. Many artists sing backing vocals, have additional vocals or are uncredited on tracks, such as Teyana Taylor, Justin Vernon, Amber Rose, Tony Williams, Dwele, Rihanna, Elly Jackson, Elton John, Alicia Keys, Fergie, The-Dream, Ryan Leslie , Drake, Alvin Fields, Ken Lewis, Chris Rock, Salma Kenas and Kaye Fox.
1. "Dark Fantasy"
The concept album is opened by Nicki Minaj on a soulful light carpet, soulful hook from Justin Vernon and Teyana Taylor, then Kanye West delivers worthily introducing some of the record's main themes. The song could end more than a minute earlier, but the boy decides to let the rhythm breathe. This jazzy boom bap is light, essential, rhythmic, very well layered, it's a great work by RZA, No ID and West. RZA proves that he is capable of creating excellent rhythms also in 2010.
2. "Gorgeous" (ft. Kid Cudi & Raekwon)
It boasts excellent production by Mike Dean and No ID: boom bap with dominant electric guitar riff, long hook sung by Kid Cudi, three verse rap by Kanye West about social injustice in America, the guy has a boring, phoned and soporific style that almost puts you to sleep for over four minutes, then Raekwon arrives and ignites the cut with an excellent verse and an excellent rapping, deciding to take part in the project, at the insistence of RZA, and of elevate track.
3. "Power"
Also often stylized in all caps, this track is possibly the pinnacle of Kanye West's musical talent and career. This native of Atlanta and raised in Chicago, proves that he has a real talent for music and above all that he's a brilliant perfectionist. The music video is also phenomenal. Dwele is a guest in the outro. Produced exclusively by S1, the beat is built around samples of Continent Number 6's "Afroamerica", Cold Grits' "It's Your Thing" and King Crimson's "21st Century Schizoid Man". The production is tight, polished, complex, bouncy, modern: the rhythm is intended for the rapper Rhymefest, then West listens to it and takes it, and for the first time decides to write his lyrics.
Lyrically, the boy escapes from reality, talks about his problems with the public and dreams of ending his career at the top by committing suicide. Inspired by his previous singles "Stronger" and "Good Life" directly from his third album "Graduation", West enters with energy, precision, confidence and order, delivering one of his best performances ever. The album's lead single and West's comeback single, the track garnered critical acclaim and is widely regarded as one of the best tracks of the decade with one of the best videos, credit to an intricate production, good lyricism and focused rapping, unlike most songs in West's discography. Nonetheless, the single struggled to make its way up the charts, making its way to multiple platinum statuses in the US and Europe over the years.
4. "All of the Lights (Interlude)"
Brief one-minute interlude with excellent ethereal production. Mike Dean is credited with producing this track, but not producing the next one and the beat is the same.
5. "All of the Lights"
It's considered one of West's best songs ever, dealing with the story of a couple with domestic problems. There's a beautiful soundscape designed by West himself and Jeff Bhasker (Mike Dean is credited for the interlude but not for this entire track, curiously). Rihanna amazing on the hook, uncredited. In this track, the author calls a totally enviable cast just to sing in the background: there are, all uncredited, Alicia Keys, Fergie, Elly Jackson, Charlie Wilson, Elton John (also on piano), John Legend, Kid Cudi, Ryan Leslie, Tony Williams, Ken Lewis, Drake, Alvin Fields and Ryan Leslie. Possibly the best moment in Drake's career, he says just one line, hardly anyone notices and, while uncredited, is featured on an album that is widely regarded as excellent. Fantastic triumphal jazzy boom bap, Kanye starts off calm, quiet, then flowing, technical, perpetually dope, helped by a dozen exceptional singers. Clearly one of the best songs of the decade and one of the best of the year.
6. "Monster" (ft. Bon Iver, Jay-Z, Nicki Minaj & Rick Ross)
Heavy production from Kanye West, Mike Dean and Plain Pat. Scary and paranoid layered essential boom bap welcoming a posse track with Rick Ross, Jay-Z and Nicki Minaj. Bon Iver is credited on the piece, lead singer of the group Justin Vernon does the intro and outro. Intro, second intro by Rick Ross, hook by West, then verse by West. For many this is one of Kanye's best contributions in his career, in fact it's one of his worst, he's really sucking. Not only is he talking nonsense all the time, which Jay-Z later recalls in his own verse, but he fills his room with profanity, random sex bars, and gratuitous misogyny that goes eerily unnoticed. It's among the worst contributions on this record and it's a sleazy stanza. Jay-Z doesn't miss an opportunity to disses West himself (plus his former partners in Roc-A-Fella) with the verse at him and humiliate him, reminding him that Hova got where he's from nowhere by making his way through the corpses, while West still had his mother clean his slime while he grew in cotton wool. Carter builds one of the best verses of the project, preceded by a second hook from West, then the concluding verse which is left to Nicki Minaj.
On the same day as this West album comes out, Minaj's debut studio album "Pink Friday" also comes out, one of the best-selling albums of the year and which manages to reach the first place on the Billboard 200 after three months of its release. Nicki Minaj arrives on the track after a Jay-Z in top form (loved by professional critics, but criticized by Kanye West fans and stans, for some reason besides those dissing lines) and kills the cut with what is widely regarded as her greatest verse ever.
7. "So Appalled" (ft. Prince Cy Hi, Jay-Z, Pusha T, The RZA & Swizz Beatz)
Horrible and plaintive hook by Swizz Beatz, which Kanye West believes is a brilliant idea to let perform as an intro for a song by him on what should be his masterpiece album. It's a shame because the layered production West with Mike Dean and No ID is fantastic, tense, dark, perfect jazz boom bap. The music is truly beautiful. The lyrics veer more on the bragging. Kanye West also plays very well with a good verse, good vocals, and slow, neat rapping. Chorus after his verse, which is performed by West himself along with Prince Cy Hi.
Then there's Jay-Z. He doesn't come from easy albums, but it seems that the experience of "American Gangster" has galvanized him. Surely here he's galvanized, confident, very sure, powerful, rediscovered. His entrance into the track is sensational and he delivers one of his best verses in years, full of quotables, with an irresistible flow and immaculate style. Hook, then Pusha T pulverizes the track with a granite verse and fabulous rapping, it's one of his best performances on a guest album. Hook by Swizz Beatz, who's back on the song since his first hook, and still has an edgy voice for some reason, sounds anti-melodic, the raw sound of this long contribution by Swizz creates an interesting contrast with the elegance and purity of the rhythm, perhaps Kanye's genius is also in this or he simply forgot about the song after it was leaked and after he wanted to leave it off the album, being hard persuaded by his friend Pusha T to put the song back in, a song in which Push himself as well as Hova and all the other performers had gone to their best creating one of the finest tracks of the year and a definite highlight on what is considered the best hip-hop CD ever by many aficionados.
After Swizz comes one of the happy surprises of this project, Prince Cy Hi. The boy is supposed to do just the hook in this track, but when Kanye West falls asleep in the studio, Cy Hi decides to record a full verse without saying a word to West and choosing to hide it from him. West discovers it when he's already playing the song to others and, given the success of Cy Hi's contribution, he's convinced to keep his performance in the track too. Prince Cy Hi pulls out a great verse and assaults the beat with a focused, smoothness, flowing delivery and excellent lyricism. Hook of RZA of the Wu-Tang Clan arriving with his own aggressive vocals, Swizz Beatz closes the track which is over six minutes long, but it's six of the best minutes on this LP. Great, great cut.
8. "Devil in a New Dress" (ft. Rick Ross)
One of the best cuts on the record, it mixes sexual and religious lyrics in what is considered a track inspired by West's ex-girlfriend. It's the third song in a row that lasts more or less six minutes. It's also the only production not credited to Kanye West, the beat is designed by Bink, but it's as if it was made by the best Kanye, because this sonic painting lives in the same place where the beats of the Chicago artist's first two albums live, being infused with a gorgeous chipmunk soul sample, culled from a Smokey Robinson cover of "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?". The rhythm is beautiful, heavenly, perfect.
After a couple of verses from Kanye, whose style complements the beat, comes a short hook, then comes a great interlude from Mike Dean playing electric guitar, it's one of the best times of the year in any genre of music. When you think the song is at its peak and it just can't get any better than this, and this feeling could happen when Mike Dean's solo superimposed on Bink's beat is joined by the chipmunk soul sample loop, out of nowhere, out comes Rick Ross, whose talent Kanye West takes advantage of to close the cut and one of the best beats offered by Bink in his life. Rick Ross makes one of the most elegant, clean, smoothness and refined entrances on the album, and overwhelms the cut with a lethal hardcore delivery, silky, sharp, cutting, spectacular, it's at his best with one of his greatest verses ever, if not the greatest.
9. "Runaway" (ft. Pusha T)
It's one of the most critically acclaimed songs on this album, as well as by fans, and it's one of the most complicated in the career of the rapper and producer. West fixes an Emile Haynie beat, Mike Dean and Jeff Bhasker are also credited. Layered rhythm that takes its cue from different and varied genres, but remains essential. After a couple of intros and a hook where the guy toasts the worst part of him, West delivers the short first verse after a minute and a half, the hook and a long bridge follow. The author desperately begs his girlfriend to "run away" from him and her behaviors, claiming he can't change. Pusha-T performs the second verse and represents the rude side of West, who plays his sincere side in the song. The-Dream and Tony Williams aren't guest credited as additional vocals. West closes the piece with the third verse which is followed by the hook and a long three minute outro which the author recites with the vocoder in an incomprehensible and distorted way in the middle of a string section.
10. "Hell of a Life"
On an aggressive, abrasive, massive and heavily synthesized beat, influenced by rock and heavy metal, Kanye takes refuge in a fantasy in which he marries a porn star, with all the consequences of the case. The lyricism is simple, but the concept behind the song is more complex than it may seem and even the stone-like rhythm, surly and inaccessible, it retains a melody that can only be appreciated with careful listening. Kanye continues to make what is described as "artistic" use of autotune, Teyana Taylor and The-Dream are featured, uncredited, on the hook, although this is believed to be the only "truly solo" track on Kanye's record, he features collaborators on every track on the album. The production is the work of West, Mike Caren, Mike Dean and No ID.
11. "Blame Game" (ft. John Legend)
DJ Frank E, Mike Dean and Kanye West sign one of the most beautiful productions on the record, stupendous. The track features one of West's worst lyrics, almost all the songs have poor lyrics in terms of vocabulary and very frequent and totally excessive use of profanity, sadly that's not something that can come as a surprise to a guy who brags he's never read a book, but it's also what keeps this record from being the greatest album in music history as most dudes would have you believe. John Legend sings the hook to kick the track, then Kanye performs a short verse and a more verbose second verse, amidst another chanted hook, over a production that holds the smooth flow of West, never great at carrying the track solo, unfortunately. Short hook by John Legend, then Kanye makes room for himself and closes it by singing the hooks after an interlude. The track travels towards eight minutes with a skit performed by Salma Kenas and Chris Rock, which respectively depict West's ex-girlfriend to whom this song is dedicated and his new boyfriend.
12. "Lost in the World" (ft. Bon Iver)
Kanye West and Jeff Bhasker put together what easily descends as one of the best productions of the year, every genre. On a stunning, epic, monumental and crescendo layered rhythm, Kanye West is supported by Justin Vernon (credited by his group, Bon Iver, which is also sampled on the track, along with songs by Lyn Collins, Gil Scott-Heron, Manu Dibango and an interpolation from Michael Jackson), bringing together several singers for additional vocals, such as Elly Jackson, Alicia Keys, Kaye Fox, Tony Williams and Charlie Wilson, as well as Alvin Fields and Ken Lewis singing the outro. Despite a spectacular production, to be reductive, and the help that comes from the usual autotune, Kanye can't find the lyrics for this track: he decides to rely on a poem originally written for his future wife Kim Kardashian, and it works, half a verse, the other half is ruined by West himself with some of his worst inserts, he's totally uninspired and dismissive in the lyricism of this track, a shame, because the beat certainly deserved better. The beat is classic, it's definitely one of the best beats ever made in Kanye West's career.
13. "Who Will Survive in America"
This is originally the outro of the previous track, Chris Rock convinces Kanye to cut it and make it the outro which closes his fifth studio album, an authentic masterpiece and a certified classic LP. Over an abrasive beat, West chooses to insert a piece of Gil Scott-Heron's "Comment #1", with additional vocals from Alicia Keys, Kaye Fox, Elly Jackson, Justin Vernon, Charlie Wilson and Tony Williams in the background at the beginning.
Final Thoughts
Kanye West's fifth studio album in six years, two years after the previous one. Four singles ("Power", "Runaway", "Monster", "All of the Lights") were released which had great critical and commercial success, nevertheless, for the first time no single from a West solo album reached the top ten of the Hot 100. This is Kanye West's fourth consecutive #1 CD on the Billboard 200, #1 in Canada, charts worldwide, and is in the top ten on four continents. Unfortunately, the sales, although they are high and have brought certifications from three continents and surprisingly also from Italy, don't grind numbers close to those of the previous album, this seems to be a bit the condemnation of the classic albums, despite the "808s" being the worst Kanye West project so far. "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" is one of the best-selling albums of 2011, the fourth best-selling hip-hop album of the year and one of the best-selling albums of the decade in Australia.
With this CD West collects Grammys and wins hands down the rap album of the year — after surprising losing Billboard Music Awards to Eminem's "Recovery" (?) — however, the fact that the academy didn't nominate it in the album of the year category creates a stir, due to the enormous stream of controversy with which Kanye arrived on the eve of the album's release. After the divisive flop of "808s", critics are hailing this effort as one of the best hip-hop projects in history: most specialist publications give the album a perfect score in their reviews, according to several major publications, including Rolling Stone, Slant Magazine, Time, Spin, Pitchfork, The Village Voice, Entertainment Weekly and Billboard, it is the 2010 Album of the Year, and according to Rolling Stone, Billboard and The A.V. Club would also be the best album of the decade two thousand and ten.
West's chosen music is a sonic collage that brings together elements of his previous four LPs into a lush, grand production. which picks up where he left off "Graduation" and boasts a substantial series of samples that come from all genres. The production is beautiful, immaculate and flawless, one of the best of the decade.
The lyrics embrace numerous topics and in particular focus on excess, glamour, conflicts, pomp, glorification and the subsequent decadence of celebrity consumerist life, through themes such as wealth, self-aggrandizement, love, alcohol, drugs, sex, insecurity and success. The artist addresses these issues with an interesting, non-linear, nervous and sometimes even simplistic writing style, seamlessly shifting from smart to silly moments, traversing all the gamut of emotions possible amidst a lot of seemingly gratuitous vulgarity and misogyny. Only on closer inspection, one can appreciate how this authentic genius really had a vision and put every box in its place, nothing is left to chance, this is his opera omnia and possibly one of the best hip-hop albums ever. Lyrically, Kanye West creates a powerful concept album of redemption and apologies, a confession in which he completely bares himself: the record retains multiple meanings, and in particular, through numerous allegories, metaphors and symbolisms often centered on female figures, he analyzes his own artistic career and his rise in the rap game to the top, then fall and rise again.
The album opens with the author at the top of the scenes and wondering if he can go any further, he's at his best and in shape, concepts that he continues to express in the following songs up to "All of the Lights", one of the symbolic songs of West's fifth studio album. Here, the boy has all the lights on him, and then ruin his career with his own hands, walking away from the scene and isolating himself from everyone, only to come back and see that the game has changed, that the fans didn't wait for him and that someone has taken his place. The following tracks show how the success has turned him into a monster and see him fighting to keep his fans, fame and return to the top of the game, without succeeding and running away, desperately advising his fans to do the same and run away from him, in a song of forgiveness, redemption and repentance, heavily symbolic, in which he declares his self-hatred for failing to change and improve himself, further claiming that no one can understand him, with that outro. Away from the scene, he lives a complicated period made of excesses to face and hide the pain, therefore, after losing success, the public and his place at the top, he wonders who is to blame for this situation, whether it's him or the rap game, which he believes is now even better after him. He ends up feeling lost, alone in the world, maybe it's no coincidence that he couldn't find the lyrics for this song, the whole concept is intense and complicated. Now he's willing to return to the top of the game rising from the ashes like a phoenix, hence the original cover, often considered one of the best ever.
See him now, he's back in front of everyone and won, making a triumphant victory lap on the bonus track, returning to where it all began and, not by chance, he brings Beyoncé with him, who finally wins and celebrates with him. It's a great comeback album, perhaps the greatest comeback album hip-hop has offered thus far, the album sees Kanye West's return to rap and hip-hop after his failed experiment with his last disk. Kanye West's rapping is better than his previous albums, the guy is really trying here and his style sounds more focused than ever, he's much more skilled and is helped by numerous guests, from which he always manages to get the best out of them obtaining some of their most memorable career performances — Nicki Minaj ("Monster"), Pusha T ("So Appalled", "Runaway") and Rick Ross ("Devil in a New Dress"), among others — although he still sometimes resorts to autotune to adjust his voice, still trying to sing some pop hooks that work for most of the songs of this project.
Thanks to a perfect and rich music, a deep concept that goes beyond questionable lyricism due to a limited vocabulary, which is one of the few things that keeps it from being a perfect album, and a proper rapping, the record is ambitious, epic, very excessive, very exaggerated, very bold, very baroque. The result is an imperfect masterpiece that returns Kanye West to the top of hip-hop after a difficult period and allows him to shine again as a leading artist of the global pop scene. The project is cinematographic and it's easy to compare it to some masterpieces of the seventh art, in particular, I believe that this is one of the works closest to Sorrentino's "The Great Beauty" (2013) and, to a lesser extent, to Fellini's "La dolce vita" (1960): this nearly 70-minute album is the effort of a guy who went to the big city in search of the great beauty and chased after whatever was beautiful, parties, girls, music, wealth. Where Jep and Marcello question themselves on the vanity of their lives after wearily pursuing beauty throughout the city for a long time, finding shelter and comfort in the loved and hated «jet set» — illegitimate son of fallen European nobility at the end of the eighteenth century — of which both are in some places even protagonists, Kanye reflects deeply on the «celebrity culture» — that is the natural heir to «high society», founded in the major US cities by the newly rich — that America treats obsessively, of which he's now at the center totally defenseless and which, like the two movie characters mentioned above, has deeply disappointed him, leaving him full of regrets, anxieties and doubts, with an emptiness inside and a great sense of dissatisfaction, but showing us that, maybe in this case, the desperate search for beauty wasn't in vain.
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