I know this is a bit late and it is actually nearly 11 years after but still...
I have personally never been a big fan of hip-hop, but sometimes Kanye's music really gets me going. Ever since jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy's first episode released in January, I have been diving deeper into rap culture, and I fathomed out that there are a few artists I actually really like when it comes to hip-hop. Ye of course being one, Mac Miller and Kendrick Lamar also amongst them. Coming back to the album, the reason I wanted to write about this now is because after the recent works Donda and Donda II, and after the messy divorce with Kim, it just reminded me of the circumstances he was under during the creation of this masterpiece. At the end of 2010, many publications such as Metacritic and Pitchfork gave it extremely positive reviews and some named it the best album of 2010, and it is also the personal favourite of mine when it comes to Kanye West. First I want to start germane to the album for anyone who haven’t seen the documentary or been following Kanye, then some of my thoughts on the music and the musical short film Runaway.
To anyone who doesn’t listen to Ye’s music and only really knows him from flicking through social media or sometimes seen him mentioned in the news, you probably won’t think much of him, perhaps you are one of those hypebeast, Yeezy loving types who does not really care much for his music. On the surface, he appears to be just another case of an overdramatic, problematic celebrity who acts out in front of the media, at least that is what I thought a while ago. Nevertheless, the more I listen and brood over his music, the more I have changed my opinions of him, and now I see a person who is holding up his own values before the very eyes of social media, a person who is strong and trying his best to do what is right, and just like anyone of us, to get through all the unfortunate events that doesn’t just come from failure but also success. Anyways, I feel like I could be getting sidetracked at any moment since Ye has led such an extraordinary life, so I better get into what happened to start in 2007.
In late 2007, Kanye's beloved mother Donda passed away from heart failure. This absolutely crushed Ye in ways we can not imagine. It has been nearly 15 years since his mother's death but as we can see, it is still haunting him to this day. When Kanye dropped out of college, the same college which his mother taught, she was very disappointed. However, that was gone when he released his debut album - The College Dropout. From that moment on, Kanye started his road to becoming the biggest star in rap. As he grew, his devotion to his mother remained as strong as ever, as she managed his career and accompanied him to countless awards. Soon after the passing of Donda, fighting back the grief, Ye was back on stage only 12 days after with Hey Mama dedicated to her, as years went on we have seen some worrying comments which he has made publically. In an interview with Q Magazin in 2015, when asked what he had sacrificed for his success, he replied: "My mum."
Backing up a couple years after his mother's pass, Ye ended his relationship with model Amber Rose, and following we all know what happened with Taylor Swift at the VMAs and the backlash of that, Kanye retreated to self-imposed ostracism in Hawaii where he began crafting the most beautiful masterpiece he has created to date. It did not just "win back the public" like Ye said he would, it is such an undeniable piece of art that is so compelling, it eclipsed all of his previous works and the works which have followed, and reasserted his prominence in not only music but our culture.
Getting straight to his work, and as I have stated above, this is a wildishly creative, hugely ambitious, and structurally complex album, after mixing it with a fractured, ingenious character, it becomes the only piece of work that perhaps comes close to potentially matching the creator himself. The blending of the baroque, opulent excess of Late Registration, the genre breaking maximalism of Graduation and of course the lyrical open heartedness of 808s And Heartbreak, melding pop potency and hip-hop with an epic splatter derived from classical music, new electronic, old school R & B, and my favourite, progressive rock, all these elements created the divine elixir that is My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, straddling the chart savvy and the underground.
Looking at the album overall, Kanye tests hip-hop again by bending it away from the rigid, Timbaland-sounding "Bling-Era", re-introducing the idea of concept album into the genre, and bringing out the wonderfully complex, opposing themes we sometimes spot in all the greats today. This artwork is exquisite and grandiose, but at the same time highlights darkness, lust, self-doubt and escapism, not only shown through his musical talent but also the lyrical genius. In the lead single Power, and in my opinion one of his best songs, with the acerbic lyrics, shredding guitars and the ingenious King Crimson sample, he lets it known to the world with no room for uncertainty that he is the presence that society has to deal with, a talent that we must cherish and be grateful for; Runaway, Hell Of A Life and Blame Game deals with his failing relationship with Amber Rose while walking the thin lines between raw and undefined sound, humanising Ye's most inhumane impulses; All Of The Lights an extensive range of stars including Fergie, Alicia Keys, Elton John and Rihanna, same goes for Monster where Kanye wrung amazing performances from Jay Z, and the spextacular, off-the-wall turn by Nicki Minaj with her finest guest feature, of course not to mention the quaint voice of Justin Vernon from Bon Iver weaving masterfully into the fabric of the album in a number of tracks; delving deeper into the album, Gorgeous and Lost In The World along with the outro Who Will Survive In America explores his feelings of abandonment and alienation from America, reflecting further on the social climate that gobbled him up and spit him right out, but for him rushing back to the self as he tries to work out his struggles with romance, arrogance, and self acceptance.
I don't want to give too much away to the film so I will just summarise it quickly here. Kanye West, the man on a mission, created the art-film Runaway in 2010 which visualises the album. The story follows Griffin (played by West) who carries a phoenix (played by Ebanks), who crashes down to Earth back home. When the phoenix recovers, Griffin takes her around seeing objects from the human world and different sights. He falls in love with her and takes her to a formal dinner where guests speak negatively of her. She also stood out with her exotic look appearing other-worldly in comparison to everyone else. The dinner ends with the phoenix horrified and screams in anguish upon the revelation that the main course is a turkey. The main theme is revealed clearly with the dialogue that follows where they talk about the creation of sculptures, phoenixes that have been turned to stone by society. "Do you know what I hate most about your world?" she says, "Anything that is different you try to change." The phoenix tells him that she must burst into flames to avoid this and return to her world. The film then ends with Griffin waking up and desperately running to try and stop the phoenix in an ultimately futile attempt, and the phoenix notably sad and helpless also, contemplating this unavoidable end.
I think there is no point in explaining this because the film does great speaking for itself. To end this post I would just like to say that My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is the album that best defines Ye, paradoxically a perfect hip-hop record that strengthens itself with both its messiness and vulnerability. Not only a huge step for Kanye but also changes the rules of the rap game, expanding hip-hops raw confessionalism while making it bigger than ever.
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