These are highlighted by symbols both literal (Kanye’s dick) and metaphorical (herons in the sky) that further drive home the distinctly Greek tragedy that is My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Satan, raised hands, bright lights, the Magic Hour, loss (both of place and of relationship), and power are recurring themes throughout the record. Jay-Z represents his future, Rick Ross represents his past and his aspirations, Nicki Minaj represents his desires and impulses, Pusha T represents his cold, cold heart. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is by and large a cinematic experience, featuring a specific cast of characters with some bit players who deal with a specific set of themes and consequences, all which build towards an open-ended conclusion about the world Kanye inhabits. Those that viewed the “Runaway” short film might be able to more acutely appreciate what Kanye wants his listeners to experience on this album, but multiple close listens should reveal a lot of the details regardless. By classic hip-hop standards, great production and delivery is usually enough, but these days artists seem to think it takes something extra. But let’s talk concepts instead, because this album doesn’t achieve perfection through sonics alone. We could talk about the excruciatingly precise delivery that fuels Jay-Z, Cy-Hi, Pusha T, and Kanye himself through the entirety of the record. We could talk about the glass-shattering bass on “Monster” and “Lost in the World”, or the glorious transition from the latter track into a modernized vision of Gil-Scott Heron’s “Small Talk at 125th and Lenox” that closes the album. We could talk about the stark loneliness of the piano lead on “Runaway”, or its depressed cousin on “Blame Game” looped from Aphex Twin’s most fantastic piece, “Avril 14th”. We could talk about the amazing layering of 11 different vocalists atop skittering jungle-like percussion on “All of the Lights”, or his perfectly timed mining of Nas’s vaults for “Devil in a New Dress”.
“Hell of a Life” and “So Appalled” alone carry enough auditory sugar to make listening to this album on any regular sort of listening device almost a fool’s errand.īut we could talk about ear candy all day when an album’s production has been billed for $3 million and included studio sessions in Hawaii and Paris, during which West required all participants wear formal dress attire.
#KANYE WEST DARK FANTASY FIRST VERSION REGISTRATION#
Where Late Registration found West inviting his friend Jon Brion to impart slices of film scoring to the odds and ends of his tracks, here every song contains an underscore as ambitious as the beats upfront. “Power”, the lead single, arrives on the album imbued with countless minor additions from mere sonic details to a litany of background histrionics on guitar that play off of West’s delivery throughout. They’ve listened as Kanye gets his kicks from pretending to be the first hip-hop producer since perhaps the RZA who can claim to be a composer, a true studio producer who arranges and directs a song from skeletal idea to full-formed beast. And as they’ve listened, those who felt let down already continued to feel so as West sings his way through a good portion of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. In the week leading to this album’s leak, many Internet listeners arrived at disappointment through the revelation they’d heard most of the album - however disjointedly - over the previous months. I’ve seen it happen already, and it’s not pretty. These are the lines along which a cluster of hip-hop geeks will undoubtedly entrench themselves, debating the merits of each in regards to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.
2! Kanye, you did me all the way wrong on that one! All the way! Friday, not album tracks!! Kanye isn’t a straight up MC anymore, where’s the College Dropout-era charm and humor I was promised? This is practically 808s & Heartbreaks, Pt. Half these songs were supposed to be G.O.O.D. “All of the Lights”‘ percussion is soooooo not hip-hop.
Those verses from Raekwon, KiD CuDi, Rick Ross, and Fergie add nothing to the record. Those vocals on “Dark Fantasy”, layered a baker’s dozen different ways, they’re synthetic. I’ve got to take a moment to try and hate. Hey teacher teachers, how do we respond to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy? How do we respond to the most bloated, egotistical, fantastical, flat-out amazing release hip-hop has seen in three, five, ten years? Ever? I’m not sure what we’re supposed to do, so I’ve got to get the bogus stuff out of the way first. “Do you think I sacrificed real life for all the fame of flashing lights?” - Kanye West, “Pinnocchio Story”, 808s & Heartbreaks
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