My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is the fifth studio album from hip-hop/rap artist Kanye West. The album features some of the more carefully crafted work from Kanye as many critics alike rank this album as the culmination of Kanye's music career. The album was created after months of seclusion from Kanye as he retreated to Honolulu, Hawaii to record most of this album; getting away from the paparazzi and the press. Just about anyone who is anyone had a guest appearance on this record including the likes of Rick Ross, Jay Z, Rihanna, and Nicki Minaj, just to name a few. It also had an eclectic cast of producers who worked on the album including Madlib, Pete Rock, Q-Tip, and DJ Premier.
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy takes what his previous work "808's and Heartbreak" did and adds a larger spectrum for diverse ideas rather than an average, condensed collection of hip-hop tracks. West samples from King Crimson most notably on "Power" as you are at first caught of guard by Kanye's use of "21st Century Schizoid Man". Right from that moment you can sense that Kanye was thinking even more outside the box than he usually would. Kanye gives in to his ego more and he truly believed and still believes that he is the cat's meow. On "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy", Kanye does it right and his eccentric, boastful attitude is justified due to this album's huge shift in style from Kanye's previous works. The entire album feels open to new ideas and it isn't afraid of stepping on toes, or converting from the norm of what people expect.
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is driven less on emotion and more on sheer brilliance when it comes to production and when it comes to pushing the envelope. "Lost In The World" for example layers so many vocal melodies on top of each other as well as having Bon Iver's contribution adding to the density of the track. The craft on this album is nothing to shake a finger at as you could tell Kanye was determined to prove his status in pop culture with his stand out album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.
Final Summary:
It's hard to knock Kanye on this one. With all the chaos that erupted within Kanye's life during that period, Kanye needed this to refocus and use as a medium to get out his frustrations. With monster production, tasteful sampling, and on point guest features My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy delivers on just about every level. I could've used a little less dirty laundry from Kanye as it did get in the way on certain tracks, but all in all, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy will grow on you from a production standpoint and could very well be Kanye's most bold effort yet.
Rating: 8.8/10
No comments:
Post a Comment