MBDTF at 10: Why Kanye West’s masterpiece remains the gold standard for modern hip-hop

Marking a decade since the release of the seminal album, deputy editor Jamie Morris delves into Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

It’d be a major understatement to say Kanye West’s reputation precedes him. From his support for Donald Trump to his own unsuccessful presidential campaign, the rapper is easily one of the most controversial figures in the entertainment industry right now, to the point where his wild outbursts and colossal ego arguably even overshadow his music career, as far as the public eye is concerned. But against all odds, Kanye’s standing as an artist remains unshaken. Beginning with his humble origins in The College Dropout in 2004, West’s discography boasts some of the most captivating songs of the 21st century, with an undeniable peak in creativity sitting firmly in the middle. So what is it that sets his 2010 album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, apart from the rest?

The legendary status of Ye’s fifth studio LP is in part due to the context surrounding its release. In 2007, after defeating 50 Cent in a sales battle with his third album Graduation, West’s career was at a new high – but things soon took a turn for the worst in his personal life just months later when his mother Donda tragically passed away after complications with surgery. West later expressed his grief through the autotune-heavy 808s & Heartbreak in 2008 to mixed audience response, and a year later, faced huge backlash from audiences and industry professionals alike after interrupting Taylor Swift’s 2009 MTV Video Music Awards speech (“Imma let you finish, but…”) before jetting off to Hawaii for self-imposed exile, where he would conceive his magnum opus. 

MBDTF is as lavish as albums get. Across its thirteen tracks there are a dozen featured artists, a minute-long Elton John piano solo, a bizarre Chris Rock skit and a rich tapestry of samples ranging from Rick Jones to King Crimson. The album’s vast pool of influences give it a sense of universality – even if hip-hop isn’t among your preferred genres, the baroque sonic architecture that surrounds West’s verses is more than enough to hold your interest for its duration. Of course, the album makes strides lyrically as well, not only showcasing the best bars of Ye’s career but an additional arsenal of razor-sharp verses from the likes of Jay-Z and Nicki Minaj.

Perhaps most importantly, this is Kanye’s most personal work to date. It’d be easy to view him as a mere showman with this kind of grandiose project, using elaborate production tricks and a star-studded lineup of guests to flaunt his ingenuity. Instead, Ye utilises the album as a canvas to lay his flaws bare, branding himself a douchebag and a monster. The self-criticism is at its most raw in Runaway, in which he sings “You been puttin’ up wit’ my shit just way too long” against the backdrop of a minimalist piano riff. In the accompanying short film of the same name, West decides on the motif of a ballet troupe to illustrate the song, substantiating its central theme of finding beauty within our moments of vulnerability.

Thematically, MBDTF covers a lot of ground, and it’s left open to interpretation exactly what the titular “fantasy” is. Much of the lyrical content relates to sex and relationships, whilst tracks like All of the Lights and So Appalled fetishise the pressures of life in the limelight. Rather than trying to narrow it down to a representation of any one key message or moral, the album is best viewed as a no-brakes tour through the psyche of a man bruised and battered by the harsh realities of talent, fame and the myth of the American Dream. As with all great concept albums, it’s best listened to all in one sitting, and rewards repeated revisitation.

To suggest that any part of MBDTF is underrated would be a lie, but one song that hasn’t been discussed half as much as POWER or Runaway over the past decade is the album’s coda, which unfolds over the tracks Lost in the World and Who Will Survive in America. Built on a sample of indie folk band Bon Iver’s Woods, the song evolves over its six-minute runtime by laying down pounding drums, ethereal choir-like backing vocals and lyrics from Kanye that perfectly unite the album’s many threads into a deeply affecting crescendo, before transitioning into a rendition of Gil Scott-Heron’s masterful poem, Comment No. 1

Start to finish, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy really is a miraculous collection of music that cements West’s place as one of the true visionaries of the medium and – as unbelievable as it may be – it appears that one of music history’s most flawed individuals is responsible for one of its most perfect works.

By Jamie Morris

Feature image credit: Rodrigo Ferrari

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