Kanye West is a mentally ill mess. Many people dislike him because of his association with Trump and the various anti-Semitic comments he has made. His career has taken a downfall and he is not as relevant as he used to be.
Despite these flaws in his personality, the man can make some music. All of his music tells a vivid story and is very unique with short snippets and tracks from the 60’s-80’s records sometimes being sampled behind the beat. In my opinion, Kanye West is one of the best musicians of the 21st century. His debut album College Dropout was very experimental during the 2004 time period it was dropped, but it blew up with some songs having over 200 million streams on Spotify. Kanye tells the story of his struggles in high school and college throughout his first three albums, The College Dropout, Late Registration, and Graduation. One song named, “Through The Wire,” he recorded with his jaw wired shut after an almost fatal car crash. Not only did these albums make him famous, but him interrupting Taylor Swift’s award speech on the MTV awards to give his opinion on why Beyonce should have won, caught Yeezy in some hellfire. Public statements about slavery being a choice, his opinions on Jewish people, and starting conflicts with celebrities also did not help. In 2009 Kanye decided to isolate himself in Hawaii and work on his fifth album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (MBDTF). He recorded in Honolulu’s Avex Recording Studio with many artists who had also flown out to the islands. This album would go down in experimental Hip-Hop history telling Kanye’s deranged life stories and his daily problems.
My personal favorite off of MBDTF is “Runaway” which features Pusha T and is 9 minutes long. The song starts with a subtle 16 notes off the same piano key then transitions to other single note keys for another 12 plays, then the euphoric bass drop hits. The same pattern of piano keys plays with snare and bass drums smoothly guiding notes to your ears with Rick James samples floating in the background. Listening to this song with headphones is insane. Besides the perfectly written lyrics with a calming autotune hum for the last 3 minutes of the song with violin overlay, the song has a deep meaning to Kanye’s everyday and relationship struggles. Before marrying Kim Kardashian, Yeezy had a fling with Amber Rose which ended abruptly. In the lyrics, “Never was much of a romantic/I could never take the intimacy/And I know it did damage/’Cause the look in your eyes is killin’ me/I guess that you had an advantage/’Cause you could blame me for everything/And I don’t know how I’m-a manage/If one day you just up and leave”. Is a haunting, honest message about Kanye’s fears and inability to fully commit to women due to his mental state and temptations in his life. He is telling who is thought to be Amber Rose to just run away because he knows the relationship will end badly and affect both of them harshly. He describes himself as an asshole, douchebag, and jerk off because of how highly he thinks of himself and how it’s a huge problem in friendships and relationships.
My second favorite is “Dark Fantasy” which is a mix between street hip-hop and piano-driven gospel/praise vocals. With a backing track from Bon Iver, sampled vocals from Jon Anderson, and background/additional vocals from Amber Rose and Nicki Minaj, I can imagine this song playing from the gates of heaven. This song tells the story of Kanye feeling as if the Devil had control over him in his alcoholic stage with lyrics such as, “The plan was to drink until the pain was over / but what’s worse, the pain or the hangover?” Yeezy explains how this was one of his worst struggles which collided with his bipolar episodes making him hit rock bottom. He goes through a hard recovery but feels revived as a sober god devoted man which transitions to our next song, “Power”.
“Power” is a song that is close to my heart and is one of a few songs that makes me feel alive and a sense of thriving euphoria. “Power” is not as subtle and mellow as the other songs on MBDTF because of its braggadocio-type lyrics over the 1969 King Crimson sample “21st Century Schizoid Man.” Kanye talks about tripping off the power as if it’s a drug now that he has recovered and is making millions off his new music. This is a perfect hype song for a workout or any activity involving exercise because of its loud acapella beat and aggressive lyrics. Another song that sounds similar to “Power” is “All of The Lights” with its loud trumpet playing, aggressive beats, and loud vocals. The song is 5 minutes long and has 14 amazing features including Kid Cudi, Rihanna, and Drake. Also, it was #1 on the 2011 Top 100 Songs Billboard for 21 weeks. The song relates to how Kanye feels with all his power, fame, and his new mindset after recovering from alcoholism.
Not every album can be perfect though. “Who Will Survive in America,” is an odd song with its speeches over bongo beats talking about racism towards African Americans. I do support the lyrics relating to how big of a problem racism truly is, but it does not flow well with the odd African drum-type beats. Also, “Monster,” which has multiple features and is 6 minutes long, has an out-of-tune beat and some bad features. I am personally not a huge fan of Nicki Minaj and she takes up about 4 minutes of the song with her offbeat written lyrics.
In the end, this album is amazing and is a huge representation of experimental hip-hop culture. There were about 7/13 good songs on MBDTF, but that makes sense with Kanye trying out new and experimental types of songs on the album. The songs go deep in detail and tell you the sick story of a musical genius. It’s powerful, catchy, and shows the sheer talent of Kanye. I would give it a strong 9.4/10.
