Kanye West’s Genius Behind My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
After the Taylor debacle on the stage of the 2009 VMAs, Kanye faced one of the most difficult periods in life. He was criticised by everyone, he was even told to leave the country by Mos Def. He did leave the country, not to run away but to make the greatest masterpiece of his career. Kanye flew his crew to Hawaii to make MBDTF. His whole crew would wake up, have breakfast together, go to the gym and play basketball together and then at 4pm they would start their studio sessions which would go on till 4am in the morning.
Kanye was determined, he wasn’t demoralised or demotivated even after the criticisms he faced. All the people saying he won’t have a career were up for a huge surprise. Kanye was so serious about the album that he made everyone dress up in suits for the studio sessions, his colleagues stated that Kanye wanted to set a mood that would bring out the best in each artist out there, a mood that would give birth to a masterpiece like My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy in a line can be sculpted by Kanye to give the world a taste of his life. This album holds something for everyone in terms of genres including genres like Acapella, Rap, Pop Rap and influences from Jazz and Rock, Rock being more predominant out of the two. The production on the album being the highlight, it seems like one of the most sonically refined albums ever to be created.
Even though Kanye was criticised by the whole world, he had been someone who created astounding music even in the darkest periods of his life. The through the wire freestyle was performed by Kanye after suffering fatal injuries in a car crash while a wire attached to his jaw to keep it from falling apart. He created 808s & Heartbreaks at a time he has said in the past was the darkest period of his life due to his mother’s untimely death. Kanye influenced hundreds and thousands by creating 808s & Heartbreaks paving a way for the careers of Travis Scott, Drake and many of the SoundCloud rappers that we are aware of as of today. Keeping this in mind, Kanye was someone who could create masterpieces under pressure proving that diamonds are created only under pressure.
Now coming to the album art, I particularly want to cover a few album covers because they really mean something and contribute to the higher understanding of the album.
The Portrait
The picture clearly shows that it’s a portrait of Kanye. It shows multiple mouths on Kanye’s face, which according to me depicts that Kanye is a loudmouth and does not know how to carry himself publicly which was clear after the Taylor incident.
The Ballerina
The picture shows a ballerina holding up a wine glass looking surprised with a moustache on her face. This cover symbolises how we perceive beauty.
The king
This is a portrait of Kanye with a crown and his head is decapitated and stabbed with a sword. The art serves as a cover for the song POWER on the album showing that Kanye was thrown off his throne. The song explores the frontiers of fame and influence.
The Phoenix
This is the main cover art of MBDTF, it shows Kanye having sex with a white woman who has wings. According to me it depicts Kanye’s lavish lifestyle. This cover art was banned for being very explicit.
The album art was designed by an American artist, George Condo. He stated in an interview that Kanye selected all the cover arts and that he wanted the most explicit one as the main album art.
The album is initiated by this song called “Dark Fantasy” in which Kanye digs deep in the dark side of fame. Nicki Minaj introduces the song with spoken word, explaining the false preconceived notions about fame.
“POWER” samples 21st Century Schizoid Man by a British progressive band known as King Crimson. Kanye stated in an interview that this song took 5000 man hours to make, it showed his dedication towards music. The song as the name suggests talks about the power and influence Kanye holds. He’s waiting for the white powers to throw him off his throne but he won’t let them do it, he will emerge at the top as always. One of the lines that really hit me is
“Lost in translation with a whole fucking nation”
He mentions the movie Lost In Translation. What he means for the listener to understand is that no one understands him. While the movie is set in Tokyo, Japan. Kanye is facing this predicament in his own country.
“All Of The Lights” being one of the strongest songs in terms of production, this song describes Kanye’s struggles with fame and Hip-Hop. Being someone who is always in the spotlight, he explains how even if he commits a crime, it’s in the public eye. The line
“(All of the lights) Cop lights, flashlights, spotlights
Strobe lights, street lights (All of the lights, all of the lights)
Fast life, drug life, thug life
Rock life, every night (All of the lights)”
Kanye collocates contrasting types of lights, showing that he’s always under the spotlight, he’s always in the picture whether it is negative or positive.
“Runaway” is one of my favourite song by Kanye. Kanye uses a girl that he’s wronged, as a metaphor for his fans, the public and the people that he has hurt. It’s like a public apology to the people who have to deal with him. In the song, Kanye tells this girl to runaway because he’s an asshole and he will always end up hurting her. Pusha T is featured on this track and what Kanye wanted him to do was to write a verse which makes him look like an asshole. Pusha T rewrote the verse thrice for Kanye because Kanye didn’t think it was “asshole enough” the first two times. The lines
“And I always find, yeah, I always find something wrong
You been putting up with my shit just way too long
I’m so gifted at finding what I don’t like the most”
He explains that he’s a pessimist and a perfectionist. He always finds something wrong as he does with the girl he’s with, he doesn’t feel the relationship they have is perfect. This serves like a public apology to the audience. He gives her two choices- either to runaway or deal with Kanye and accept him as he is. The outro is my favourite part of the song. In the outro, Kanye’s over auto tuned voice can be heard but it’s impossible to decipher what he’s trying to tell the audience. From this Kanye tells us that he does not know how to communicate well, the message he wants the public to receive is perceived in a negative manner because of his lack of expression while speaking publicly but he does it absolutely well when he has to communicate through his music.
The final song on the album, “Who Will Survive In America” is more of a statement than a question, noting the absence of a question mark. It samples Gil-Scott Heron who gives an outline of the whole abum. It also asks a question, Is fame worth it?
If you want to know more about Kanye, you should listen to this album. It speaks about Kanye in ways that cannot be defined. He has done an exquisite job when it comes to execution of album. The atmosphere that Kanye creates with this album is just unbelievable and makes visualisation of Kanye’s famed lifestyle and how he deals with it easier for the listener. The whole album seems like an autobiography and explains corners of Kanye’s life that he hasn’t been able to explain before.
