#Kanye west dark fantasy analysis full

But even if hardcore hip hop fans will want to strangle him for choosing to use Pusha T’s talents on a track like “Runaway,” that’s also part of what makes the album interesting, and you have to admire the effort put into creating it. It could look like genius or a total failure. If nothing else, this will be a fun record to look back on in twenty years. It sometimes feels like a closer relative to what people like Tricky and Beck do than it does to Jay-Z (who features on two tracks). The traditional and simple verse-chorus-verse format feels totally absent, even when it’s there. But in the end, this is not a rap record. Kanye has always been a master of the drum machine, and that talent along with a general talent for effective studio subtelty is as present as ever. He put a lot of thought into things like vocal effects, trying to create new sounds, and he largely succeeds in doing so, even though the result still feels familiar most of the time.

They tend to take big, cinematic twists towards the end instead of a traditional fadeout. Nearly every track is over five minutes, some in the eight and nine minute range, and few feel like hip hop tracks, even when they feature rapping. This one will get him a lot closer to that kind of rep. But even after 808’s And Heartbreaks, which felt like a one-off gimmick, Kanye has never really been an artist whose music makes listeners question whether or not he’s gone crackers. Like Andre, Kanye is in a position where people expect him to be eccentric, at least in his public life. Maybe Andre 3000, but he doesn’t seem to be interested in music anymore. I don’t think another successful mainstream rapper would have the intestinal fortitude to make this album. That’s lesson number one to take away from My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. I think Kanye’s many haters have to give him credit for one thing: he has a lot of guts. And I actually really like the record’s lead single “Power.” As for the rest I’ll file it with most of the rest of Yeezy’s output under “good but not really my thing.” Maybe one day I’ll come around.

That doesn’t mean I don’t think it’s a good album though – while it might not be my taste, I can objectively admire how West brazenly puts his whole soul on display, dark sides and all. Overall I am not the biggest Kanye fan and that certainly hasn’t changed after listening to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. In “Blame Game” he misogynistically tells a potential mate “stick around, some real feelings might surface.” In that story though, West ends up being the one with the broken heart: he even goes so far as to call out his siren, Chloe Mitchell, by name. When he’s not taking strange detours West occasionally paints vivid portraits of a William Randolph Hearst type character – a man who has it all, or does he? West’s inability to connect with a partner seems to be at the center of his woes – he makes no apologies for his voracious sexual appetite but in the same breath cries over the lack of depth in his relationships.

#Kanye west dark fantasy analysis full

For instance more discerning rappers might have cut out the Napolean Dynamite line from “Monster” or the sqeaky voiced “satan, satan, satan” line in “Devil in a New Dress.” But I have to say, while I think West’s lyricism is full of odd choices, I do generally find it a lot more interesting than most rapper’s run of the mill “hustla” fare. I no longer think that West is a bad lyricist – I think he can be great – it’s just that, as in his rambling stream of thought social networking, West doesn’t seem to know when to self-edit.

And while I have been guilty of calling West a bad lyricist, I definitely admire his willingness to be bizarre, with puzzlers like “have you ever had sex with a pharaoh” or “no more drugs for me / pussy and religion is all I need” making for excellent would-be tweets. And while West’s raps and his tweets are technically two completely different platforms, on new record My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy the two seemingly collide, with West’s lyrics often coming off similarly to his 140 character aphorisms. Worldwide Twitter star Kanye West has a little known side project – turns out the verbose social networker also fashions himself as something of a rapper. So in an effort to offer an expanded perspective in such a medium, here are four reactions, four impressions, Four Takes on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy by Kanye West. Bias can tilt a review, as can personal taste, history and just about everything else that is unique to the person writing it. It can be difficult to gain a balanced perspective on an album after reading a single summary of the music.