It all happened on Nov. 22, 2010. Kanye West had dropped his fifth studio album, titled “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” and took the world by storm! The album garnered praise, and many regarded it as “a new change in the rap game.”
Now it’s October 2020, and the album is still loved and remembered by Kanye’s fans. To celebrate the anniversary of his album’s launch, let’s stroll down memory lane to look back and see if it still holds up.
This album acts as a turning point in Kanye’s discography, where instead of sticking to classic hip-hop, he used better production and collaborated with larger and more mainstream artists, such as Kid Cudi, Pusha T and Bon Iver, among others. Kanye experiments with different beats and his lyrics become more personal. This can be seen in “POWER,” when he discusses the stardom he has been accustomed to and how he has been growing this “God” complex.
Each track on this record feels in the vein of one another, with each track feeling like the previous track. The reason this is a turning point in Kanye’s discography is that each album that came after allows his fans to understand him as a person. This is seen through “All of the Lights” and “Runaway,” which beautifully displays Kanye trapped in this bubble of fame, and all he wants to do is run away from it all.
This album is a masterpiece, and while it is not my favorite from West (personally I am a “Yeezus” fan), I will say that this is a classic in the making. Each beat he threw out on this project hit hard. He created memorable lyrics that fans still recite 10 years later.
I think the best song on the album is “Runaway,” where Kanye comes full circle with who he is as an artist and then some. That song is paired with one of the best music videos ever created. However, my favorite song of this album is “Devil in the New Dress” because it feels like everything Kanye has done, including his previous projects, and will do in future projects, were all placed into one song. “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” feels like all of the strengths from Kanye’s previous works all mashed up into one singular album, and I don’t think his fans would’ve wanted it any other way.
“My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” holds up like gangbusters 10 years later! It is an album that showed an artist at the top of his game and showed what he can bring to the new decade. It is rap albums like these that are considered benchmarks for the genre, and there will never be a time when I am not jamming out to this masterpiece.
10/10
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