# Digital Media Concepts/My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is West's 5th studio hip-hop album released on November 22, 2010 thanks to Rock-A-Fella Records and Def Jam. This album contains hit singles such as "All of the Lights","Power", and "Monster". The album was a response following the events of the media backlashes West was facing after the incident in the 2009 MTV Music Awards. The album featured artists such as Bon Iver, Nicki Minaj, Jay Z, RZA, Raekwon, as well as GOOD Music members such Pusha T, Big Sean, John Legend, and Kid Cudi. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy hit number one on the Billboard 200 and sold 1.3 million copies in the country.

## Background

On September 15th, 2009, a fifteen second sequence of events at the MTV Video Music Awards altered the trajectory of Kanye West's career in the upcoming years. Kanye assertedly interrupted Taylor Swift upon receiving her award for Best Female Video. As Taylor Swift was presenting her speech, West walked up the stage grabbing the microphone from Taylor as he expresses "Yo, Taylor, I'm really happy for you, I'mma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time! One of the best videos of all time!". This abrupt and ignorant interruption lead to torrential public disgust worldwide. West was vilified across the media, celebrities lashed out at him, and he became the center of attention to late night talk show jokes. Celebrities such as Pink nodded at Kanye backstage after the incident and later quoted "Kanye west is the biggest piece of shit on earth. Quote me", President Obama even called him a jackass.
What lead to Kanye West's action at the music award was his fatigued and overworked mental state that drove his pain to cause pain to another artist. Furthermore, Kanye is still coping through the grief of the death of his mother, Donda West two years prior as well as dealing the breakup of his fiance. West then decides to take a hiatus from music and flee the country in attempts to flee from paparazzi and reflect on the mistakes he made. West would escape in countries such as Italy and Japan as a self-appointed exile then stayed in Honolulu, Hawaii for 6 months to come back to music and record My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.
The recording sessions in Hawaii had the purpose of Kanye West plotting a scheme to win over the world and making it his comeback album. West was dependent of the success of the album using the best of his abilities to find inspiration and called up the best music producers to make the critically claimed greatest rap album of all time.

## Production and Influences

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy consisted of thirteen tracks and was recorded at Avex Honolulu Studios taking over all 3 recording session rooms with Kanye spending over $3 million with Def Jam just for recording beats. Kanye would work day and night exceeding maximalism and go beyond the rules of hip hop with samples ranging from many different genres such as rock, electro, and even the usage of unique synthesizers. Various artists and producers were involved in creating this album. These people are Kanye's favorite musicians and they were brought together for recording sessions during the making of this album. These recording sessions was called "Rap Camp" These artists included Kid Cudi, Big Sean, Charlie Wilson, Cyhi the Prynce, Kid Cudi, Swiss Beats, Nicki Minaj, Raekwon and so forth. Record producers that contributed during these sessions included Q-Tip from A Tribe Called Quest, RZA, DJ Premier, Madlib, and Pete Rock.

##### Release

On August 20, 2010, Kanye provided a free music program that was known as "G.O.O.D. Fridays". He offered unreleased songs on his website every Friday leading up to the release of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy on November 22, 2010. Some songs that were released were included in the album such as "Monster" and "Power". The purpose of this idea was not just to promote the album, but to also promote Kanye's record label G.O.O.D. Music. Kanye decided to extend G.O.O.D. Fridays until January 2011.
On the album's first week of release, 496,000 copies were sold in the United States and hit number 1 in the Billboard 200 albums charts and lasted for 85 weeks. The album was the fourth best album release of 2010 and by July 2013, the album sold 1.3 million copies.

## Tracklist And Samples

| Title | Artist | Length |
| Dark Fantasy | Kanye West | 4:41 |
| Gorgeous (feat. Kid Cudi & Raekwon) | Kanye West, Kid Cudi & Raekwon | 5:58 |
| Power | Kanye West | 4:52 |
| All of the Lights (Interlude) | Kanye West | 1:02 |
| All of the Lights | Kanye West | 5:00 |
| Monster (feat. Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj & Bon Iver) | Kanye West | 6:19 |
| So Appalled (feat. Jay-Z, Pusha T, Prynce Cy Hi, Swizz Beatz & RZA) | Kanye West, Jay-Z, Pusha T, Prynce Cy Hi, Swizz Beatz & RZA | 6:38 |
| Devil In a New Dress (feat. Rick Ross) | Kanye West & Rick Ross | 5:58 |
| Runaway (feat. Pusha T) | Kanye West & Pusha T | 9:08 |
| Hell of a Life | Kanye West | 5:28 |
| Blame Game (feat. John Legend) | Kanye West & John Legend | 7:50 |
| Lost In the World (feat. Bon Iver) | Kanye West & Bon Iver | 4:17 |
| Who Will Survive In America (feat. Gil Scott-Heron) | Kanye West & Gill Scott-Heron | 1:38 |
| See Me Now (feat. Beyoncé, Charlie Wilson & Big Sean) [Bonus Track] | Kanye West, Beyoncé, Charlie Wilson & Big Sean | 6:03 |

##### Dark Fantasy

Mike Oldfield feat. Jon Anderson- "In High Places"
"Cinderlla" from Revolting Rhymes

#### Gorgeous

The Turtles- "You Showed Me"

#### Power

Continenet Number 6- "Afromerica"
King Crimson- "21st Century Schizoid Man"
Cold Grits- "It's your thing"

#### All of the Lights (Interlude)

JGivens- Prodigal Parable

#### All of the Lights

Lil' Kim- "Lights, Camera, Action"
Problem- "All of the Lights" (P-Mix)

#### Monster

Napoleon Dynamite- "On the Bus"

#### So Appaled

Manfred Mann's Earth Band- "You Are-I Am"
Lynn Collins - "Think (About It)"

#### Devil In A New Dress

Smokey Robinson- "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?"

#### Runaway

James Brown- "Funky President(People It's Bad)"

#### Hell of A Life

Black Sabbath- "Iron Man"
The Mojo Men- "She's My Baby"
Tony Joe White- "Stud-Spider"

#### Lost in the World

Manu Dibango- "Soul Makossa"
Gil Scott-Heron- "Comment #1"
Lyn Collins- "Think(About It)"