A Look Back At Kanye West’s “MBDTF” 10 Years Later
By: Dahol Otoide
Tags: Kanye West, Album Review, Kanye West Review, Mbdtf

Kanye West’s masterpiece “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” turns 10 today. The fifth studio album from the Chicago rapper can be easily depicted as one of the top albums to be released this past decade.

When it first released - November 22, 2010, it scored 10/10 on both Rolling Stone and Pitchfork and landed the mythical “5 mics” in The Source. Hailed by critics and the public, to this day the project is deemed the best album of his discography.

While the musical side was phenomenal, let’s remember some of the things that made this album great.

GOOD Fridays

If you’re a Kanye fan, you know damn well about GOOD Fridays. A play on words and channeling Kanye’s Christian background, GOOD Fridays were the release of songs every Friday featuring artists from Kanye West’s label — G.O.O.D Music. They were available for free on a website and ran for 15 weeks. We saw cuts like “Runaway”, “Power”, “Monster” make the final cut on the album, while some fan favourites like “Christian Dior Denim Flow” and “Looking for Trouble” didn’t make the cut.

Runaway or Spoiler Alert…

Ahead of the album’s official release, Kanye West dropped a 35-minute musical short film. Selita Ebanks played a magnificent woman from elsewhere that the rapper took under his wing until he falls head over heels in love with her. Despite his goal of transmitting his habits and customers to the woman, his emotional fantasy will quickly come to an end due to their cultural and intellectual differences, finally ending their romance.

In terms of the story, MBDTF logically follows the same narrative pattern as the short film “Runaway”. We follow Kanye’s emotional journey in the face of his fantasy, ranging from the feeling of invincibility felt by an exotic lover to the utter distress that follows a separation. Note that clues disseminated in the film and in the album have long suggested that My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was inspired by Kanye’s relationship with Amber Rose.

It has been noted that Kanye West and his producer Hype Williams drew inspiration from visual pieces like Prince’s “Purple Rain” to “The Wall” by Pink Floyd and “Thriller” by Michael Jackson from directors Federico Fellini and Stanley Kubrick. Motivated by directors Federico Fellini and Stanley Kubrick, and painters like Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, and designer Karl Lagerfeld, the film was released October 5, 2010. — two months before the album’s official release date.

Unity Is Strength

Kanye West hasn’t been shy to bring out haymakers for his albums, from artists to producers, this album particularly showcases the benefits of unity and coming together.

Although all of the instrumentals were masterfully orchestrated by Kanye West, all of the products have been co-signed with some of the greatest musical heads from; Mike Dean, No ID, Jeff Bhasker, RZA, and S1, Bink to name a few.

At the end of the album, West pulled off a perfect synthesis of the different facets of his musical palette. From soul samples, percussions, and elaborate raps, but also electronic sounds tinged with vocoder, Kanye West wanted to give us an orchestrated masterpiece.

Featured artists on the album were Kid Cudi, Big Sean, John Legend, Jay-Z, Pusha T, Big Sean, CyHi Da Prynce (one of Kanye’s greatest ghostwriters). but in addition to his G.O.O.D Music artists, he had many heavyweights in rap accompany him on this project. Rick Ross came to add an extra dose of luxury on “Devil in a New Dress”, while Nicki Minaj posed one of the best verses of her career on “Monster”. Let’s not forget either about OG Raekwon & RZA of the Wu-Tang Clan and of course, his mentor Jay-Z who also contributed.

Of course, it is impossible to mention the features on this album without the stacked up contributing vocals on “All of The Lights”. Undoubtedly the most groundbreaking piece on the album, it enjoys the luxury of bringing together no less than thirteen guests, all from different musical backgrounds.

The song features a length list of; Rihanna, Kid Cudi, John Legend, The-Dream, Ryan Leslie, Tony Williams, Charlie Wilson, Elly Jackson de La Roux, Alicia Keys, Fergie, Alvin Fields, Ken Lewis & Elton John.

After a musical show of this magnitude, it was only right that this album got its bouquet of flowers. To close out the incredible album was “Who Will Survive in America” a magnificent outro enhanced by pioneer and late Jill-Scott Heron.

Although at the time of the release, Kanye was in bad waters with the public regarding the infamous 2009 VMA’s incident, his break-up with Amber Rose and still grieving his late mother, he still delivered a classic. Kanye West has been the villain and antagonist throughout his career. A little dark and twisted. But still beautiful.