mybeautifuldarktwistedanaly-blog

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“Dark Fantasy”’s Twisted Lyricism

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’s first track, aptly named “Dark Fantasy,” begins with a warning. Kanye West is about to invite you into a world that no one else has seen. It’s far too scary for most. Nicki Minaj, in a twisted English accent, tells us that we’re not ready. Her voice becomes more and more evil as she recites a modified verse by children’s author Roald Dahl. 

You might think you’ve peeped the scene/You haven’t, the real one’s far too mean/The watered down one, the one you know/Was made up centuries ago/They made it sound all wack and corny/Yes, it’s awful, blasted boring/Twisted fictions, sick addictions/Well, gather ‘round children, zip it, listen.

Do you think you know Kanye West? Do you think you know his fame, his lifestyle, his problems? You’re wrong. You just know a watered-down version, full of lies. Now, Kanye invites you into his world to know the truth, so shut up and listen. Before you can process all of that, Teyana Taylor’s undeniably beautiful singing arrives, seemingly a last warning before we enter Kanye’s world. Although sung gracefully, her lyrics begin the stark insight into his deviant mind. “Can we get much higher?” she repeats. Can Kanye West peak even higher? Can the king of rap become a god? It almost seems like a challenge, from Kanye to himself.

Suddenly, the singing cuts out, and an evil sounding beat crafted by Wu Tang Clan’s RZA and West himself hits. We’ve now begun Kanye West’s beautiful, dark, twisted ride. He has accepted the challenge, and his first words show us where he’s going. 

I fantasized 'bout this back in Chicago/Mercy, mercy me, that Murcielago/That’s me, the first year that I blow/How you say broke in Spanish?/Me no hablo.

Anyone who expected West’s Hawaiian isolation to result in an apologetic, regretful, 808s-style album has probably given up listening by now. Kanye is proud of his accomplishments. He’s living his childhood dream, driving a Lamborghini and swimming in checks. He continues: “Me drown sorrow in that Diablo/Me found bravery in my bravado”. This is certainly not an apologetic Kanye, but it’s not spolely an ego-fueled Kanye. Early as the fifth and sixth lines on the album, he gives introspective and brave admissions. Kanye West is telling us the truth we deserve. He admits his problems with materialism: he tries to hide his problems under more cars, more money, and more bravado. He’s apprehensive, so he relies his ego because it helps him fight his fears. Kanye knows his ego is bad for his relationships, but it’s good for his success as a pop star. Other lines in his introductory verse take shots at his critics: “Stupid, but what the hell do I know?/I’m just a Chi-town nigga with a Nas flow”. Critics will call him stupid, question his accomplishments. Yet, Kanye knows that he came up- a kid who freestyled in Chicago elementary schools is now compared to one of the greatest rappers of all time. Fuck the critics, he’s proud of his accomplishments, and, in the end, he gets “…so much head I woke up in sleepy hollow”. That’s the life he earned himself.

Kanye’s second verse continues and expands upon the admissions of his first. He contrasts his fame, success, and ego with his introspection and self-doubt. He states another twisted personal problem: “The plan was to drink until the pain over/But what’s worse, the pain or the hangover?” Literally, Kanye describes the ability of alcohol to cover pain until the next morning’s hangover, but metaphorically he is describing any sort of tool that “covers up“ pain. In his case, it’s his materialism and his ego. They hide his problems, but often strain his relationships and make it harder for him to communicate with people- often the cause of his pain. His next words are eerily adept at describing his internal struggle. “And the hell, it wouldn’t spare us/And the fires did declare us/But after that, took pills, kissed an heiress/And woke up back in Paris”. Kanye is tortured, always questioning what he knows. He wants to believe his life of glamour is what he should be doing, yet he also feels it’s a sort of hell he can’t escape. He has doubts about his lifestyle, yet, in the end, he always resorts back to taking pills, having sex, and “waking up in Paris”. This clever wordplay evokes not only the city of Paris, which holds a special place as a party town in Kanye’s heart (see: N*ggas in Paris), but also the heiress to the Hilton fortune, Paris. She’s a sex and glamor symbol Kanye feels he fits in with. Kanye simply cannot avoid his excessive lifestyle.

“Dark Fantasy” is a humongous opening for an even larger album. Kanye warns you that you’re about to experience his reality, and then immediately drags you into it. Over a sinister beat, he tells you about the dark realities of his life. His knows he has problems with self-doubt, that he often drowns in glamour and ego. He’s willing to share that, but he’s not sorry for it. It’s brought him the success he’s wanted his whole life- it’s his Dark Fantasy.

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Introduction and Context

There is nowhere easy to start when discussing My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Kanye West’s magnum opus addresses such a wide variety of themes in such quick succession, that to determine and succinctly state the essence of the work is nigh impossible. What can be said is that the album was a picture-perfect end to an overpowering decade, an album from the man who changed rap history, that changed music history. The 2000s were the decade of “bling rap.” Rap was about cars, girls, watches. Extravagant music videos were the norm. Rap was rich. The 2000s were the years of 50 Cent, Jay-Z, Puff Daddy, Lil Wayne, Flo Rida, and of course, the Louis Vuitton Don: Kanye West. Although no stranger to bling rap, Kanye was something special. His debut album, The College Dropout, debuted at number two on the Billboard charts, and reached platinum in two months. Late Registration, his follow up, debuted at number one, and doubled The College Dropout’s first-week sales. It was clear that Kanye ruled the rap scene, and, with his help, the industry peaked commercially higher and higher each year. Yet, stylistically, it was slowly stagnating. Bling had plateaued, and it was starting to get repetitive. If rap was to be the modern art form for the masses, it needed to evolve. Hip-hop was losing innovation and consciousness, and, soon enough, Kanye realized this. He tested the waters with a radical third album, Graduation, which he dangerously released the same week as bling king 50 Cent’s album Curtis. The tension was massive.

Shockingly, Graduation debuted at number one, with the highest first-week sales of any 2007 album. And, most importantly, it beat Curtis by more than 30%. With that, Kanye had symbolically ended bling rap. He now found that he could permanently change the rap scene. He ushered in a new wave of synthy, electro-pop rap that would dominate the charts for years to come. At the same time, he injected extra consciousness and content into his verses, raising the bar for lyricism. In only three albums and four years, it appeared he gained the power to change an entire industry. What could he do next?

The answer was found in unspeakable heartbreak. After the death of his mother and a very public breakup with fiancé Alexis Phifer, he was grief stricken. Impossibly, he channeled that grief into an album that would change the game even further: 808s and Heartbreak. Of course, it debuted at number one and quickly reached platinum, even with a radically new sound. The king of rap became the freshly crowned king of singing emotions through an auto tune filter, and, along with T-Pain, Kanye made auto tune the sound of radio in 2009.

It was clear that by now, Kanye had proved himself to be the best at whatever he put his mind to. Producing, rapping, singing, changing industries, making shoes with Louis-Vuitton - he was the scene. He was a household name, with publicity stunts and antics drawing him headlines from both TMZ and CNN. He was the man who went off-script, saying “George Bush doesn’t care about black people,” on national television. He posed in photos that portrayed him as the second coming of Christ. He crashed multiple award shows, making his grievances with the pop scene well-known. Despite all these controversies, his fame seemed unstoppable, and that resulted in an ego that grew at the same rate as his talent. Soon enough it caught up with him.

The 2009 MTV Video Awards Controversy- you know it. “Yo, Taylor, I’m really happy for you and I'mma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time! One of the best videos of all time!” In 10 seconds that shook America’s cultural roots, the unstoppable Kanye West made himself enemies with an immovable, and more importantly, lovable object: America’s pop-country darling, Taylor Swift. Unfortunately for West, that was one step too far. Perez Hilton, P!nk, Janet Jackson, Katy Perry, Ryan Seacrest, and every other big name of the 2000s rallied against him. Even President Barack Obama was caught on camera referring to West as “a jackass.” Kanye West, an artist that lived and thrived off of the public’s love and attention, was a pariah. It didn’t take long before he disappeared.

He was spotted in Milan and in Paris, but no one knew what for. People said he quit music. People said he was going into fashion, exclusively. People said he would retire from the public eye permanently. For months, the man who wasn’t out of the headlines for a single day of the 2000s was absent without leave. Soon more rumors came. Rumors that he was in Hawaii, and had been for months. Rumors that he had rented an entire beachfront studio, and was shipping in talent including but not nearly limited to Nicki Minaj, Bon Iver, and Elton John. No one knew exactly what he was getting up to. The studio was famously secretive. One of the few photos leaked from the site was a sign that amusingly read: “no pictures.”  Without a doubt, Kanye West was working on new music, the one thing he was greatest at. Rejected by the world, the only way he could make it back was by giving the people music so good they could not ignore it. His achievements were forgotten when he took the stage from Taylor, and he needed to remind the world what he was about. So, after months of seclusion in his Hawaii studio, Kanye suddenly reemerged. 

He was on the media circuit, holding something up his sleeve. He did interviews, he did shows. He released singles. Tracklists leaked. Songs leaked. Good songs, with features that were at the very top of their game, too. Kanye West was back in the spotlight. From March of 2010 to November, he teased the world as they anxiously awaited what was coming. And, finally, on the 22nd of November, he gave the world his greatest. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Kanye West’s deepest, darkest, and most personal, distilled into 68 minutes, 13 tracks. The world’s first question was if the album would include a long-awaited apology to Taylor Swift, or any sort of repentance for his sins against pop. How else would he gain back the public’s love? But in true, peak Kanye fashion, there was no apology. There was no need for remorse. To get back on top, instead of an apology, he gave the world 13 songs that changed music history, by displaying near perfection across the board in writing, rapping, mixing, artistry, poetry, and, most importantly, honesty. Kanye West, with one album, was back on top, the king rethroned. And he knew that would happen before he released it. How did he open this magnum opus? “I fantasized ‘bout this back in Chicago”.