My personal favorite Kanye West album is 2010’s My Beautiful Twisted Dark Fantasy.In its complaint, filed in federal court in Manhattan, TufAmerica says West’s label Roc-A-Fella and parent Universal Music Group paid it a license fee of $62,500 but “failed and refused to enter into written license agreements that accounted for their multiple other uses of. Individually, ‘Ye’s made songs that I’ve grown obsessed with on other albums (see: “Gone,” “Can’t Tell Me Nothing,” and “Never Let Me Down”), I thought that his fifth LP hit his greatest stride in making a cohesive, intricate LP that feels like an emotional and sonic time-piece. Moreover, I love the story behind the album. We all fantasize what we’d do with creative control and big budgets, so Kanye soliciting the production work of RZA, Pete Rock and Q-Tip is just smart money. There were reports he was chasing Madlib and DJ Premier too, between that and Watch The Throne. In the end, Pete Rock lent a vintage transitional drum-break sample of a sample to “Runaway” (my favorite Hip-Hop anti-love-song in years), and produced bonus-track #GoodFriday joint “The Joy.” In a new interview with, the Chocolate Boy Wonder reveals that he was supposed to rap on the song, but declined (that’s a major missed opportunity in my opinion), and that there was a lot more work accomplished. It had an upstairs, and he was working on like three different things at once. You walk in, and he had signs up that said, ‘No Twitter.’ Rick Ross, Kid Cudi, and a bunch of people. Kanye’s the type of dude who is musical, and different, and wants to do something better than the next person. He’s very talented, and knowledgeable of the music, and what I had done. He would tell me how he used to sample my interludes. “Then we’d get a vibe, and I’d start playing him beats. I think I played him eight, and he picked three. And then he narrowed it down to one, which was ‘The Joy.’ He asked me to rhyme on it, but I was like, ‘Nah, I’m not ready.’ But then he put Jay on it, so I was kind of glad. Imagining Pete Rock and Rick Ross sitting across from each other at breakfast in Hawaii is a rather funny image for me. However, we should all remember that “Tephlon” (as he was on Erick Onasis), came up under EPMD/Def Squad for a hot sec. I can’t walk by without hearing “Escapism.” Pete’s not always so revealing, but this is a great interview (love the history of “The Basement” and Greene Street Studios too). Related: Pete Rock & Camp Lo – 80 Blocks from Tiffany’s, Pt.Welcome to 2011, a year that once the last of the snow is scraped away will bring new hope, the promise of renewal, a chance to wake up in a world in which Kanye West’s “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” is not the consensus pick for album of the year. Its reign has been tyrannical surprisingly, less because of Mr.
West’s maniacal and loud sense of self-importance than because of the unimaginative group-think the album has spawned. In the waning weeks of last year it was hard to read about music without being assured that this album, Mr. It got “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy repealed.
(Actually, not even this album was powerful maybe his “Late Registration” could have done it.) (That was Lady Gaga actually.) It secured passage of the Dream Act. Lack of superpowers aside, “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” (Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam) remains, six weeks after its release, a phenomenal album, third on my own year-end list, textured enough to still be revealing new crannies upon repeated listens, and alluring enough still to warrant those repeated listens.īut consensus is less a measure of greatness than of social climate.
And when the year-end lists of several prominent outlets with different demographics and agendas the magazines Rolling Stone, Vibe and Spin the Web sites Pitchfork and Stereogum share the same winner, it almost certainly indicates intangibles at play. 2: the Black Keys, Rick Ross, Deerhunter, LCD Soundsystem and Arcade Fire each got a nod. But that reflected a lack of other widely agreed upon ambitious albums maybe Mr.