Review by Dustin Herrera
First off, thank you to Matt for asking me to write a review for his blog. Second off, I’m so happy that we were reviewing Kanye West’s seminal classic “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy”. Personal lives aside and only focusing on his work, Kanye West, in my eyes, is a musical genius. A modern marvel of the music industry and his 2010 album is all the evidence needed to prove my point. The first half of the album has Kanye play his typical “machismo” type character where all the glitz and glamour of the rap lifestyle is on show. But just like the real world, we start to understand just how hard it actually is to understand this lifestyle. When “Dark Fantasy” starts, it’s apparent the Mr. Braggadocio type of Kanye is in effect. His life is perfect. The lyrics show it. “Can we get much higher.” I don’t know, can he? From what we see, he is a famous rapper who’s made millions off of his creations. That’s the dream ain’t it. Well this song is letting you know it ain’t all peaches and cream. But it’s not the appropriate time yet for that conversation. You can’t let us mortal people hear you complain. Because let’s be honest, we take rich celebrities complaining with a grain of salt, so let’s move ahead. And we move on to quite possible the greatest three song sequence in an album.
“Power! Hey hey!” Now this song is where we snap back to the fantasy, Kanye is at the top of the world. You can’t say anything that can convince him he isn’t the king of the world. He has so much… well, power. But Kanye already showed his hand. We know it’s not as simple as him declaring himself king. This is where the album takes it’s next turn. “All Of The Lights (Interlude)”. There’s not much I can say. I just want you to listen to it if you haven’t before. What do you hear and how does it make you feel? Because it definitely doesn’t have the same energy as “Power” had. Something is off. But what? Can it be that Kanye is growing tired of the lifestyle? Sick of all of the lights? But as soon as you think that, “I shoot the lights out. Hide ‘til it’s bright out.” The song aptly titled “Monster” again demonstrates the battle of conflicting mentalities. At first the lyrics in the album were fairly positive, acknowledging that there are some problems with the celeb lifestyle but still deciding to not fully bring it to light, as he was starting to in the beginning. So instead, he shoots the lights out and hides the realities of this life in the dark. We hear Kanye and 3 rapper friends of his who also live the same lifestyle bask in their success for one last time. Letting us know he is the shit by telling us that his “presence is a present, kiss my ass”. But guess what, remember that battle of good and bad we spoke about earlier. Guess what his next track is about. The title is “So Appalled” so i’ll let you figure it out. Let’s move on to “Devil In a New Dress.” This song deserves a chef’s kiss of a reaction. The flow and swagger of the lyrics is only somehow outdone by a career-best Rick Ross verse. Here we see the first sequential track on the album that doesn’t have an opposite theme to the previous song. The idea of remorse and change is starting to stick. “I ordered the jerk, she said you are what you eat. You see I always loved that sense of humor, but tonight you should’ve seen how quiet the room was.” And there it is. Kanye realizing what the public thinks of him always. He’s a jerk. If this was “Power” Kanye he’d probably tell her to “kiss my whole ass” but no. Here we see him be so struck by what this woman said that he can’t even laugh about it. Now I didn’t check in with Matt, but I’m ending this review here on “Runaway.” For me this should have been the ending of the album. A behemoth of a track with heavy duty star power, this song is literally perfect. This song strips away every single hint of glamour he spoke about on the album, and simply tells the listeners to… run away. To not idolize this lifestyle. This fantasy isn’t what you think. Why would you want this life Kanye asks. It’s not a dream one should strive for. It’s merely a beautiful, dark and twisted fantasy.
