It’s a beautiful amalgamation of soul, hip-hop, R&B, classical, and gossipal. Sonicly, it consolidates Kanye’s entire musical palette and creative powers developed over his first four solo albums. And Dark Fantasy is the initial brush strokes.įrom his opening moments, Dark Fantasy establishes the sound, themes, and narrative that will be explored throughout My Beautiful, Dark, Twisted Fantasy. Twisted Fantasy is a deliberate sonic spectacle. When he finally got his deal with Rockafella, it was only because they wanted to secure his beats. He’s literally been laughed out of rooms where he would play his beats, stand on the table, and rap over them. That’s where he met Jay-Z, and he played his beats for him. He didn’t get the deal.Įventually, Kanye left Chicago and went to NY. The executive he met with was related to Dupree. He flew out to sign, but in the room, he said he’d be bigger than Michael Jackson and he was better than Germaine Dupree. When Kanye was 20 years old, he thought he was finally going to get his record deal with Capitol Records. He admits he was the worst rapper out of everyone, but he had a passion that none of them had. Meanwhile he was honing his skills as a lyricist rapper. In high school through his work ethic and his relationship don’t like the tiny became known as a highschooler who is selling beads to local emcees for $50 a beat. The first thing that he sampled was James Brown. And then he realize he could do sampling. And he got this sound program on his computer. Of course, we’re talking about Kanye West, My Beautiful, Dark, Twisted Fantasy. The album many argued to be one of the greatest albums ever created. He would rarely sleep, working long hours through the night, moving from room to room, as he directed what would become his come back album. He would import some of the world’s best producers, emcees and artists to form what he called “rap camp”. Here, Kanye indefinitely black booked all three session rooms of the Avex recording studio in Honolulu. First to Japan, then Rome, and finally to Hawaii. Here, a unique instrumentation of 808 electronic drums, various synthesizers, and traditional acoustic instruments backed Kanye’s lamenting, auto-tuned vocals.įinally, we saw how the 2009 VMA debacle vilified Kanye and sent him on a self-imposed exile. We also saw how his mother’s passing and the disillusion of his marriage engagement influenced the departure album 808’s and Heartbreak. It was augmented with brassy arena-filling synthesizers on Graduation.

We saw how Kanye’s innovative soul-sampling production of The College Dropout, matured with the inclusion of orchestral textures on Late Registration. I cover the most impactful episodes in the notes below. The podcast explores Kanye’s magnum opus on the underbelly of fame, celebrity, and power. In Season 2 of Dissect! Cole Cuchna dives into Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.

Kanye west dark fantasy vocals