My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Kanye West
“‘Power’ took 5,000 hours, like literally....
Dark Fantasy was an apology record.”
Roc-A-Fella, 2010
our relationship with Kanye West was still in its love-hate phase when he created the 21st century’s most awe-inspiring hip-hop masterpiece. It’s an album every bit as chaotic as he was at the time — from the creepy funk of “Gorgeous” to the crushing attack of “Hell of a Life.”
After his Taylor Swift
VMAs fiasco in 2009, West went into a kind of self-exile, eventually ending up in
Hawaii, where he imported a huge group of collaborators that included Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, Nicki Minaj, and RZA. In all-night recording sessions, he’d ping between studios, sculpting his most maximalist music ever.
“A song like ‘Power’ took 5,000 hours,” he later said, “like literally.” West pulled from everywhere — Elton
John played on “All of the Lights,” and “Power” sampled prog-rockers King Crimson. The sonic overkill was lavish, but the record hit so hard because he mixed megalomania with introspect: “You been puttin’ up wit’ my shit just way too long,” he rapped on “Runaway.” West later called Dark Fantasy “an apology record.” Perhaps. In any case, such wisdom proved fleeting.