Some call him a genius, they are utterly confused by his style, concept, and even music, so they assume that this must be perfection at its best, because honestly how many other people could of came up with the concept of falling in love with a phoenix that had the physical features of a woman? Who else would think to make a music video that featured the motions of swan ballet dancers matching their motions to the tempo of the beat? This is clearly poetic, because if it makes no sense to you, it must be the works of a genius, or maybe not, maybe it’s just the ideas coming from a man who has been through a lot, and maybe just maybe like the title of his latest album, it’s just a culmination of his “Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasies”.

Production- 9

With this album, Kanye brought the soul back into Hip Hop, and it never been so sweet. With a higher emphasis on smooth melodies, and drum based productions, Kanye takes listeners back to that dark place introspective place without being to heavy on the reflective. The beats as always change pace, and are sample heavy, but Kanye does a great job at personalizing every beat so that it properly fits to the album that he is trying to put together.  Beats for songs like “Dark Fantasy” have such dark undertones its almost impossible not to feel a chill while listening. If more rappers had the skills that Kanye does in production, or even in the selection of beats,  a couple more of their albums might fly off of the shelf.

Lyrics-9

Over the last few years rappers have had three different lyrical traits, over their album lives; they have shown growth, declined on some level or not changed at all. But when there has been growth it has been in only one sector of their lyrical development. Kanye is far different from any other rapper, because with this album, not only does he show lyrical growth, but he show’s this growth in all parts of the skill. Kanye like Jay-Z has for a long time been a rapper whose lyrical skill is based off of a smooth flow. The foundation of Kanye’s lyrical skill is a strong emphasis on flow and delivery, the punch lines are usually very efficient but they are not usually the driving force behind his technique. With this album, the natural growth for all three aspects of his lyrical skills shows significant growth. His lyrics are now more detailed and gritty with metaphorical references and double coated verses.

Songs-9

Kanye for the majority of his career has either dazzled fans with his music, or angered listeners and the media, by constantly putting his foot in his mouth. After acting childishly at the MTV awards, he took a step back and decided to become a little low key, and this change in tactics has proved to be very beneficial towards the over all content of his songs. Kanye jumps onto every track as a man on a mission, scorned from several heartbreaks, and frustrated from a reaction that he felt was over kill for an incident he deemed as trivial (Taylor Swift). He takes fans on a trip through the times and emotions, putting himself on a platter, pointing out his flaws, expressing his frustration towards the critiques who came after him following the Taylor Swift debacle.

Conclusion-9

Some will listen to this album, and proclaim Kanye to be the greatest musician of all time. That loosely used word of musical genius will be thrown around again, and of course there will be others around to support him. Kanye falls short of perfection, but not by that much. This album is a culmination of pain which began when unexpectedly lost his mother, and boiled up in the early fall when he snatched the mic from Taylor Swift. He may go down as one of the artist whose music we loved but personality we hate. Either way, the fact remains the same that Kanye’s Beautiful dark twisted fantasy is something that will go down in history as possibly his best album since “The College Drop Out”.

Review by Lyrical Thought