Back in high school, my precocious self had an idea. I was going to write—for Rolling Stone, no less!—an article on Kanye West and his role as “This Generation’s Beatles.” Although most aspects of the story—which never did get farther than the design phase—make 2010 me cringe, I’ve got to hand it to myself: 14-year-old me sure had foresight. I mainly discussed how “post-racial” Kanye was, with some convoluted thoughts on the Beatles’ thievery of African-American music thrown in with delicious irony. Little did I realize just how well Kanye would age; not since the ‘60s have we seen an artist so popular be as daring as West has so far—with My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy being perhaps his most daring move yet.
The first thing you’ll notice about MBDTF is its tracklist—it may be the shortest mainstream rap album since the turn of the century. Despite clocking in at just 13 songs (and mercifully doing away with the skits that have bogged down hip-hop albums for years), it is an hour-long affair. What West delivers, then, is a new kind of rap album: as much of an odyssey as ever, but remarkably well-paced and delightfully focused.
The album still has its share of “bits,” but the interlude before “All of the Lights” is necessary to soften the transition from the militant “POWER.” And one-minute album closer “Who Will Survive in America” is the only way West could have appropriately tied up this record. That’s to say nothing of how the three minutes tacked onto “Runaway” elevate it from a solid, radio-worthy single to the centerpiece of 2010’s most exciting release.
Although MBDTF’s structure is its most trendsetting element, the singularity of the album’s sound is also noteworthy. Though this was supposed to be West’s return to traditional “boom bap” rap, the old school style only informs the songs’ free-flow structures. Otherwise, we see songs built on things as diverse as a King Crimson guitar sample (“POWER”), blown-out synth sounds (“Hell of a Life”), and a John Legend piano line (“Blame Game”), all united by the album’s bittersweet minor keys.
There’s only one complaint to lob at MBDTF: we’ve already heard it. West released five of its tracks through the G.O.O.D. Fridays free download series, with only two of them notably different from their counterparts on the album (“POWER,” which appears here without guests, and the extended cut of “Runaway”).
But it’s hard to complain about an album because the artist already gave us the songs for free. (A better complaint might be what it left out—G.O.O.D. Friday standout “Christian Dior Denim Flow,” which would have nestled nicely in the album’s back half, is nowhere to be found.) West could have just grabbed the hottest G.O.O.D. Friday tracks and still put out one of the best albums of the year. Instead, he crafted another album that redefines the rap game. Your turn, everyone else.
Voice’s Choices: “All of the Lights,” “Runaway,” “Monster”
