My rankings

7. Yeezus (2013)
6. The College Dropout (2004)
5. Watch the Throne (with Jay-Z) (2011)
4. 808s & Heartbreak (2008)
3. Graduation (2007)
2. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010)
1. Late Registration (2005)

LR, MBDTF & Graduation are the Ye albums I love. I don't need to explain too much. These are just the great Ye albums IMO. The skits are annoying on LR though. Still my favorite Ye album. Glad he moved away from the skits on later albums. Definitely gave those albums replay value. My favorite Ye song of all-time is on Graduation.

808s, yeah I know, wuss music right? Lean album at only 12 tracks. I skip maybe three songs on this album. I really dig the production.

WTT is the same. Lean album at 12 tracks unless you have the deluxe edition and 2 of those songs are bangers IMO. I only skip three tracks off the regular version. Production is good. It goes overboard with materialism but still a fun album.

My problem with CD is that it hasn't aged well IMO. The skits really hurt this album because the songs aren't as strong as they are on LR. There's even a point where you get two skits back to back. WTF!!! First half of the album is weak. Too many skippers for me. Ye wasn't as good at emceeing then either. The last stretch of the album from "School Spirit" through "Last Call" is classic though. You can keep most of the first half.

Yeezus is lean and half the songs suck. Not a good combination for an album and with Ye working with Paul now, this next LP might be even worse.

1. LR - when I realized he wasn't playing around. Jon fucking Brion??? I'm a huge Fiona fan and this was like a dream come true.

2. MBDTF - Chris Rock's campaigning last fall and the 33 1/3 book moved it up for me. His "no fear" album.

3. Yeezus - if MBDTF=ok computer, then Yeezus=kid a. Just as polarizing, alienating, dark, etc.

4. Graduation - when he decided he REALLY wanted to be taken seriously as a rapper. And when he committed to stadium songs.

5. CD - not my fav but I can't deny its impact.

6. 808s&HB - same thing as above.

7. WTT - one of those albums I thought was the the best album of all time when it dropped, and then I got tired of it really fast.

8. CS - not enough Kanye!!! (I know, it's a compilation).

1. Late Registration
2. college Dropout
3. graduation
4. MBDTF
5. watch The Throne
6. 808s
7. Yeezus

He fell off half a decade ago. His new music is some shit.

(7. 808s & Heartbreak)
Ok this one is kinda null & void for me as I've never actually heard the whole thing - I've only heard 3 songs and although I totally got and respected what he was doing, I wasn't enjoying anything I heard.

6. Yeezus
This would probably change places with CD being honest but there are some great songs on this. The album's always tainted for me because when I think of the album, I'm reminded about the crazy interviews he was doing about the fashion industry at the time (see Zane Lowe) and they were definitely out there.

5. College Dropout
A couple of great songs for me but I didn't think this best represented his production. It's impact is undeniable though.

4. Graduation
'I Wonder', 'Flashing Lights', 'Good Morning', 'Can't Tell Me Nuthin'. Some great, great songs!

3. Watch the Throne
I think people forgot how good some of the songs on this set actually were: 'No Church', 'New Day', 'Primetime', etc.

2. Late Registration
I'd potentially argue that 'Addiction' is my favourite Kanye song ever.

1. MBDTF
This, along with the stuff released for GOOD Fridays, is undeniable. It's like almost every song was competing with the one before it and I'd describe it as his creative peak. Amazed at how much quality music came from these sessions.

1. Graduation
2. Late Registration
3. College Dropout



4. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

















5. Watch the Throne
6. Yeezus

>1. Graduation
>2. Late Registration
>3. College Dropout
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>4. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
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>5. Watch the Throne
>6. Yeezus

lol dislike 808s that much huh?

It's like Universal Mind Control (Common) or The Game is to Be Sold, Not Told (Snoop) in that I just like to forget they ever happened. Both those artists (as well as Kanye, see Yeezus) have other "weak" or "weaker" spots in their respective discogs, to be sure, but those three albums are such pieces of trash, and such black marks on their otherwise respectable and maybe even legendary brands, that they simply deserve the dismissive attitude, IMO.

So yea. Haha.

1)Late Registration - Probably the best mix of ‘old’ Kanye and what he was eventually going to become with the at the time, experiment production from Jon Brion(strings, piano solos, etc).

2)My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy - Id argue it’s the true sequel to Late Registration because it took a lot of those ideas and put it to the EXTREME.

3)Yeezus - Kanye rapping over Nine Inch Nails beats? More please. And while it’s problematic sampling of ‘Strange Fruit’ always irked me, this is Mr.Yeezy at his most political...which I always found interesting since many people would argue this is where he lost his way (unless you move the marker earlier to MBDTF)

4)808’s And Heartbreak - I don’t love this record, but I respect it immensely. This birthed so many careers.

5)Graduation - A very very solid album. However because it's his least experimental I find myself turning less and less to it...

6)The College Dropout - Has aged kind of badly. It sounds ‘cute’ in 2015.

7)Watch The Throne - Has it’s moments, but overall it’s overblown. Lots of fat o the record, if you factor in the bonus tracks and trim the fact it could rate higher. It's when I realized how much Jay-Z sucks now; he brought that album down.

>7)Watch The Throne - Has it’s moments, but overall it’s
>overblown. Lots of fat o the record, if you factor in the
>bonus tracks and trim the fact it could rate higher. It's
>when I realized how much Jay-Z sucks now; he brought that
>album down.

Very true... it's definitely when I lost my ear for Jay-Z. 'Ye Renegaded him on every track.

most of his albums fall off about 3/4 through. like they get slower tempo and more melancholy. I'll play CD before LR though. LR feels forced. Yeezus = garbage, cept for maybe 2 songs.

still have heard wtt or 808 though. just wasn't interest in either.

Late Registration (2005)
The College Dropout (2004)
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010)
Graduation (2007)
808s & Heartbreak (2008)
Yeezus (2013)
Watch the Throne (with Jay-Z) (2011)

7. 808s and Heartbreak
6. Yeezus
5. The College Dropout
4. Watch the Throne
3. Graduation
2. MDBTF
1. Late Registration

1. MBDTF
2. Yeezus
3. Late Reg
4. 808s
5. Graduation
6. Watch The Throne
7. College Dropout
8. Cruel Summer

the 2nd half of his solos has been much better than the first.

dropout is great. but he's gotten that much better.

Looks like it's pretty much 50/50 at this point, regarding College Dropout's spot in the rankings.

But hey if that's where you think it ranks, all the power to you and your ears. I find it to be a far, far, far more enjoyable listen than any of his recent output which I find to be mostly grating.

and two others have it at no. 4

there is on elephant in the room

most of us agree, he gotten much better as he's gone on

Which, by the very definition, is 50/50. Like I said.

Imagine that, I was 100% spot on.

CD is so fucn boring with shitty drums, too many skits, and struggle bars, but y'all love it, so cool. i mean look where I have 808s

I understand its shortcomings, you are correct with all your criticisms of CD...I think a lot of what I like about it is the nostalgic value it holds. But I agree that he has improved technically on the boards as his career has gone on. I just don't find the end results nearly as enjoyable, is all.

"We Don't Care" is still a top 3 Kanye song, tho.

3. Graduation: near perfect hip hop
4. MDTF: perfect hip hop with a large dose pop mixed in.
5. 808's: game changer for music as we know it.
6. College Dropout: Great introduction

>My rankings
>
>7. Yeezus (2013)
>6. The College Dropout (2004)
>5. Watch the Throne (with Jay-Z) (2011)
>4. 808s & Heartbreak (2008)
>3. Graduation (2007)
>2. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010)
>1. Late Registration (2005)
>
>LR, MBDTF & Graduation are the Ye albums I love. I don't need
>to explain too much. These are just the great Ye albums IMO.
>The skits are annoying on LR though. Still my favorite Ye
>album. Glad he moved away from the skits on later albums.
>Definitely gave those albums replay value. My favorite Ye song
>of all-time is on Graduation.
>
>808s, yeah I know, wuss music right? Lean album at only 12
>tracks. I skip maybe three songs on this album. I really dig
>the production.
>
>WTT is the same. Lean album at 12 tracks unless you have the
>deluxe edition and 2 of those songs are bangers IMO. I only
>skip three tracks off the regular version. Production is good.
>It goes overboard with materialism but still a fun album.
>
>My problem with CD is that it hasn't aged well IMO. The skits
>really hurt this album because the songs aren't as strong as
>they are on LR. There's even a point where you get two skits
>back to back. WTF!!! First half of the album is weak. Too many
>skippers for me. Ye wasn't as good at emceeing then either.
>The last stretch of the album from "School Spirit" through
>"Last Call" is classic though. You can keep most of the first
>half.
>
>Yeezus is lean and half the songs suck. Not a good combination
>for an album and with Ye working with Paul now, this next LP
>might be even worse.

Hmmm

1. 808s
2. Graduation
3. Late Registration
4. College Dropout/MBDTF/WTT
5. Yeezus

I got back to 808s the most out of the discography.. Although MBDTF is a near perfect album.. I "feel" Graduation and LR more..

1. Late Registration
2. Graduation
3. College Dropout
4. MBDTF
5. Yeezus
6. 808s and Heartbreak

7. 808s and Heartbreaks (his only not GREAT album)
6. Watch the Throne
5. Graduation (but the highs are, dare I say, his highest)
4. College Dropout
3. Late Registration
2. Yeezus
1. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

1. MBDTF
2. 808s
3. Graduation
4. Watch The Throne
5. Late Reg
6. College Dropout
7. Yeezus

Graduation - holy smokes he's upped his game to arena anthems.
LR - wow, this kid isn't playing. he may really be one of the most fascinating artists in the future.
WTT - love the energy and willingness to take a back seat on some songs, another example of his vision as a producer.
CD - just a breath of fresh air and a bridge from underground to mainstream.
Yeezus - respect the idea, love it - dislike the execution. Don't think he worked with right producers to get the sound he was going for.
808s - my least favorite but might respect its importance more than say LR and WTT.

1. Late Registration
2. MBDTF
3. College Dropout
4. Graduation
5. Watch The Throne
6. Yeezus
7. 808s

late registration - thought about putting this to #2 b/c i don't really rock with bring me down and celebration like that. but gone? roses? we major!? actually, late might be my favorite song on this now and may be my favorite ye song ever as far as a great combination of goofy/relatable lyrics and soulful beats. you mean i missed my major by a couple of seconds??? those keys, too. typing all of this, i can't believe 1) this came out a goddamn decade ago and that 2) no other hip-hop album was able to successfully go in this direction. wasn't ?uest talking about all how ye just hit the tip of the iceberg as far as what could be done with jon brion? it just sounds so lush, and i think a decade later we can certify it a classic and put it in the pantheon of all time classic albums, let alone hip-hop albums. above all, this shows that he's really on to something when he has a producer who can execute his vision

college dropout - i think his greenness on the mic is definitely front and center in hindsight. but there's really not a bad song on here. never let me down still gets me. slow jamz is just on another level. (i will say that i was never huge into jesus walks) and that last four run stretch? man, i'm not sure how i could ever doubt this album, not to mention his end speech which i still listen to. matter of fact, knowing what we know now it's almost tough to listen to him being so earnest there. still inspiring as hell, though

graduation - such a fun album, but to me it doesn't have the depth of lr lyrically. but there are some pretty perfect pop songs on here - champion, good morning and good life. i wonder and the glory are pretty much perfect. big brother is perfectly imperfect if that makes sense, and is the type of song only ye could do. never loved stronger, and barry bonds and drunk and hot girls are pretty notable blemishes. warts and all, this is just a fun record. certainly earned my username with it

yeezus - i still listen to this quite often. it is pretty go-to "pump-up" music, so that definitely counts for something. the last three run stretch knocks it down a notch, IMO. and for how great blood on the leaves was, it still feels unfinished to me. i love the production but to me the biggest blemish of the album are the lyrics, which border on pedestrian/silly sometimes. i get that's kind of what he was going for, i guess, but there is some piss poor rapping on here that i give a pass to just because of how much i enjoy the production. i'm honestly surprised at how replayable this album is, i really do listen to it all the time, and the first four songs especially (and hold the liquor as the come down/hot mess song) are really just sublime. but i always thought bound 2 was overrated with super bizarre non-committal lyrics and a pretty standard loop that people embraced just because it didn't sound like the rest of the album. since i am human, however, i cannot hate on the charlie wilson part.

watch the throne - way too much past-his-prime jay on here. at the time i honestly thought he wouldn't have the audacity to put out another solo album after how bad he was on this. otis, gotta have it and murder to excellence are all great though. no church in the wild and n in paris are way overplayed but still enjoyable. ye's verse on the former so bizarre and memorable that it should go down as one of his best. lift off, jungle, who gon stop me, made in america, why i love you all flops though IMO. bonus tracks are all fire though. it's feast or famine i guess, but every time i listen to it it's always better than i remember. ye full of ideas as always, but i wish he had gotten the jay that he deserved for this. also this seems super dated four (!?) years later with the flux pavilion and cassius samples (shoutout to my blogging days!)

dark twisted fantasy - i realize i'm in the minority here. i get it. but i really never do play this album. there's just not much to go back to. it's like a museum, aesthetically pleasing but emotionally empty once you go through it. all the songs are too long, no reason i should be listening to a song like dark fantasy or gorgeous or hell of a life for five or six minutes. or runaway for nine minutes! if ye had someone else executive produce this it would be better, but besides a few guest spots (cyhi and nicki and ross) this album doesn't do much for me lyrically and just doesn't have the production for me to come back. people think this is better than late registration? i've probably listened to yeezus 10x as many times as this. i realize we know this in hindsight, but it sounds like ye trying to appease people - all the personality is gone from his lyrics and it's not like they're technically amazing enough to make up for it. power and devil in a new dress are pretty great though

slot that one above watch the throne. last three songs are kind of garbage but the rest is great. paranoid, robocop, streetlights and bad news!? what a stretch! i never loved heartless, but i realize it's a trend that i'm trashing all of his radio singles...love lockdown and say you will are great too. for all of the talk about how left-field this was, this is just as accessible and pop-sounding as graduation. the jeezy and wayne features make it super dated but overall there are some real gems on this one.

i just...with all due respect, if you like dark fantasy more than this, we're just not going to agree on much musically. this one just had so much more soul in it than that, and that was what kanye's appeal was to me always (and while yeezus may not be 'soulful', it is certainly passionate)

>dark twisted fantasy - it's like a museum, aesthetically
>pleasing but emotionally empty once you go through it.

Very well said. Just an emotionally empty album. What drew me to him early on was his openness and vulnerability. He had so much soul, and even though I never found him all that impressive lyrically from a technical standpoint, I always enjoyed listening to him because he was so endearing. MBDTF feels like the super insecure red-headed step brother of those early albums. Still has some really high highs, great technical moments musically but .... yea. Empty. I get nothing from this album emotionally.


>i realize we know this in hindsight,
>but it sounds like ye trying to appease people - all the
>personality is gone from his lyrics and it's not like they're
>technically amazing enough to make up for it. power and devil
>in a new dress are pretty great though

Yep. Nailed it. And Yeezus, IMO, took it even a step further. Production was super boring, lyrics were just as obnoxious and overdone.

if you don't like the production then you're not going to like the album, i get it, but "fuck you and your hampton house" alone is more charged than anything i had heard him say on the dark fantasy album

I just can't really get past the production so I never gave the lyrics more than 3 or 4 solid listens.

not only because it's the most popular thing I've done aside from the handbook, but because you agree it's heartless:


(the rating was a 10/10 by the way)


Kanye West: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
By David Amidon 21 November 2010
“Do you think I sacrificed real life for all the fame of flashing lights?”
—Kanye West, “Pinnocchio Story”, 808s & Heartbreaks

Hey teacher teachers, how do we respond to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy? How do we respond to the most bloated, egotistical, fantastical, flat-out amazing release hip-hop has seen in three, five, ten years? Ever? I’m not sure what we’re supposed to do, so I’ve got to get the bogus stuff out of the way first. I’ve got to take a moment to try and hate. Those vocals on “Dark Fantasy”, layered a baker’s dozen different ways, they’re synthetic. Those verses from Raekwon, KiD CuDi, Rick Ross, and Fergie add nothing to the record. “All of the Lights”’ percussion is soooooo not hip-hop. Half these songs were supposed to be G.O.O.D. Friday, not album tracks!! Kanye isn’t a straight up MC anymore, where’s the College Dropout-era charm and humor I was promised? This is practically 808s & Heartbreaks, Pt. 2! Kanye, you did me all the way wrong on that one! All the way!

These are the lines along which a cluster of hip-hop geeks will undoubtedly entrench themselves, debating the merits of each in regards to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. I’ve seen it happen already, and it’s not pretty. In the week leading to this album’s leak, many Internet listeners arrived at disappointment through the revelation they’d heard most of the album—however disjointedly—over the previous months. And as they’ve listened, those who felt let down already continued to feel so as West sings his way through a good portion of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. They’ve listened as Kanye gets his kicks from pretending to be the first hip-hop producer since perhaps the RZA who can claim to be a composer, a true studio producer who arranges and directs a song from skeletal idea to full-formed beast. “Power”, the lead single, arrives on the album imbued with countless minor additions from mere sonic details to a litany of background histrionics on guitar that play off of West’s delivery throughout. As does every song. Where Late Registration found West inviting his friend Jon Brion to impart slices of film scoring to the odds and ends of his tracks, here every song contains an underscore as ambitious as the beats upfront. “Hell of a Life” and “So Appalled” alone carry enough auditory sugar to make listening to this album on any regular sort of listening device almost a fool’s errand.

But we could talk about ear candy all day when an album’s production has been billed for $3 million and included studio sessions in Hawaii and Paris, during which West required all participants wear formal dress attire. We could talk about the amazing layering of 11 different vocalists atop skittering jungle-like percussion on “All of the Lights”, or his perfectly timed mining of Nas’s vaults for “Devil in a New Dress”. We could talk about the stark loneliness of the piano lead on “Runaway”, or its depressed cousin on “Blame Game” looped from Aphex Twin’s most fantastic piece, “Avril 14th”. We could talk about the glass-shattering bass on “Monster” and “Lost in the World”, or the glorious transition from the latter track into a modernized vision of Gil-Scott Heron’s “Small Talk at 125th and Lenox” that closes the album. We could talk about the excruciatingly precise delivery that fuels Jay-Z, Cy-Hi, Pusha T, and Kanye himself through the entirety of the record. We could talk all of that. But let’s talk concepts instead, because this album doesn’t achieve perfection through sonics alone. By classic hip-hop standards, great production and delivery is usually enough, but these days artists seem to think it takes something extra. And Kanye has delivered that something.

Those that viewed the “Runaway” short film might be able to more acutely appreciate what Kanye wants his listeners to experience on this album, but multiple close listens should reveal a lot of the details regardless. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is by and large a cinematic experience, featuring a specific cast of characters with some bit players who deal with a specific set of themes and consequences, all which build towards an open-ended conclusion about the world Kanye inhabits. Jay-Z represents his future, Rick Ross represents his past and his aspirations, Nicki Minaj represents his desires and impulses, Pusha T represents his cold, cold heart. Satan, raised hands, bright lights, the Magic Hour, loss (both of place and of relationship), and power are recurring themes throughout the record. These are highlighted by symbols both literal (Kanye’s dick) and metaphorical (herons in the sky) that further drive home the distinctly Greek tragedy that is My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. It’s the dichotomy of making his most spare, personal statements on the opening of “Runaway” without any vocal masking before repeating the song’s lyrics draped in indistinguishably disgusting Auto-Tune mumbles, unleashing the embarrassment he should have felt all along. It’s the heart-wrenching way he sings without any mechanical aid on “Blame Game”, utterly failing to match John Legend’s clenched-throat performance and in the process bringing this reviewer deep into utter despair and sorrow. I have cried not once but twice to that song.

See, there are few more human albums in hip-hop than My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. In a genre fueled largely by ghetto fantasies and corner bravado, it has often been hard for artists to balance their true feelings with the expectations placed on them by the genre’s listeners. As such, it’s no surprise that Jay-Z is the genre’s biggest MC, or that the ramshackle pseudo-lyricism of modern day Lil’ Wayne is marked as the one truly dependable commodity in the pop marketplace. As a culture, especially as hip-hop has trended more and more as the preeminent pop force, we the ‘true heads’ find it difficult to let go of the old hip-hop ethos. Tight rhymes weaved through intricate poetic devices atop raw, stripped-down funk and jazz loops. Big Daddy Kane, Rakim, LL Cool J, Pharoahe Monch. The MC. And there’s no room in that narrative for an album like My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, an album as depraved emotionally as Biggie Smalls on Ready to Die or Eminem on The Marshall Mathers LP but with all the pop bombast of Jay-Z’s Blueprint 3, or Kanye’s own Graduation and the trainwreck that was 808s & Heartbreaks. In a genre whose diehard fans often feel castigated within a pop marketplace, told to know their place and accept things can never be as they once were, it should be markedly easy to make plenty of excuses why Late Registration or The College Dropout were better efforts from Kanye. Those albums are just so much safer and typical, with various songs for various types of hip-hop fans.

But this one? This Fantasy? This is Kanye’s A Piece of Strange, a front-to-back narrative of disappointment and cultural excess that captures the raw essence of its creator like only the greatest of albums can. We open with Kanye cruising lonelily in his Murcielago, explaining how he’s often fantasized about the day he could create the work of his dreams. We follow Kanye on his rise to the top of Mount Olympus, his recently-revealed mandingo prepared to put any and all pussy in a sarcophagus, bruise any and all esophagi. He quickly becomes sick with the nature of his fantasy, however, reminiscing on his simpler days before hunching solemnly over a simple 4-note piano progression, the lonely musician and his instrument. And despite all this pain, resembling ballet’s appreciation for the most excruciating of human dance, Kanye responds to Swizz’s remark that “this shit is fuckin’ ridiculous” with an “I love it, though” to open “Devil in a New Dress”. He lets us in on his relationship woes on “Runaway”, flips out over them on “Hell of a Life” until his club hoochies start leeching him for more than he’s willing to indulge. At this point he completely breaks down, stressing whether the sex was ever worth it before sending a torrent of swirling, distorted vocals all around the room (seriously, invest in a sound system) in pure fury, referencing “All of the Lights” and a woman who buys coke with Kanye’s money, quoting a Chloe Mitchell poem and then dropping all conceits, singing hopelessly into the microphone in Kanye’s crowning achievement as a vocalist. He laments, “I can’t love you this much”, and just as the listener begins to feel as awful for Kanye as possible…he gets a butt dial from the woman he’s been in shambles over, and listens closely as Chris Rock delivers a darkly hilarious rendition of the conversation Kanye overhears.

And as “Lost in the World” storms out of all this dreariness with a thunderous, plodding house bass and Kanye taking Bon Iver in every which direction as the song exudes nothing but triumph, I come to a realization. While these songs are certainly able to be heard as a hip-hop album typically is, single after single, it does no justice to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Because this is Kanye’s fictional biography of his relationship with hip-hop and American consumerism, it is his exorcising of personal demons and an extended response to his thoughts post-Taylor Swift. “You’re my devil, you’re my angel” he spits in music’s general direction, stumbling into the African breakdown of Michael Jackson’s “Wanna Be Startin’ Something” while again begging anyone who will listen to run away from him. He stands triumphantly in the middle of multiple layers of Bon Iver, the beat to “Power” slowly circumferencing the original beat until the end of Gil-Scott Heron’s “Small Talk on 125 and Lenox” begins to come on over the loud speaker, asking over and over “Who will survive in America?” Is it true artists like Kanye, those living “as we do, upside down ... hosed down daily, with a gag of perfume”? Or is it the “bubbling, bubbling, bubbling” in the mother country’s crotch? The oppression of colonization and mainstream groupthink?

Kanye, despite his indomitable ego, does not take the opportunity to provide us with answers. When left on repeat, “Dark Fantasy” will open with Nicki Minaj’s fairytale introduction, and astute listeners will notice the melody of “Lost in the World” mumbling hopelessly underneath. Thus, an ouroboros is born, and like the serpent Kanye arrives before us again, in a perpetual state of rebirth and self-destruction.

The original cover art for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy depicted a demonic Kanye West splayed across his sofa, ridden cowgirl by a beautiful phoenix. The phoenix, like the ouroboros, represents perpetual rebirth and intense, pre-ego power and fury. These two animals are the symbols which nurture all that Kanye put into My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, and one can’t help but think that Kanye must be very proud of himself for creating not only an ambitious album, but mastering it. Owning it as though the album didn’t require the excruciating amount of effort to create that it undoubtedly did. But it is the heart, soul, and humanity of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy that ultimately marks it as the defining pop moment of 2010. We surely ain’t never heard a hip-hop album like this before, sonically or thematically. Kanye posited on 2004’s The College Dropout, “I got a problem with spending before I get it / We all self-conscious, I’m just the first to admit it”. Six years later, Kanye is undoubtedly the most openly self-aware MC. And the music world should be grateful to have him. I know I am.



~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

That was a great read.

But my thoughts...I agreed with the poster above when he said that the album was "emotionally empty." A major theme of your review, at least the way I read it, was Kanye's passion and honesty on MBDTF. I don't think those interpretations are mutually exclusive. I hear all the same intensity on this album that you hear: his voice inflections, his hunger and pain. It's obvious he worked really hard on this one. It's also obvious, to me, that he was going for shock value over any kind of relateable self-realization. Lyrically, the album was repulsive, disgusting. It's clear that's what he was going for. He wanted us to be appalled (pun not intended but kind of intended). And maybe that's why it doesn't resonate with me as much. I can appreciate the passion. I can't really relate to the content. (Edit: I want to make clear that I'm not offended by the content in any way. I'm not that prude. I just really don't care for his brand of "vile asshole." So many other hip-hop artists have achieved that style far more gracefully and effortlessly, with more entertaining results. There's nothing particularly endearing about his brashness anymore. He's just...a dickhead. He's humorless. If you're gonna be an asshole, at least make me laugh.)

The production on the album is excellent, for the most part. The rare times I do revisit this album are when I'm in the mood for production value over all else.

But yea. Maybe it's just the "everyman" lyricism I miss from Kanye. That's the type of hip-hop I've always been drawn to, and that's what was so appealing about Kanye early in his career. That is obviously missing from this album, and pretty much all his work after Graduation. Early in his career he was still passionate and honest. He was just less...pretentious, I guess.

And while our ratings are a little different, we both clearly prefer his earlier work. And I just had to post again in response to say that I agree that it mostly comes down to his music being a whole lot less relateable, in my opinion, than it used to be.

the everyman thing is definitely long gone, so i understand that it can definitely be frustrating for all the fans who came onto him because of that - i think he's creative enough that he can still make quality stuff but these days his way of making music is so outsourced /he's so far gone as an individual that most hints of his personality have been stripped away (as an aside - one thing i really did like about yeezus was that having rick rubin there stripped a lot of potential BS out of the project - it sounds abrasive, but it also sounds cogent and concise).

in the bigger picture, it's a shame that that "everyman" rap style was bubbling under, blew up and then morphed into into j.cole/wale empty radio fodder (i actually like cole but he's not emotionally interesting enough to hold this title properly). i guess that's how it always goes when things ascend to a certain commercial level but still...feels like phonte and murs etc should have gotten more commercial love post-college dropout

that while i don't relate to yeezus on a "i'm frustrated about not having more power & influence in fashion" level, i certainly relate to it on a "i'm frustrated about a lot of other shit" level and it feels quite cathartic. but i've always molded music to my life at the time

Music doesn't have to be literal to have an effect on you. Can become analogous to your life and still hit you.

Few minor responses:

>i think he's creative enough
>that he can still make quality stuff

He definitely is. I still check for all his work, he's clearly mega talented and I'm happier he pushes the envelope rather than I would have been had he stayed stale and in the same lane forever, I just wish he kept his "everyman" approach you mentioned. But yea - he still has some great moments.


>in the bigger picture, it's a shame that that "everyman" rap
>style was bubbling under, blew up and then morphed into into
>j.cole/wale empty radio fodder (i actually like cole but he's
>not emotionally interesting enough to hold this title
>properly). i guess that's how it always goes when things
>ascend to a certain commercial level but still...feels like
>phonte and murs etc should have gotten more commercial love
>post-college dropout

Agree re: J Cole. I just find him boring. Kanye had the perfect mix of everyman and crazy that just worked. Cole has skill but lacks personality.

Yea I mean - I understand blowing up you're not gonna be the backpacker anymore, that's fine. But he was already blown up when Graduation dropped and he was still able to at least act as if he wasn't talking down to people and was less pretentious. I really think his mom dying changed him for the worse.

I think his albums are some of the most overrated, trapped in their moment sounding albums of all time. He's a fucking disastrous pop rap hack.


Cd - 3 mics
LR - 2.5 mics
Graduation - 3.5
808's 1.5
MBDTF - 2.5
WTT - 3
Yeezus - 3.5


that's right. Yeezus is the one that made the most sense to me. He took everything vile about himself and served it up on an abrasive record.



All time wack artsist. Puffy with artistic credibility. Most punchable face of all time.

1. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010)
2. Late Registration (2005)
3. Graduation (2007)
4. 808s & Heartbreak (2008)
5. Yeezus (2013)
6. The College Dropout (2004)
7. Watch the Throne (with Jay-Z) (2011)

Top four are liable to be shuffled at any time depending on mood:

1. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
2. The College Dropout
3. Yeezus
4. Late Registration

*drop off*

5. 808s & Heartbreaks
6. Watch The Throne
7. Graduation

1 College Dropout... still the most 'classic' of his discs
2 My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy... best produced, hands down
3 Graduation... there's some really good songs on this one
4 Late Registration... not as big a fan of this as others seem to be
5 Watch the Throne... cool collabo that I haven't listened to for a while
6 Yeezus... I was not a fan of this.
7 808s & Heartbreak... I did love Heartless, but other than that? Nope.

7. Yeezus
6. WTT
5. Graduation
4. 808s
3. The College Dropout
2. MBDTF
1. Late Registration

1. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy: 9.72
2. Late Registration: 8.93
3. The College Dropout: 8.65
4. Watch the Throne: 8.31
5. Be: 8.00
6. Graduation: 7.95
7. Yeezus: 7.79
8. Cruel Summer: 6.73
9. Finding Forever: 5.68


I think he's had a great career, and even Graduation which has a weak score deserves a re-grade if I were still updating the Handbook. And I might have said that for 2+ years now.

808s isn't included because I don't see it as a rap album but it would be at the very bottom with a 3.something.


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

Jay-Z? Blueprint? Black Album?

The three I like:
1. Late Registration
2. College Dropout
3. MBDTF

The others, which I don't like:

4. Graduation
5. Watch The Throne
6. Yeezus
7. 808s

i think i can trace my waning interest in new, popular black music back to this album's release/leak date.. and i don't hate kanye for it.. it was daring, i respect him as an artist for doing it, but the album was unlistenable and somehow influenced a lot more folks to make unlistenable music.. yuck.

but anyways, here's my list:

1. MBDTF (definitely his most "complete" album.. sonic variance (and beauty) with a unified theme and great sequencing.. great project.. probably his best raps too)
2. Graduation (hit after hit and i've always liked Drunk and Hot Girls too)
3. Watch the Throne (dope black power album for 21st century, imo)
4. Yeezus (imo, this is the successful experimentation that 808s was supposed to be)
5. Late Registration (college dropout sound fully realized)
6. College Dropout (a little goofy, slightly disjointed in hindsight, but still fun)

>i think i can trace my waning interest in new, popular black
>music back to this album's release/leak date.. and i don't
>hate kanye for it.. it was daring, i respect him as an artist
>for doing it, but the album was unlistenable and somehow
>influenced a lot more folks to make unlistenable music.. yuck.

I've never thought about it like that .... but now that you mention it and I've given it some thought, I actually think this was the exact time I started to fall off the wagon, too. I can think of multiple albums per year that I bought and liked every single year before this album dropped. Since then, I can count on one hand per year how many albums I've bought and enjoyed from new artists or new sounds in hip-hop. I always just thought it was cause I was getting old, and maybe that's still part of it. But --- yea. That type of sound on 808s influenced a lot of hip-hop/urban music that came afterward and I just CANNOT get into it at all.

This was really eye opening for me. Thanks. Haha.

But it goes like this right now:

TOP TIER
1. Graduation
2. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
3. Late Registration

2nd TIER
4. College Dropout
5. 808s & Heartbreak

3rd TIER
6. Yeezus
7. Watch the Throne

Things shift around within tiers, but this is it for me.

Graduation and MBDTF are the most interchangable. Next to no fat, just heat throughout. LR was revolutionary when it came out, but I skip 20% of it right now. Everything after that is in flux - but 808s is better than I thought it was when it came out, Yeezus and WTT are worse than I thought initlaly.

I miss rapping Kanye a lot.

Lotta faggots in here, too. Shame.

grow up.

If he was even trying to make one.

.

>grow up.


when in Rome. This IS about Kanye Werst, no? Faggot.

2. Graduation
3. 808's & Heartbreaks
4. Yeezus
5. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
6. Watch The Throne
7. College Dropout

the only ones that are ever interchangeable is #3-5. Those 3 could be in any order depending on the day, thats the order today though. 1, 2, 6, & 7 are locked into those spots though. Late Registraion & Graduation are classics to me. 808's & Yeezus probably get the most play for me still. i might be in the minority but CD sounds very dated to me, thats why its at the bottom. i cant bump but a handful of songs on that album today

1. MBDTF
2. Graduation
3. LR
4. WTT
5. 808's
6. CG
7. Yeezus

MBDTF

LR
CD
Throne/Yeezus

Graduation












808s (Yes, I like Yeezus and hate most of 808s even tho Yeezus is just 808s, angry, rapping younger sibling...I guess I like my Kanye angry and rapping rather than sad and autotuning)

8.cruel summer
7.808s
6.graduation
5.yeezus
4.college dropout
3.late registration
2.watch the throne
1.MBDTF

College Drop
Graduation
808
Yeezus
MBDTF
WTC

1. Graduation
2. MBDTF
3. Late Registration
4. College Dropout
5. Watch the Throne
6. Yeezus
7. 808s & Heartbreaks

Most either have it in their top two or at the very bottom. Good to see almost 2 years later it's still that polarizing!

Top tier
1) The College Dropout (2004) - still my favorite
2A) My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010) - a masterpiece
2B) Watch the Throne (with Jay-Z) (2011) - ditto

Middle tier
4) 808s & Heartbreak (2008) - probably ranked a couple spots too high, but I like the emotional openness
5) Late Registration (2005) - probably ranked too low, but I find I don't play it much for some reason
6) Graduation (2007) - some great songs but a bit inconsistent

Lowest tier
7) Yeezus (2013) - my least favorite by far