With his 2008 lighting rod 808s and Heartbreak, Kanye West pulledoff the world’s first rapless rap album. On his follow-up My Beautiful DarkTwisted Fantasy he manages a feat less daring but no less difficult:an arty, overblown, progged-out, schizophrenic, bizzarro epic that nonetheless maintainsthe feel and intensity of a traditionalist, meat-and-potatoes rap album. Makeno mistake about it: For as much as Kanye skirts genre conventionsstretching tracks past their breaking point, letting guitar solos run long, even turning songsover to Justin fucking VernonFantasy is still a rap lover’s album, packedwith ripe, unforgettable verses: Raekwon contributes a stunner to “Gorgeous;” RickRoss carries the remarkable “Devil in a New Dress;” and “Monster” boils overwith an epileptic Nicki Manaj verse that transcends her shtick and dropped the jaws of even her biggest detractors.
Yet Kanye is the album’s true revelation. Rapping in a mix of self-aggrandizementand self-flagellation, he fleshes out the simple grief and anger of 808s withdeeper, more complicated (and indeed darker) emotions. He still sometimes useshumor as a crutch, but on “Blame Game” he hobbles unassisted:
On a bathroom wall I wrote
"I'd rather argue with you than to be with someone else"
I took a piss and dismiss it like, “fuck it,” and went and found somebody else
Arguing harvesting the feelings, I'd rather be by my fucking self
‘Til about 2 a.m. and I call back and I hang up and start to blame myself
Kanye has worn his insecurities as a badge of honor since his first album, buthere they come across as genuinely self-destructive. “Blame Game” grows more vicious as hisvoice is demonically chopped and screwed, rattling around like disturbed,jealousy-addled thoughts in his head:
1 a.m. and can't nobody get a hold of you
I'm calling your brothers phone like what was I supposed to do
Even though I knew, he never told the truth
He was just gon’ say whatever that you told him too
Kanye sounds frightening, damaged, even violentand then he disappears and the song rides out with an extended Chris Rock comedy bit that does nothing to cutthe tension. The skit is crass and unfunny, its levity forced and unwelcome,but the content of the bit is beside the point. What lingers is Kanye’sabsence. It’s as if he needed a couple minutes to himself to splash some wateron his face, talk himself down and regain his composure. When he returns for “Lotin the World” it’s a relief, but even that grandiose finale can’t completelyshake the chill; Kanye's revealed a part of himself he can’t take back.
Kanye West's Beautiful, Dark Twisted Masterpiece
Emphasis on the "dark"
