The perfect poster child for the Twitter generation, Kanye West seems to invite his listeners deeper and deeper inside his own head with his every movement. Appearing both self-confident and self-conscious, he’s showcased his own inner workings, including his spiritual deliberations with the “Jesus Walks” saga (from his album The College Dropout). Now with My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Kanye opens the door wider for us to watch him process his victories and blunders in areas like relationships and image.
Singers have long put their lives on display through their lyrics, so an introspective album is not exactly new. However, Kanye takes self-awareness to a new level. Many of the tracks on this album monologue against (a.k.a. thoroughly spank) his critics and defend Kanye in one way or another. Existentialism runs rampant as tracks like “Blame Game” cleverly use different voices panning from one side to the other to simulate an internal conversation about a woman.
The album is big. In fact, it’s huge, spanning genres, harnessing the power of rock, hip-hop, electronica, neo-classicism, and Afro-beats. The tracklist is incredibly catchy, though many of these tracks contain dark lyrics filled with statements of resentment, frustration, or dismissal.Kanye’s wit, convictions, and success have come along with some infamous actions and high profile meltdowns. Getting empathy has been a mixed bag for Kanye, yet he remains one of the most influential figures in hip-hop. There are many public figures like Kanye who long to be truly understood; this is a world where private lives are publicised to overexposure, misrepresented and misinterpreted.
Do people want to hear singers come clean about the dark, twisted corners of their mind as they attempt to figure themselves out? It’s up to you to decide, but the record sales and reviews indicate that many do. Our world is dominated by people publicizing their thoughts and actions via social networking, and Kanye somehow keeps up intrigue. His razor-sharp lyrics and fearlessness for experimenting with music mean he continues to create music people want to listen to.
NB: This album contains a lot of explicit content.
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