Reviews (page 3 of 15)
Fuck this guy not listening to this
His best album
It's been almost 10 years since Kanye had his meltdown and lost his powers as a rapping and producing hit machine. It's amazing to reflect at just how good he was across this run of LPs. For many this one is the best, while I wouldn’t quite go that far I can see why others do. It has flawless flow from track to track and features his best production work. It's got hit songs, amazing features and consistently strong rapping from Kanye himself. It feels like a pop album in so many ways, but with so much textural and lyrical detail effortlessly embedded within every moment. Few albums are as iconic as this one.
Yeah low 5 for me, already a dodgy dude but undeniably a fantastic cohesive record on a big scale.
It’s good. I’m not sure it’s great. I would have given it 3.5 based on my first listen and know it is the sort of thing that will grow on me with repeated listens but I’m not sure I wanna give him the royalties
I genuinely think I prefer Yeezus over MBDTF. I’m gonna die at the stake for this take. Idk I think half of my appeal to Kanye is when he takes risks. This isn’t that, But MDBTF is his magnum opus no doubt. The production is top tier, and I think it’s up there Kanye wise lyrically too. Idk I’m not the biggest Kanye fan. Just MO. Also this album is a lot less nostalgic than I thought it’d be. Again I’ve never been a big fan so maybe that’s why. But you can’t go wrong with Runaway, Devil in a new dress, or all of the lights.
God just god of course it would be a random day which I need to lock in that one of the greatest albums of the 2010s comes on. What can’t be said about this album. Marked a full turning point in Kanye’s career and has been one he has chased for years and hasn’t gotten back. Pure artistry. Listen to the lyrics on Runaway. It’s so telling of a story and truly allows you to live in the realm of avoidance. Finding oneself is what this is about can we get much higher. This is the question. Push yourself forward. There is tons of corn here tho monster is so wack but All of The Lights ,Power and DIAND these are the most defining tracks of hip hop ever. Everyone wants to chase this level of music and success but can’t. Despite all that, I will always go to bat for this album because The version of Kanye that made this wanted to create art and be his true self until he went too far and ruined it. We can all sit and pretend that this was the end truly. Fuck kanYe but thank you Kanye West for brining this into the world before then.
He may be not a nice person but damn this album is so good
4.5/10
Seemed like every time I tuned into the words, Ye or someone was dropping the n-word, bragging about something, or talking about violent sex. Made it hard to appreciate anything else about this supposedly classic album.
6/10 Kanye, Kanye, Kanye. Having really enjoyed College Dropout, I was interested to hear where our boy Ye had gone in the intervening 6 years. Well, if the braggadocious tendencies were clear enough to spot on his debut LP, the critical success that it and subsequent work received have only gone to enhance his sense of self-importance. The thing is, he is good. There are some brilliant tracks on here, like Power and Runaway, but much of the album feels quite scattergun and the maximalist production approach often produces tracks that are a little too cluttered or lacking in focus for my personal tastes. And he also spends much of the album continuing to brag about how wonderful he is, or railing against perceived injustices, interspersed with more introspective or self-critical moments that I can never really tell to be truthful or some attempt at false modesty. There’s some really good stuff on here, but he has a tendency to drag a decent track out for too long without adding in enough range to the musical content to maintain interest, or throwing in elements that detract from the better moments within a track. He can also be quite lyrically repetitive, which doesn’t help, particularly with the less instrumentally varied cuts on the record. After a few listens, I still can’t quite wrap my head around what this album is. It feels like he’s a man with so many ideas, but without the ability to self edit in order to allow the best of those ideas to sing. I kept getting the nagging feeling that he was trying to do way too much, and as a result, the record feels a touch confused and quite bloated, despite the presence of a real streak of excellence that bubbles under the surface. In effect, this kind of feels like a signpost for the direction that Kanye was sending himself from this point on. Erratic, scattered with moments of genius, but ultimately victim to Kanye’s inability to control his own thoughts and direct his talents towards a coherent and focused output. Dark Fantasy - Kanye grabs bits and pieces from all over the place, doesn’t he? An opening verse by Roald Dahl, delivered by Nicki Minaj, autotuned vocals from Bon Iver, samples from Mike Oldfield. It’s pretty good and there’s plenty going on to keep it feeling fresh, including sections where he doesn’t rely on a beat to drive the song, and instead focuses on harmonic content and strong melodic hooks. The verses give it a good hip-hop core, but it’s good that he doesn’t just settle into that or drag it out too long. It does feel a touch disjointed in places, but I think the ambition here is to be applauded. Gorgeous - I’m not convinced by the guitar / lead vocal doubling to kick this off, and that guitar riff is vastly overplayed without any variation until right near to the end. It’s a good starting point, but it just goes nowhere. There’s some decent soundscaping work to give this a dark, foreboding tone, but it’s just way too repetitive and lacks much musical depth. Boring. Power - More eclectic sampling choices from King Crimson and Continent Number 6, most prominently. There’s a lot more going on here and it has a great, dirty feel with crunchy beats, plenty of melodic quality and harmonic richness. It doesn’t insist on driving the beat the whole way through again, and there’s a lot of development of the musical ideas across the run time, which is impressive. This one was excellent. All Of The Lights (Interlude) - This is a lovely piece of piano and cello work. I was surprised to find out this wasn't a sample, so fair play. It’s fleeting, but a pretty little interlude. All Of The Lights - I’m not sold at all on the horns here and while the atmosphere of the track is good, it feels like it doesn’t do enough musically to really maintain interest throughout. He’s gone for a sound that throws a whole load of vocalists together, but for me it feels a bit overfull and disjointed as a result. It was a good concept, but poor execution. Monster - When Kanye drifts back towards more straight hip-hop, I feel like he loses something of what makes him special. This is a good hip-hop track, but in all honesty, he’s not the greatest rapper in the world, which is exposed on a track that he shares rapping duties with others. This is also quite repetitive, both musically and lyrically, which is exacerbated by it being over 6 minutes long. Not that it’s particularly bad, it’s just a bit bland. So Appalled - The dark vibe here is good and I quite like the slightly broken beat nature of the drums. Within the tonal work there’s actually a decent bit of development and range, but it’s rhythmically quite uneventful. As with the last track, it’s not bad, just a bit too repetitive and too long so becomes played out by the end. Devil In A New Dress - The main loop for this is very nice, but it’s short and just goes on and on. I don’t think the rapping performance is great here either. When we get a breakdown in the middle, it improves things, and in the second half, Rick Ross’ verses are better. If there was a bit more range to the main musical hook, this could be quite good, but it doesn’t really do enough to maintain interest apart from the nice middle section. Runaway - The dark, foreboding atmosphere of this is really nice. We’re back into the kind of production that really showcases Kanye at his best, with long, developing musical themes, a good blend of sung and rapped vocals, and a skilled arrangement with plenty of production depth and good hooks. Despite being the longest cut on the record, it has enough range to justify its length, with interesting instrumental sections, good rapping from both Kanye and Pusha T, and a quality sung chorus hook from Kanye himself. Really good stuff. Hell Of A Life - The bass here is pretty mean and, again, we get an example of Kanye just grabbing stuff from everywhere, using the melody from Black Sabbath’s Iron Man for the chorus. Unfortunately, he uses it for a horrible, auto-tuned and frankly, shit, chorus vocal. There are some really decent bits of sound design on this track, including some nice atmospheres and harmonic compliments to the bass, but it’s gathered up into a song that has some pretty weak rapping, a horrible chorus and a fairly inconsistent flow. Blame Game - And now we get a sample of Aphex Twin’s glorious Avril 14th. As with much of this album, there’s some really great stuff in here. The blend of lo-fi drums and the crisp piano sample and complimentary cello work are excellent and there’s some cool effects and editing work on Kanye’s vocal. There’s a bit of an edge of Stan by Eminem to the delivery and rhythm of the rapping in places. But while the instrumental work is really nice, it’s incredibly repetitive for an almost 8 minute track. And the last couple of minutes with Chris Rock that are supposed to be funny are absolutely cringeworthy. I mean, really, really bad. Lost In The World - We’re back full circle to a sample of Bon Iver’s lovely Woods (apparently re-recorded for this with new elements). There’s a decent amount of range to this and plenty of development of the themes. The parts often clash against each other and then find their way together in a really satisfying way. It’s very full, but feels purposeful despite being a touch cluttered. There are a few moments when things get stripped back a bit, which gives the more maximalist elements space to breathe, which is cool. As with much of the album, I think this is decent, but I’m struggling to fully connect with it. Who Will Survive In America - And we finally roll straight into our closer. It’s got a good beat, some nice piano work and the sample of Gil Scott Heron is great. But it is essentially a remix of Comment #1 rather than a fresh track and Kanye, as usual, appears to value his input more highly than is probably justified.
secretly love
One of the greatest albums of modern music.
Fuck you Kanye, this is really good.
Great Album made by a Terrible Person. 5 Star Rap Album with great samples and guests. Enjoyed it way more than I expected to!
Good music, not a good guy though.
Overall just good
Incredible album.
A 5 star album by a 1 star guy
Great album imo although not a fan of some of kanyes style, and some of the production sounded slightly corny but overall a great album except from monster which is ahh
A really remarkable album made by a few really awful people, with a lot of warning signs about the things to come with Ye.
This album was on my to-do albums, but I stopped before this when 808's and Heartbreak was completely revolting by like the second song. So, yeah the ended my Kanye West discography listening, I was planning to end it anyway at this album the blessed generator gave to me. There a quite a few songs I've heard before that I didn't put two and two together to realise they were songs by Kanye, granted this was when I barely knew anything about him. Those songs being "POWER" and "All of the Lights." The album overall has quite a few different moods present, I originally thought this was just that straight boast, party rap. It's KINDDD of like that, but not really. Some of the moods are the aforementioned boast rap of "POWER", the pure aggression delivery of "Monster" and the vulnerable introspective art song of "Runaway." Of course there's other stuff, but I feel nearly all the songs have elements of those three moods at different ratios. The arrangements on some of the songs are so lovely, like the horns in "All of the Lights" which fits the pompous attitude. I also quite like the moody chamber strings of "So Appalled." Though I heavily dislike all of the vocals in that song and I feel it doesn't compliment the instrumental whatsoever. I absolutely love the song "Runaway" so I've decided to dedicate a little section to it. It's definitely in my top 5 hip-hop songs. The sadness the drenches the track, with focus on his failures as the main subject. Beautifully layered, Pusha T's verse is a pretty good contrast to all the lyrics before it. The coda is one of the best ever in recorded music, the wordless vocals honestly say it all. After "Runaway" I feel the quality dropped off a bit, keeping interest for nearly a 70 minute album tends to be tricky. I think for a first listen this was a really good listen. At this point I feel a second listen would only improve my current perception. Just like what happened with the College Dropout. There's a lot to appreciate with Kanye's early albums. Solid album. Highlight Song/s: "Monster" and "Runaway"
This shit is fucking ridiculous
First Kanye on this list for me ! When this dropped in 2010, was one of my favorite rap albums. Hip hop was never my top genre but around this time I really got into a lot and this album was a regular play for me. I think it will still hold up, despite the fact that Kanye is a crazy person. Damn this starts as a banger. Dark Fantasy is so good. Witty bragging rhymes that just hit. A great production. Only gets better from here. The album starts with some of the best rhymes on the whole thing. Gorgeous is just a great rap song. Kanye at some of his best. Power just a classic catchy Kanye. All of the Lights. Monster. Just great songs to start this album. Everything is great. 16 years later, and Monster is still a vibe. Nikki Minaj having the best verse is still crazy to this day. This is an all time great hip hop album. Despite Kanye’s legacy. He sucks now and turned out to be a shit person. Really don’t choose to put his music on these days and haven’t for years. But this album is probably the last great thing he did musically and holds up on reslisten. It’s extravagant in the best possible way. After a strong front side of rap jams you have something like Runaway on the back end. To quote him, this shit is fucking ridiculous. 5/5
Liked it a lot. Definitely some iconic bangers on here
Bangers. Kanye obviously not a guy i'd hang out with
lmao Kanye is on this list? Famous Nazi, Kanye? Nah bro, this ain't it
Objectively, Kanye is an incredible musician and producer, and this album proves it. I personally like the Yeezus album over this one, but there's no denying how impressive this album is: we're still rocking out to Power and Runaway. 4 stars 😎
Did I enjoy this album? No. No, I did not.
no thanks.
Worst of the worst of the worst
A: Lyssnade inte så aktivt men mycket bättre album än vad jag hoppats på. Lyssnade inte på orden och det lilla jag hörde var inte alltför övertygande men gillade produktionen mycket! Väldigt bra bakgrundsmusik. 4/5 stjärnor D: Så länge man inte lyssnar på texten är den lekfull och hoppsig. Gillade genren och överlag mycket positivare upplevelse än jag trodde. Hatar att medge att han ju nog är ett musikaliskt geni. Jag skulle kunna spela det på en function för att imponera på Generic finswe male #3. 4/5 stjärnor.
TOP 3: Devil In A New Dress, Monster, Hell Of A Life.
Monster was a pretty good track, especially the portion with Nicki Minaj. Otherwise this was just a bunch of nonsense.
Musically very cool, and I basically love everything about it except Ye's vocals. (Runaway is a lot of fun, though.)
god damn it……… i liked it. fuck kanye
I listened to this album a lot the first 2 years it came out and it was a 5/5 for me. I gave it a 4 today because it has been very jarring to learn over the years that he means it when he says dark and twisted. To the point where I couldn't listen to it now and just had to remember what I thought at the time
OK, but I'll never listen to it again. ★★★
Marginally more interesting, but still a no. Brags about losing $30m and teaching in the ghetto of life !?!?
Pas grand chose à dire sur cet album à part que.. C'est grandiose, c'est mélodieux, c'est ambitieux, c'est drôle, c'est émouvant, c'est bien écrit, c'est bien produit, c'est innovant, les invités sont bien ammenés... Merci Kanye pour les travaux, ton plus grand album. 1) Devil in a new dress 2) Runaway 3) So Appalled
C’était tristement très très bon
he was a jewish doctor
Enjoyed this throughout. No major stand out faves but did like So appalled.
I can't give this streams right now but this was the last thing he put out I enjoyed.
I don’t get his popularity. His lyrics aren’t impressive. His delivery is just ok. He does have a unique quality to his voice but most of his songs are dull. I can’t stand him as a human but wish someone would step in and get him the help he needs. Maybe he burnt to bright when he came on the scene but I don’t find him creative.
If this album doesn't deserve a 4, I'm not sure what does. The artist themselves? That's another story.
Surprisingly or perhaps not, this is much better than I expected. I think I can see why his early career was so highly praised before he went bananas. At least strong 3 stars, maybe even 4 but we will see, 3.5 on RYM.
Masterpiece.
I really wanted to not like this and I absolutely didn't like it. There were moments that I almost was enjoying a track but that's as close as it got.
One of the albums that really got me into hiphop. Amazing sampling, ideas and production all over this album. Still not every song is really my cup of tea, but one of kanye's most enjoyable albums for me. 1. Runaway 2. POWER 3. Gorgeous
Second Kanye album to pop up in the last few weeks. Last time I tried to separate the music from the artist. I'm not doing this again. Skipping this one.
Simply epic. The best of his era if not ever. One of the rare 5/5
Saai...
3 to 4 stars, but im not supporting this guy
All time great album.
Listening to this makes me sad. He's such a gifted songwriter, and this album feels so precariously perched between his wanton bigotry and earnest self-reflection. That precarity makes for compelling music, but it also forces you to think about what might have been if things had gone differently. I wish they had.
Kanye’s magnum opus. I don’t listen since he’s gone Pro Hitler etc, but this reminded me that at one time he was so good at getting different artists together to make something great. Splicing in fantastic homages to classics like Gil Scott-Heron and just putting it all together in a great soup. I don’t know why we haven’t seen anyone replicate this type of collaboration since, but it is sorely missed in the modern music landscape. It holds up but I have probably listened to this too many times to judge it fairly. I did pick up on lines and things I had forgotten like the pre-maga Kanye anti trump line.
Trash
I'm not a big fan of Kanye (for a myriad of reasons), but this album might be my new favorite of his. There's some good lyrics and beats on this one. Sampling 21st Century Schizoid Man was a cool choice and the Kid Cudi tracks were good. Album might have been a little long and I didn't like the back half as much as the front, but good overall. If Kanye wasn't such an asshole, it might be easier to like his music more.
no thanks. It's some kind of refined plastic with no soul.
From one hip hop album to another. The last album was WuTang. It was an album that was a sum of its parts. This album has plenty of guest players but its still the product of the one i feel. And i really wish i disnt like the one, but the albums so far on here are very good. Cant deny the genius , nor the madness. I wonder if he has no external sense of self - how other people view or think about him. No metaperception? Is that what it’s called? It is both awe inspiring and frightening. This isnt quite the punch in the face the other album i reviewed is. Maybe the collaborations softened it? May not be a bad thing in some cases but there are a couple of songs in the last 3rd of the album that let it down.
No entiendo nada. Dice que es uno de los mejores discos de rap y de la vida. Me pareció muy lleno de cosas. Lo volvería a escuchar, pero no entiendo la letra
Really have to separate the art from the artist here as Kanye is a dick but this album is great. Not my favourite of his but enjoyed it a lot
Nope!
just my luck that i get another kanye album so soon. same as previously said, the production, instrumentals, and features are awesome, i just don’t like the guy himself. in an alternate universe i’d give this a 5 but i cant
Devil in a New Dress and Runaways are the only tracks I truly love, but because of how much effort went into the album I have to give it a 4.
Songs sound similar to each other
Non.
Je ne dissocie pas l’art de l’artiste
j’ai pas écouté et j’écouterai pas parce que je donne pas d'argent aux nazis, d'où cette note de 1, juste parce qu’on peut pas mettre zéro (nique les nazis)
rotten
Great album
Dude's a nut case but this is still a masterfully produced album.
Liquid shite
Never understood this one, why is it so important? Never found a review I cared to look at.
Fuck Kanye enzo, maar dit is en blijft gewoon een meesterwerk
Een van de beste hiphop albums ooit met een paar van mijn favoriete tracks ooit. Maar fuck nazis en fuck Ye
Prima hip hop album, vind het niet zo wow als de meesten. Sla je lokale nazi.
This is the album hat tipped me over the edge. I used to be Rap-Agnostic, neither being a Hater or a Lover. Alas, after an onslaught of Rap albums on this 1001 site...I've tipped into the "Oh, FFS. Not another formulaic acclaimed rapper with a Messiah complex."
When I first started getting into Hip Hop, Kanye was already starting to show some cracks both as a person and as an artist. As a result, I wasn't really interested in researching his discography. I can separate the art from the artist most of the time, but I already had so much to explore that I wasn't really in a rush to give his albums a listen. Much less so when he started pushing Nazi ideology. With all of that out of the way, in a purely musical vacuum, this album is incredible. The hooks are phenomenal, it's fantastically produced and Kanye's flow shines time and time again, even if it's often put aside in favour of melodic features and samples. There are two or three low points here, but overall this was a great listen. I'm not sure how much I'll actually revisit it considering all of the external factors, but we'll see. Favourite track: POWER
When I first bought this record, I thought it had some MASSIVE bangers and some filler songs. I recognize I was wrong; it does not get any better than this.
Classic!
I refuse to patronize this antisemitic hateful person by streaming this album. And even if I did, I couldn’t objectively listen to this or rate it. Fuck you Kanye West. 1 for being an absolute shithead.
BANGER - white skinny fuckboys know what s up
Was hyped to get an album after 2000, was disappointed. I dont like him. The album was ok. Sounded like 2010. would not listen again.
I wasn't committed to listening to this in its entirety, but in the end, I did listen to most of this boring, shitty album. I never listened to this jackass before starting this project, and now I am freshly dumbfounded by the world I live in. . I have to take the internet's word for it that he's a great producer. When it comes to his rapping, "Who are you gonna believe? Me or your ears?" I'm going with my own ears. Not buying it. His ability to achieve flow that works with the music is somewhere between rudimentary and absent. In short, he stinks. Plus, awful person and hopeless narcissist. So much of this sounds like What would happen if one walked around dictating the events of one's life into a portable recording device, then set it to music as the first draft of a hip hop Broadway musical. Just saw Prom at the local high school ... trust me. This analogy Holds Up. (I just tried it for a couple of minutes. It's surprisingly easy. But I didn't want to push it with my spouse, so I stopped.) If we're going to do this, "He's a terrible person, but that is set aside because of his amazing talent" thing ... I mean, Kanye can't hold a candle to Slick Rick. How do we live in a world where this guy is a star of this magnitude? By far to my mind the most compelling track is Who Will Survive In America. If you read anything about this album, you will learn that it was "one of the most expensive albums to produce ever" and that it features performances by an astounding array of stars. Yet, its best track is due entirely to the extensive use of a Gil Scott Heron recording, and GSH himself is never mentioned by the Enablers. (The Kanyes of the world always talk about the Haters ... what about the other people, who Enable people like him? That part remains absent!) Awarded one star for its unexpected and skillful sampling of King Crimson. Docked one star for excessive use of profanity -- such a crutch for the lazy writer.
nope.
Nope. Didn't listen to this, won't ever.
Maybe the last really great West album.
One of those "you have to separate the art from the artist" dope production.
One of Kanye Masterpieces, it's very cohesive and still very relevant today.
Masterpiece.
Sometimes I can separate the art from the artist but I just can’t with kanye
I loved this album before Kanye was a Nazi.
Going into this thought it would be a 4+. The highs are high but the lows are just as low.
Wait, this was actually pretty good. As somebody who has a stoic disdain for Mr West it came as a complete surprise to me that I enjoyed myself here. The beats are catchy, the mixing is on another level, and the lyrics explore a very complex relationship with the world of fame. However, stars have been deducted for the simple fact that it's less of an album and more of a collection of songs, with a couple here and there not quite scratching the itch. Not amazing, but still pretty cool. Favourite track: Devil in a New Dress Least favourite track: Blame Game
Nope. No streaming money from me nazi.
goat
Would def listen to again. Vibes. Old kanye best kanye
First time listening to this album. I've always heard Kanye was a music icon in the beginning, and most of this album was just alright to me. However, Lost In The World slaps!!
Great piece from Kanye, might be the greatest he did even though I liked College Dropout more earlier.
I really hate to give Kanye props, but the album is just so good. Haven't really listened to Kanye since he went all crazy, but his earlier stuff is just so good.
Too many Urkels on your team, that's why your wins low. What a fucking line. Two Kanye albums in a row for the generator, this and Yeezus...which, both very different, but both fantastic. I don't listen to much rap anymore but when I do, it's the stuff I listened to in the 90s in high school. But this is still great. I should probably come back to this and listen to it more.
Je n'ai pas fini, assez iconique mais beurk Kanye West
Probably Kanye's best album
++: Gorgeous, Power, All of the Lights (Interlude), All of the Lights, Devil in a New Dress, Lost in the World, Who Will Survive in America +: Dark Fantasy, Monster, Runaway +-: So Appalled, Hell of a Life --: Blame Game 6,3/10
Jeg sier som Jon: Jeg skjønner ikke.
Klassealbum. Runaway er på topp 20 all time lista mi.
Ja nei.. Veldig 2010. Måtte skippe et par av traumatiske årsaka. Koffør skal alle sangan være så helvetes lang? Jaja, det skal det få en snill treer her også.
Mangslungent mesterverk fra det gærne geniet. Litt for mye fjas, men her er det mange gullklumper å finne.
The inevitable misogyny present seemingly in all rapid albums aside, listenable enough. I don’t think it breaks any barriers though, just well produced and polished rap.
Not a huge fan of his music and I’m def not a fan of his as a person. DNF.
On no earth can you get me to listen to this guy - pass!!
He used to be so good 😭
The flow of the music works insanely
not as good as college dropout might have gotten a 3 if he wasn't a wrong'un but happy to mark it down
urgh, really all the worst people. Listening to this his weird pivot looks even weirder. But it really is a good album, its tough. But then the misogynistic lyrics mark it down for me.
This truly is a masterpiece. From the sampling and interpolation to the guests to the whole experience. The songs are really strong and make an incredible modern hiphop album. 5/5
Listening to this album always makes you think
Very difficult to separate the artist from the art with this one; much more so than older artists that are decades away from their best, while Kanye is still making music. Still a massively influential album, still some of the best production on a hip-hop record ever, but this album more so than the others, he is the weakest lyricist and rapper on it. I still love this album, but it's not held up as well as it possibly could have done. Lets forget about anything past Life of Pablo though eh
Love this one!!
-1 for the anti-semitism
Le préféré de Clara
Fuck outta here already with this guyyyyyyy
I've always loved the way Kanye incorporates choirs into rap. This album was flawless from start to finish. "Power" has got to be one of my favourite rap songs, and instantly feels empowering as the listener.
First listening of anything by him. Super catchy tunes, I love the gospel and old school hip hop being featured.
3 or 4 stars for the music, -1000000 stars for the dude singing them
rein musikalisch leider geil.... kanye west ist heute obviously ein nazi aber ich glaube als dieses album rausgekommen ist war er nur so kontrovers wie ein durchschnittlicher rapper.... trotzdem doof aber ich habs trotzdem gehört und es war geil.....
:/
I don't think I ever listened to the whole album. College Dropout thru Graduation were really more my era, but I had some Pandora stations that included a few of these songs as well. This was my last stop on the Kanye Express though.
I gave other Kanye albums two stars largely because of inconsistency, but this is pretty great end to end. I especially liked Power, with the King Crimson sample
some really essential songs
the second album of this guy i had to listen to... again, a general critic of this 1001 album format. there are millions of albums, and i get it that this bloke "changed his style" on each album... a bit, but one album per artist is enough. The music does change, but his lyrics stay as dumb as before. It's the old "dumb people are confident, smart people have self-doubt" story with this guy and his "music"
*2010. *Preface - This was before Kanye’s meltdown. *Really enjoyable listen. This is not background music - it captures you and makes you pay attention. *All of the Lights was the only song I knew - almost every track is solid though. *Listened twice consecutively because I enjoyed it - will listen more. *1 star demerit for Kanye being problematic though. RATING - 8/10
Really didn’t want to like this because of the nazi shit, and like half the people on it are terrible people but fuck it slapped. I’ve listened to this before but I didn’t realise it was this good. Power, runaway, nicki minaj opening and Gil Scott heron closing fucks so hard, and nicki minaj’s verse on monster might be my favourite rap verse ever. Maybe I was too harsh on yeezus
I think it's a testament to how impactful this album is to pop-culture that I recognized bit after bit of it while never making any attempt to listen to Ye before. Very good; will listen again
Eigenlijk best wel vet
not a big fan of Kanye's music so it's not really me
Stop giving me albums I already listened to the second time already 😭 peak Kanye
Great production but Ye is such a horrible person. You really can't separate the art from the artist. I do miss this era of 2010s hip hop style though. It was unique for the time. Not sure why music people always praised him ngl.
esse album exala resenha.
Difícil de aceitar, mas o PH sempre esteve certo
"Ye nazista? Kim Kardashian? Álbuns merda? Do que você ta falando cara é 2011 e o kanye lançou seu melhor álbum"
Unfortunately this one was really good. Really have to separate the art from the artist here
me gusto mucho si
Not a fan of Kanye West the human; his music is alright. Nothing stood out to me on this album.
70
No es el mejor álbum de K, por eso la puntuación. De todas formas muy bien álbum
Kanye gets no money from me
Have never intentionally listened to Kanye, surprisingly good.
Very well done.
Classic, banger of an album. Take the guy out of it and this is a masterpiece
Man ... it's such a shame Kanye is the way he is. This is the only album of his I ever spent much time with (in college) and the production is just impeccable. Oh man, I forgot Nikki Minaj was on this one, too. Another hip-hop superstar who has fallen from grace. There's a Donald Trump reference on "So Appalled"! I'm so appalled, Spalding ball Balding, Donald Trump taking dollars from y'all
2/5
Amazing rap album
It’s still a very impressive album. But maybe not quite as good as I remember it. With the addition of Kanye’s activities over the last few years I think this looses its position on best albums of all time list.
What genre is this album? Yes.
Hadn’t listened in a while due to Kanye losing his mind. I love this record and it makes me sad about Kanye all over again.
Having, to date, only ever experienced Kanye/Ye through his public persona, I really wish this sucked. It possesses both a melodic and rhythmic sensibilities that hip-hop often lacks. He has flow. He has something to say. I'm terrified of digging more into his lyrics and finding out that the darkest elements of his personality were always there but this is excellent. I will also say that I don't think this is a work of staggering genius. The wonderful production work is worthy of immense respect but any innovation baked into it is lost on me. It's not Paul's Boutique or 3 Feet High And Rising. Frankly, I think Under Construction pushed boundaries more than this. I had to review the 4- and 5-star reviews of hip-hop records I've given in order to place this in context. It's close to that top level for me but I think what it comes down to is this: the best parts of this album simply remind me of the labour-intensive, sample-laden, tightly-crafted rap albums of the 90's -- something that we largely lack, post-millennium. If we weren't beset by a low-effort, impoverished brand of hip-hop, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy might not have achieved the reverence that it did. Would this hold up against peak Wu-Tang? De La Soul? The Roots, Public Enemy, NWA, The Fugees? I think Kanye would be their contemporary, their peer; I don't think that he would stand as the best of them. He's just the king of a weak country. 4/5 -- must-listen but not earth-shattering. I didn't think 'Oh, that's where this started,' nor did it change my conception of the genre. It's still really, really fucking good, though.
Escuche por primera vez a Kanye West, sabia que mucho no me iba a gustar, pero destaco sobre todo la habilidad o capacidad de Kanye supongo, de como desde una estructura base muy sencilla cada una de las canciones toma su forma caracteristica, desde el beat mas simple hasta las armonias y arreglos mas complejos. Creo que mas allá de la musica, que es lo que mas me importa o en lo que mas me fijo, el concepto del album son las letras, que sinceramente mucha atencion no le di.
goated
Perfect album, even in it's messiest moments. Also it's crazy to me people will ride the anti-Kanye hype train and refuse to give this a listen when there are so many actively terrible people in this book. Frank Sinatra was a mob-affiliate. Seemingly every rock artist of the 70s was sleeping with underage groupies. Kanye is a clearly mentally ill person going through a very public breakdown. That doesn't excuse the things that he has said and the ideologies he has supported, but its so clearly the product of an unwell mind that I don't understand how people can take it remotely seriously. Just virtue signalling to my eyes. Rant over.
I will not even bother in hear this.
I don’t give two shits about Kanye but I really enjoyed this album. It was about two songs too long but I was getting into it. the music was surprisingly good and most of the lyrics were neat. I might go buy this album
great album. i really enjoyed dark fantasy, gorgeous and power, but idk not my genre i guess... sry yeezy
It's not really my preferred genre, and I wasn't very into the subject matter. There seemed to be a lot of both self-aggrandizement in ways that I'm not a fan of, and victim culture, as well as sexism and whatever else. But some of the hooks were decent. If I could better separate the art from the artist, I might give it two stars. But it's getting a one.
Huh, this is interesting one. Kanye is an awful person, which is leaking through his lyrics actually. But he sure does know how to make it sound great. I never was a fan and never listened to a single whole album of his and I probably can’t get how powerful it must’ve been at the time. Also this made me think about how much we are able to separate art from an artist. As a creator myself I feel like there’re always kinda layers of what flows directly from artist to art and what is more refined and less raw. And it’s an interesting topic to explore. Because this album has tracks that seem to be very emotionally raw, so charged that I felt it not through his words but through his music. A lot to unpack here I guess. But this is unquestionably one of the important albums of our century.
Pretty fine. Liked the beats over the rapping but there is the occasional satisfying turn of phrase.
Firstly, I didn't enjoy any of the tunes in the slightest. Secondly, I read a bit about what inspired this album. I almost choked on my own spit to find it was a response to poor darling Kanye feeling so overwhelmed by the public response to his Taylor Swift interruption. Isn't he such a victim? Musically speaking, this one comes in the bottom 10-15 of the whole project so far. There are a small handful of records I believe are sonically inferior. But when you mix such shit music with such a shitstain individual, this deserves less than a single star.
I remember when he first came on the scene...such a unique talent. I remember playing table tennis with my late older brother with kanye as part of the soundtrack (mostly rap, emo & nu metal) blaring from shitty twin 2000s desktop computer speakers & later dnacing to kanye with friends in clubs. He's made some very bizarre/cruel statements in the last decade. Hope he finds his way back & rights his wrongs. Great album. Stand out track is monster. Nicki minaj' (rip her career after becoming erika kirk's new bff) verse on monster is fucking perfection. Can't not mention justin vernon carrying us out with his vocals too.
Very good for its category. Many many artists
Heel fire en divers, veel bekende bangers ook 4.5
bro kan vf ni zingen… ma respect dat hij niet voor een overvloed autotune gaat. Ik kan er wel ni doorgeraken, omdat ik heel de tijd met het knagend gevoel zit dat ik naar een nazi luister… 2,5
Loved it. Very diverse, mixing lots of different styles. Love the Iron Man riff too!
Look, I hate present-day Kanye as much as the next guy, but this is still a 5/5
Awesome, timeless album
Pas un album comme les autres. Un de ceux qui marquent une musicophilie. L’album est un voyage, à l’instar de Graduation. Aucune musique n’est skippable. La variété d’instruments, avec un accent sur le 808, l’instrument électronique qui a fait la réputation de West, les variations de rythmes. Que ce soit dès Dark Fantasy, que je redécouvre avec émotion à chaque fois, alors que je ne l’apprécie pas plus que ça prise individuellement ; All of the light (interlude + musique), qui se passe de mot, ou le climax atteint avec Power et surtout, à mon gout, avec Runaway, qui clairement me faire monter la larmichette. Cet album est parfait.
Couldn't care less about supporting this in 2026.
Lush production and clever lyricism. Kanye at his best. Drenched in misogyny. The most potent part of the album to me was the final Last Poets sample. A group that's still so insanely relevant to what this country is experiencing.
After listening to this, particularly "blame game" I know know why Lewis Hamilton is going out with Kim K. Rap's not my thing, probably never will be, but this was OK.
I get it. This lives up to the hype. I was ready to hate on it, because Kanye is a garbage person, and I always kind of thought that. But as a work of art, I can't deny how fantastic this album is.
Wow... For a change it turned out to be even more entertaining than his twitter page.
This is my first time listening to Kanye and I know this album was on another level. I must admit I really liked the rhythm but I wish I could read the lyrics to understand it better.
Думал поставить 4, но лайки стоят на >75% треков так что реп это кал, но тут 5
4,6 Highlights: Monster, Hell of a Life
We all miss the old Kanye
"Until it's Vegas everywhere we are." We've arrived and it sucks!
I haven't listened to this in full this decade but I've listened to it overall more times than I can remember. I know it too well and it is too formative for me not to have a place in my heart for it.
i have a lot of appreciation for this album's place in the culture and the absolute radio chokehold it had. maximalism is pretty cool. the more i have spent time with it the less i am a fan of its super compressed mix and think it is a bit less interesting than other Kanye albums when you remove it from its own mythology. "Gorgeous" is one of the greatest rap songs of the century.
I forgot how many bangers are on this album. I miss the old Kanye
Always a good listen!
Super lækkert og skævt hiphop album. Helt klart et af de bedste i genren. Vil høre igen: ja 3,92
Purille lyrics again.
Kanye’s masterpiece. It’s a shame that listening still supports the asshole though. Man was a genius to start out his career. Banger after banger with no skips Fave songs: Devil in a new Dress, Runaway
Great album that wants to be a 5, but it doesn't really speak to me on a deeper level or make me feel anything deep or make me go WOW. Just straight solid hip hop through and through. If I liked Kanye more this would probably be a five (as an artist and person).
I might like this album more if Kanye wasn't on it... Some ok beats and production, but lacks music and a front person I'd be interested in.
Terrible news, that insufferable edgelord you know is a great musician and lyricist. I didn't like this one as much as Yeezus, but there's a lot of interesting production here as well as some phenomenal flow/lyrics. Top notch clever wordplay. My only gripe with the album is more a gripe with this era in pop music. Over reliance on strings and vocal effects takes the album down a notch for me, but it's genuinely a really cool album. Fun to listen to and to talk about!
Please understand this is not an endorsement of this man, but it can’t be denied how impactful he was for a long time and especially on this record, his artistic peak imo.
jus not my style
Some good tunes actually
don't want to listen to this
Tough review. Love this album. So many different great beats and themes but Kanye has tainted listening to it.
The best Kanye album and it’s not even particularly close. The opening 6 songs is one of the craziest sequences I’ve heard. The back half can’t possibly live up to the first but it doesn’t let up much. Combined with Yeezus this gave him so much more patience and freedom than artists usually get. Unfortunately he squandered it but we did get this masterpiece.
After listening, I understand why this album is held in such high esteem. Even I actually mostly liked it. I was very surprised by some of the samples (King Crimson, Iron Man) and guest appearances (Elton John, Bon Iver, John Legend...). That said, it's still too misogynistic for me.
A prime case study in separating art from the artist. This may be the best hip hop album ever made. The instrumentation is incredible, from the guitar solo in “Devil in a new dress” to the orchestral interpretation and horns parts on “all of the lights” Kanye’s strengths as an arranger and ring master are clear throughout this whole album. He also gets career defining verses out of Rick Ross and Nicki Minaj and even has some solid social commentary, however crude. I hadn’t heard “runaway” in a while and it really is sublime. What an absolute tragedy that he became a nazi.
MBDTF is a vapid masterpiece. What do I mean by that? Well sonically, production-wise, and musically it hits like a truck with some of Kanye's best compositional work ever. But lyrically and thematically, this album captures a man going through the motions of pretending to be introspective and going through the motions of reckoning with his soul but I frankly don't buy it. The album's centerpiece "Runaway" shows Kanye seemingly interrogate his own asshole nature but where many find it to be a raw and vulnerable song, I hear nothing but defensiveness and bitter sarcasm. The real low light of the album has to be the outro to "Blame Game" which, after a song which engages in a lengthy examination of a troubled relationship disintegrating, descends into a minute long sex joke about how Kanye West is the best lover ever which completely undercuts the the rest of the song. And because a lot of the album plays at being emotionally deep while not meaning, my favorite songs on the album tend to be the ones that engage with Ye's personal life the least. "All of the Lights" and "Lost in the Woods" show just how good the music itself is without subjecting me to feigned vulnerability. That said, some tracks are so strong that even when they intersect with Kanye's self-aggrandizing disingenuousness, I still can't deny how good they are as songs. Such is the case with tracks like "POWER" and "Monster." Overall, this is a frustrating album to revisit. I think it's still a 5 star album on a musical level but it's undeniable that West's descent into madness has laid bare that any seeming introspectiveness here was just a pose. I guess what I'm saying is that I can envision a world in the near future where I do find this to be a 4 star album.
Kanye gets no love
I know that for many it will be necessary to ignore the Kanye we know now in order to listen to this, but I assure you it's worth it.
I actually enjoyed it more than I thought when i started listening with a slight prejudice. But being able to list so many known artists into a piece is actually epic
I really enjoyed it, it makes him being such a shitbag even more frustrating
This is the record where Kanye had full control and didn't need to listen to any advice regarding “restraint” or “editing” or “not including every ridiculous idea since Adam”. It's his White Album, for lack of a better metaphor. It’s brilliant and sprawling and messy and excessive and entertaining and thrilling and frustrating and more. All in all, it's one of the best records of the 2010s. From here, things did not go well. The less said, the better. But we'll always have MBDTF
Man, some of y'all need to separate the musician from the music. Besides Monster, hadn't heard a single track on this. 4.5/5
It has been a while since I was last listening to this anything like regularly. When I bought it, I had already cooled a bit on Kanye. I’d obviously dug the first two and also to a degree Graduation, but I’d passed on 808s. I was convinced by the general reception MBDTW had received and reasonably willingly, gave in. And I loved it. Like most hip hop, I have no connection with anything in it that I should find relatable and largely there are many elements that are often polar opposite to my principals, my politics, my morals and my outlook on life in general. Nevertheless, I love hip hop and am perfectly capable of enjoying any hip hop throughly as a piece of art. Since this album, I haven’t engaged much with the Ye output and everything about him has gradually made me less and less likely to want to hear anything new by him. And since it had been so long since I heard this, I wondered would a fresh listen (with a lot more baggage attached) find me unable to still enjoy it as much (or at all)? Well, with an open mind, I discovered that I still found it to be a quality listen basically from start to finish. There is so much to be impressed by amongst the density of sound. As a listener with a very diverse taste in music generally, I found much for my ears to embrace and appreciate. Sadly Kanye’s clearly massive ego was aware of the strength of the musicality involved and probably had few around him wanting to offer criticism. As a result far too many of the tracks are twice as long as they need to be. Despite this I came out the other side of its nearly 70mins without any regrets. I didn’t revisit the credits and typically, I’m not particularly good at recognising guests, but all the ones I spotted genuinely added to the proceedings. Raekwon, Nicki Minaj, RZA and Chris Rock can take a bow, the Bon Iver bits weren’t my faves but not a net negative. So it seems my relationship with Kanye’s discography will span only from 2004 to 2010. And I’m perfectly happy with that tbh.
3.5/5
Wow
It's Kanye :|
Unfortunately the artist can’t really be separated from the art.
I don't know if you can truly separate art from the artists. This album is 1000x better than kanye as a person ever will be. Still cant give a nazi supporter 5 stars
Flere kule sanger. Sykt mange kjente sanger
This is an impressive display of narcissism and paranoia. I had no idea there were so many people after Kanye. Poor fella. The music? Ah, nice production and creative instrumentations and arrangements. The King Crimson samples demonstrate a good music knowledge. But then he opens his mouth and I have to listen to those lyrics. I'm out.
sample my ass
Complicated one this given the artist’s recent opinions and controversy. Do I like Ye as a person? Absolutely not. Is this record good? Yes, it is phenomenal. One of the best in the genre since the turn of the century. It’s the classic debate of the artist vs. the art they create. Given the intention behind this list and musical journey, of exploring these sounds and judging just the music I feel compelled to give this a 5. That being said don’t get it twisted, fuck Kanye the person,at least as of this moment, fuck fascism, and fuck Nazi’s.
One of my favorite Hip Hop albums of all time. Kanye’s BS aside. Brilliant record.
I really have to separate the art from the artist on this one, but purely from a musical standpoint, this album is great. Song after song, hit after hit, all the little melodies that have been stuck in my head with no context for years, this album will probably go into a semi-regular rotation.
Garbage
Don’t like what the guy became, but man this is a good album.
this SUCKS to admit😭 but i mean this is a fucking incredible album
You probably almost always put this in your pantheon of greatest rap albums of all time. The level of production on this album is truly unmatched for the time and feels like it picks up the torch from Dr Dre a decade prior. I know that he’s incredibly problematic but there are a lot of people on this list just like Eric Clapton, David Bowie, Michael Jackson, the list goes on for a long time. I think you really have to judge the art here not the artist.
10/10 A personal favorite. It's themes, guest artists, composition, and richness is umatched. when I say rich, I also mean full. great listen.
Disregarding today’s Kanye this is one of the greatest albums of all time. No skips, all songs have a fresh sound. I would listen to this anytime
He's a spoon but the music is good
He is absolutely insane but this is a fantastic album.
Alright alright AS AN ALBUM, it’s one of my favorites ever. I am rating the ALBUM.
Such a classic
Just as dull as any other “modern hip-hop”
Okay, so rap definitely is my blindspot. Listened, went "yep", moved on.
I've always wondered what people see in Kanye, but this is a fantastically well produced album, with great guest stars, and his flow is good. The run of Power, All of the Lights, and Monster makes for a particularly strong start to the album. There are definitely signs of megalomania and narcissism in there, but obviously I'm viewing that with the benefit of hindsight. Fortunately I didn't pick up on any signs of the other things that were to come.
Nah
The four stars are for the music not the man. This is one of the best hip hop records of all time, unfortunately, Ye is complicated. If I were reviewing him, it would be lower. Patrick Star has never betrayed anyone.
Hvis skiller kuns og kunstner fra hinanden.. Hvis man nu ser bort at at han er nazist... Hvis man nu tænker på at det var en anden tid den gang... Ærligt, så er det en bedre hiphop lyd for mig. Flere melodier, flere forsøg på at gøre det mindre hiphop, og mere pop.
Selv om det er virkelig poppet så mangler der nogle stærke hooks. Runaway har det. Resten af numrene har jeg allerede glemt.
Oh I am SO ready for this one. I hate the man, but his music is just so good. Fav song is ‘Runaway’.
10/10 LO AMO
Some great songs on here but also some not so great, mixed bag
This is a perfect album. But it hits different recently. Minus one star for all that shit
Kanye’s magnum opus, a heartfelt apology to the world.
Despite him being kind of a bad dude this album is pretty phenomenal. Very dark and evocative.
This would be infinitely better if Kanye wasn’t babbling all over it.
Again, from a purely musical perspective, this is an excellent album
Listo
Part of this process was me coming to the acceptance that there is some degree of separating artist from art and broadening my horizons from my gut reaction to skip and move on. That being said this album is great. It has texture and variety and pathos. There are some genuinely great tracks on it.
Where are my shutter shades
Sorry, not listening to this guys stuff.
Haha, was just listening to this one the day before this appeared in my list! Not that it'll stop me from listening again. I had an ex-girlfriend who used to joke that whenever I got drunk I always started ranting about how "no matter what you think about his politics, if you don't think Kanye's one of the greatest producers of all time I just cannot respect you". I do still think this is true, to be honest. And just listen to it here on MBDTF - it's so creative, so rich, so unabashedly itself. Yeezy's a pretty good rapper, and he's not known for breaking any boundaries lyrically like his more serious contemporaries, but it's in his ear for a hook that he's an absolutely one-in-a-generation maniac. There's a fine line between genius and madness, they say. Almost every track on this is a fire classic for a reason. Blame Game, with that (dodgily) lifted Aphex sample is a beautiful track of some serious vulnerability somewhat marred by a goofy Chris Rock comedy skit for an outro, but damn if it isn't one of the greatest to ever do it. I don't care what people say, it's the best track off the album. POWER is bombastic, and the King Crimson sample shows Ye's not afraid to dip into any genre or era. Hell Of A Life, with that awesome distorted lead and Ye's autotuned lyrics over that classic Black Sabbath melody is auditory umami. And the features - where to begin? Pretty much everybody lending their voice over the album does a great job. The album feels full of life, suitably epic, evergreen. Obviously the elephant in the room is Kanye's ongoing stints of bipolar-induced hatred. It makes this a troubling one to listen back to, obviously. I think we all miss the old Kanye. Fav tracks: Blame Game, POWER, Monster Hell Of A Life
Album seems to be backloaded quite a bit. Took me fully half of the album to start finding tunes I liked, then it seemed to get better after that. Obvious care and effort went into the making of this album, but still it mostly boils down to rhapsodizing about bitches and ho’s and my dick‘s bigger, minus the incessant references to murder and popping a cap in someone’s ass, which at least does elevate it above the usual gangsta rap fare.
Perfect Kanye album, every feature delivered, zero notes, changed the hip hop landscape permanently.
Good album although from a controversial artist.
used to like this but rating it a 1 on principle 🖕🏻
On y est enfin, le sommet, la cime, le point de non-retour de ce projet marathon des « 1001 Albums ». C'est ma troisième rencontre avec le bonhomme West dans cette liste, et si le chemin était déjà balisé, je ne m'attendais pas à prendre une telle gifle. On a commencé avec *The College Dropout*, un premier essai solide, méritant ses 3 étoiles pour sa fraîcheur et ses samples accélérés qui ont redéfini le game à l'époque. Puis on a croisé le fer avec le monstrueux *Yeezus*, un disque abrasif, violent, presque industriel par moments, qui m'avait arraché un 4 sur 5 bien senti. Mais là, avec **My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy**, on ne joue plus dans la même cour car on touche au sublime. Cet album c’est le moment précis où l’arrogance pure se transforme en génie indiscutable, où le délire mégalo accouche d’une œuvre totale. Bon c'est vrai, certains vont s'arrêter aux frasques du bonhomme, à ses sorties lunaires ou à son narcissisme galopant. Mais moi, je m'en tamponne le coquillage avec une force herculéenne, car ce qui m'intéresse, c'est ce qu'il y a dans les enceintes, et ce qu'il y a là, c'est tout simplement l'un des meilleurs disques de sa génération, toutes catégories confondues. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy c'est du **maximalisme** poussé à son paroxysme. C'est comme si le mec avait pris tout ce qui fait la grandeur de la musique — le rock progressif, la soul, le hip-hop old school, l’électro — et l'avait passé dans un mixeur géant recouvert de feuilles d'or. L’album porte divinement bien son nom : c'est beau, c'est sombre, c'est tordu, et c'est une putain de fantaisie. On sent que le type s’est enfermé à Hawaii avec la crème de la crème, instaurant des règles de studio quasi monacales pour accoucher de cette perfection. Pas de place pour l’erreur, pas de place pour le remplissage. Chaque note, chaque arrangement de cordes, chaque cuivre semble avoir été poli pendant des mois. C'est dense, c'est riche, ça déborde de partout, mais ça ne sonne jamais comme un bordel indigeste. C'est une architecture sonore de haute précision. Kanye West prouve ici qu'il est un chef d'orchestre avant d'être un rappeur. Il sait exactement comment utiliser les voix des autres comme des instruments. Il convoque **Bon Iver**, **Rick Ross**, **Nicki Minaj** ou **Elton John**, et il les fond dans son univers comme s'ils n'avaient jamais existé ailleurs. Chaque morceau est une pièce de puzzle d'un opéra moderne. On est loin des beats minimalistes et froids qui inondent les ondes ; ici, tout est organique, vivant, vibrant de colère et de beauté. C'est un disque qui s'écoute comme on regarde un film à gros budget dirigé par un réalisateur sous acide mais qui n'aurait pas perdu le fil de son scénario. Le mec est parvenu à créer un classique instantané, un de ces rares objets culturels qui feront encore autorité dans cinquante ans. C'est brillant, c'est arrogant, c'est insupportable de perfection, et c'est exactement ce qu'on demande à un artiste de cette trempe. West ne cherche pas à plaire, il cherche à régner. Et sur ce disque, il est le roi absolu, assis sur un trône de samples iconoclastes. Il y a quelque chose de profondément « dark » et « twisted » dans sa manière de déconstruire sa propre célébrité tout en la célébrant avec une emphase folle. On traverse des paysages sonores qui passent de la pompe orchestrale à la déprime la plus noire en un claquement de doigts. Et malgré cette complexité, malgré cette profusion de couches sonores, l'album reste d'une fluidité exemplaire. Et on ne s'ennuie pas une seule seconde. C'est l'anti-musique de fond par excellence car c'est un disque qui exige votre attention, qui vous bouscule, qui vous insulte presque par sa supériorité technique. Le 5 sur 5 n'est même pas un débat, c'est une évidence mathématique car on est face à une anomalie, un miracle de production qui arrive une fois par décennie. Si vous cherchez la définition du mot « album » dans un dictionnaire idéal de la musique moderne, c'est cette pochette que vous devriez trouver. Kanye West a réussi l'exploit de mettre tout le monde d'accord, les puristes du hip-hop comme les amateurs de rock les plus snobs. Parce qu'au fond, la grande musique n'a pas de frontières, et ce mec-là les a toutes fait exploser à la dynamite avec ce projet. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy est l'équilibre parfait entre l'expérimentation et l'efficacité, entre le chaos intérieur et la maîtrise absolue de la forme. On ressort de l'écoute lessivé, avec l'impression d'avoir assisté à une cérémonie sacrée où le grand prêtre est un mégalo en costume rouge. Rien à jeter, rien à changer, c'est une œuvre d'art totale, point barre. Alors oui, le personnage peut agacer, il peut diviser, il peut épuiser mais on s'en fout royalement quand la musique atteint ce niveau de transcendance. Dans le cadre de ce projet des 1001 albums, c'est une étape cruciale, une bouffée d'oxygène qui redonne foi en la capacité de la pop culture à produire des chefs-d'œuvre. Cet album c'est le moment où Kanye West a prouvé, sans l'ombre d'un doute, qu'il était bien l'un des esprits les plus brillants et les plus visionnaires de son temps. Un disque indispensable, impérial, qui vous hante bien après que la dernière note s'est éteinte. Un 5/5 irréprochable, définitif, qui cloue le bec à tous les détracteurs et qui rappelle que, parfois, l'égo est le meilleur carburant du monde.
Ik had nog nooit een heel album van Kanye geluisterd. Ik vond het fantastisch ik heb er bijna tien keer naar geluisterd. Oke het is bombastisch en ja college dropout is beter maar een album waar ik na tien keer nog niet genoeg van heb verdiemt 5 sterren. Ik vind de samples in het album heel goed. De nummers zitten heel goed in elkaar. Het nummer laat verschillende geluiden horen en de nummers volgen elkaar goed op. Het is niet per se mijn favoriete rapper, maar wel een fantastische producer.
Na dat ik gisteren een paar uur naar Ella Fitzgerald heb geluisterd, heb ik dat vandaag gedaan bij dit album, 3x achter elkaar, zonder dat het echt verveelde. Dit album is bij vlagen oorstrelend. Het album wordt ingeleid met het nummer Dark Fantasy, en op het moment dat je "can we get much higher" wordt je direct herinnerd aan al het goeds wat het album heeft te bieden. Productie is van een zeer hoog niveau, beats zijn erg origineel, goeie samples, en Ye rapt als de maniakale gek die hij is, en I love it. All of the lights is best wel een anthem, en ik kan geen genoeg krijgen van Rihanna. Dat gezegd hebbende, vind ik niet alle collabs even goed. Jay-Z komt op beide songs niet heel sterk, zeker op Monster wordt hij overklast door Ye en Nicki Minaj, ook op So appalled vind ik Kanye sterker dan zijn collabs. De beat is dan wel weer heel ziek met fijne textuurtjes. Nog een nummer wat ik wil uitlichten is Blame game. John Legend die zijn vrouw bitch noemt en zelf motherfucker wordt genoemd, ik geloof het niet echt, maar de vocals passen wel weer goed op dit nummer en Ye is being Ye, en het is weer heel hard. Wat je verder aan het eind van dit nummer te weten komt, is dat Ye ook een erg goede leraar blijkt te zijn. Al met al is het album niet perfect, maar toch prikkelt het ook genoeg om er verder in te duiken. ik ga zuinig zijn met 5 sterrenratings maar ik was erg blij dat we qua afwisseling nu eindelijk weer iets anders konden luisteren dan een soort live achtige vintage bigband registratie.
I love this album so much and I hate Kanye so much. Giving the album 5 stars and Kanye 0 stars.
Some pretty good music, but his nasally voice wears thin pretty quickly, plus he’s an asshat. A reluctant 3.
I gave Thriller a 5, I gave Astral Weeks a 4, I gave Led Zeppelin IV a 5, I gave domestic abuser John Lennon plenty of good ratings, I’ve set a precedent of separating the art from the artist. This dude’s an asshole *and* he made a perfect album.
Heeeeeeelllllll nnnoooo! This piece of shit has gone too far off the bat-shit end of crazy celebrity. I will never volunteer a single second of my life to anything this ass hat has or will ever do!
#102/1001 🇺🇸 Well you can't say that he isn't a musical genius when he tries. This infinitely better than the Yeezus album i listened a month or so. There are too many colabs on here for my liking and when the main act has such an ego hearing more largely misoginistic bragging over each track just becomes tiresome. Best Tracks: Runaway,
Really good album. It's definitely an essential rap album. It's a very electronic rap album. It has definitely solidified it's place in music history. Peak Kanye (Especially because of the controversy surrounding him now).
An instrumental version of this album would be worth 1.5 more stars.
7/10
I can't in good conscience listen to Kanye in 2026. He's seemingly mentally unstable and is definitely pro-Nazi at the moment. It seems wrong to give his music streams.
I hate that this man is kind of a lyrical genius. I also hate Nazis. But there are some bangers on here. I’m really having to separate the art from the artist guys. Also haven’t listened to Kanye since…you know. So I really felt back in my middle school days.
tem umas muito boas mas num geral é ok e esse cara e nazista
To me this is peak Kanye, the absolute best of his work, theres so many great things happening in this album I can’t cover all of them. Things I will note in this review is the great mix between the ‘musical art’ and ‘music to listen to’, these two types of music when balanced right in an album is what makes it great to me. Next the instrumentals, it’s got classical instruments and modern electrical sounds the pairing of these again, fantastic. There is a great range of moods and vibes from the songs, the lyrics all providing something of substance and sounding poetic. Some great collaborations invited into this album creating something special. I think what this album and many other great Kanye songs has this lifting and emotional connecting sound to it; it’s sort of hard to describe but it just a feeling. As much as I do love this album some small critics I would make is I feel like at certain parts the outro electronic soundscapes go on for a little bit too long. Overall, I think this is incredibly well deserved to be on this list and even if you don’t listen to the whole album some songs on here you should listen to. These standout songs are ‘Gorgeous’ ‘POWER’ ‘Runaway’ and ‘Devil in a new dress’. With Kanye you have to separate the art from the artist, saying that I do miss the old Kanye.
> the Beatles This is one of the hardest albums to rate. So I'll just say this; fuck Kanye West. I hated him before he turned into an actual Nazi. That said... He pretty undeniably had talent and made damn good music. My rating is fully separating art from artist.
Some good songs but not my thing. Plus he’s a POS.
No lo acabe de escuchar, sencillo no es mi ritmo
There is not a chance that I’m going to listen to this. I was the first in line on the hate train. Seriously, fuck this dude. I may have given him a chance if he wasn’t telling the world what a genius he was. I may have given him a chance when he went off of his meds. The nazi shit it I can’t forgive. I would pay money to watch James Hetfield beat him senseless with a deluxe copy of The Black Album.
Overrated
Has quite possibly some of the most recognizable songs in rap/hip hop history. Peak Kanye on display in this album. It was all downhill from here
Not my style of music but this was back when Kanye had some talent.
🤭 I had just been thinking "I really should re-listen to MBDTF" yesterday and...here we are. This has never been my favorite Kanye album. I've usually found myself wondering what people find appealing about this album over the others. 💯 This album features one is the greatest collabs ever: Monster. From "Blame Game" onward should have been removed from the album. There are some absolute bangers but as a Kanye album: even he can do better IMO.
Brilliant album but I'm giving it a one because he's become such a knobhead
Damn. April 2026 is hardly the moment to discover how good Kanye West is! *laughing face emoji*
- As many of you point out, here's the thing about art: It IS hard. Sometimes, it's hard for us to admit that, although you hate it, it's still great. Kanye is an egotistical asshole. He was one BEFORE he lost his mind. So, it's easy to say "this is shit. Fuck that guy". But, the problem is, this is not shit. It's a great album, equal parts immensely creative & annoying at times. I don't want to give it the highest rating because he's an asshole but he earned that rating with this and I have to give it up to him. I think he was recording his mental break with this one and that makes it even more sad and amazing .... 5. -
Insane production, love the chemistry between the artists
I hate enjoying Kanye
I dont ike Kanye west he is a twat
Not a hip hop fan but I really enjoyed this album
bad bad man
Kanye’s magnum opus. Even if he, in the last few years, turned out to be a really bad person, his first five or six albums are really great, with this as his masterpiece.
pretty good. it is hard to consider rap to be on par with other music types but when it comes to it, this album is creative
Varias vibes, otras un poco densas
Excellent producer but quite a dull rapper
Nope.
It's very long, the lyrics can be goofy, and the Chris Rock skit is terrible, but there are an undeniable amount of hits on here. 3.5/5.0: Very Good
im not sure ive ever sat down and listened to this in full, but ive heard all of these songs many times before. the lyrics were out of pocket at the time, even more so now, but the production on this album is great and almost every song is a banger. normally id complain about the length but this didnt feel nearly as long as it actually is.
me sorprendio, me gusto bastante. siento que lo tengo q escuchar un par de veces mas. tiene temazos
高校生の時に聞いたことあった気がするけど完全にどんな音だったか忘れたので再聴。ブリーピーなシンセの音像とか、大ネタ使いがそんなに好みじゃないし、曲全体もダラダラと長いだけに聞こえた。今の自分には一切刺さらなかった。
The music is great, but I cannot support Kanye for the person he is. Also, the lyrics seem to be getting more and more graphic. one star
Det finnes et argument for at dette er det viktigste albumet i min personlige musikkhistorie. Jeg har aldri regnet det som mitt favorittalbum, men det som skjedde med musikksmaken min sommeren 2012 kan knapt undervurderes. Det hverken begynte eller sluttet med MBDTF, men det føles som den første store milepælen; et meg før og etter album. (Den andre store milepælen var In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. Ja, jeg ble oppdratt av /mu/.) Idag kan jeg også se den som en større milepæl: Kanye avlsuttet den moderne historiens kanskje dårligste tiår med å slippe det ultimate exempelet på musikken som skulle definere det neste. Skal man høre ett album fra det nye 10-tallet, så er det dette.